St George's Day: Who Was St George?
'I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
Follow your spirit; and, upon this charge
Cry God for Harry, England and St George!'
Henry V, Act 3, Scene 1, line 31
St George's Day, for those of you who haven't yet planned your family's festivities, takes place this year on Thursday 23 April 2009. But who exactly was this dragon-slayer who has fallen in and out of fashion?
Who was St George?
A good question and one that's hard to answer with any great degree of accuracy. Generally though, it's held that he was born in Turkey to Christian parents in the third century AD. When his father died, he and his mother moved to Palestine, where he became a soldier during the reign of Roman emperor Diocletian (245-313). Unfortunately, Diocletian was a bitter opponent of Christianity. George apparently told the Emperor that he was too harsh in his treatment of Christians, and when he left the army George was imprisoned and tortured for seven years. Eventually, after refusing to recant, George was beheaded at Lydda in Palestine.
How did St George become England's patron saint?
The elevation of St George to patron saint status took some time but began when he was accorded a minor religious feast day by the Oxford synod in 1222. By the end of the 14th century he'd been adopted as England's patron saint and in 1415, the year of the battle of Agincourt, Archbishop Chichele ordered St George's Day to be observed like Christmas Day.
Where does the St George's flag come from?
The flag of St George – which is shown as a red cross on a white background, symbolising his martyrdom – became the uniform for English soldiers probably as far back as the reign of Richard 1 and became England's flag at some point in the late Thirteenth century. The cross was incorporated into the Union Jack when the Act of Union took place in 1707.
Is he purely an English saint?
Far from it – in fact St George is also the patron saint of Portugal and Lithuania and St George's Day is a huge event in Catalonia where everyone wears red roses to commemorate it. In many countries St George is associated with fertility and his day marks the very beginning of summer.
Did you know...?
It's an odd, but apparently true, fact that Shakespeare was born and died on St George's Day – obviously several years apart!
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