St George's cult

I refer to the letter (May 3) by Tony Barbaro-Sant, communications manager, Maltapost plc, where, inter alia, he says (May 3) "... We thought it would be a good idea to promote our St George works of art... in other countries, given the wide dissemination of Malta stamps. Furthermore, this year is also the 17th centenary of the saint's martyrdom. I am glad to state that this idea, coming from a member of the Stamp Design Advisory Board... was accepted with pleasure. The results speak for themselves".

The idea is highly commendable. But as I have already pointed out elsewhere, we cannot accept any amateurism in such a highly professional artistic work disseminated locally and abroad.

Here I only mention two instances in "The Malta Stamp Official Bulletin of the Philatelic Bureau - St George Paintings" (April 2003, no. 206): 1. misspelling Roman Emperor Diocletian's name twice; and 2. reference is made to "legends about him (St George which) fired the imagination of writers and painters", however ignoring reference to mythology (e.g. Andromeda in Greek mythology) as well as the various narrative genre transfers, including Maltese folktales where dragons feature in Maltese folk narrative.

Some of the relevant oral texts were published 99 years ago!