April 23 is St George’s Day.

England is among the nations which have St George as their patron saint.

In London, a celebration takes place annually in Trafalgar Square. In 2022, the event attracted 20,000 people:

enjoying a flurry of everything brilliant about England and being English, all set in the iconic heart of the nation’s capital.

… with great music, food, markets, performers, and activities for the whole family …

Mayor Sadiq Khan is shown here on April 23, 2023, with London’s traditional working class Pearly Kings and Queens, who collect money for charity:

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak sent his best wishes for the day via Twitter. This is a rather odd tweet featuring a supine Larry the Cat, No. 10’s resident mouser:

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer should have double-checked what his staff sent out for St George’s Day, because what’s depicted clearly isn’t in England but rather Glasgow — in Scotland:

Let’s hope that anyone who saw Sir Keir’s video remembers it when they vote in local elections on Thursday, May 4:

Guido Fawkes says (emphases his):

In his video wishing “everyone in England a happy St. George’s Day” emphasising “I believe in our communities” Keir included picturesque gritty footage… of Glasgow.

… For the benefit of Labour’s communications team, Glasgow is not – in fact – in England. If he’s going to drape himself in the cross of St George to win votes, he could at least get it right.

On Saturday, April 22, the libertarian conservative Emma Webb stood in for the Revd Calvin Robinson on his GB News show, Calvin’s Common Sense Crusade.

Her opening monologue lamented that the English are the only people of the UK’s four nations who are not allowed to celebrate their patron saint, George:

At the end of the show (44:00 point in the subtitled video here), she interviewed historian and author Martin Whittock. He told us more about St George — who was, in fact, a Roman centurion, martyred in the fourth Century for not making a sacrifice to a pagan god. His tomb was in the Roman province of Palestine, now in modern-day Israel, where it continues to attract pilgrimages.

England has celebrated St George since the ninth century.

This is a transcript of the show’s segment about the saint and how he became so prominent in England.

Martin Whittock says (emphases mine):

… the first record for him appears in about the fifth century, might be as early as the fourth century. And it tells a story of a Greek-speaking officer, Roman officer from the Greek part of the Roman Empire, who was in the imperial guard, the Praetorian Guard, who was martyred for his faith at this point. There’s no record of the dragon. That doesn’t appear until the 11th century.

Quite a few centuries later, when we have a document from Georgia. That’s an interesting connection, isn’t it? George, Georgia. There is a connection, by the way, and then talks about him slaying a dragon that was eating maidens in what we’d now call modern Libya.

But the original story is that he is a Roman officer, martyred for his faith, killed for his faith under one of the persecutions of the pagan Roman emperors. And that cult takes off. It’s very popular because it’s a dramatic story, but we don’t know very much about him at all. Beyond that, we’d like to know more, but we don’t.

Emma Webb says, in part:

What comes next, of course, is the fascinating history of what people do with the legend of Saint George or the reality of Saint George, for that matter …  

Whittock resumes the story:

In the Christian scriptures, dragons — and in the Jewish scriptures [about] dragons — serpents are associated with evil. So this idea of him slaying the dragon probably conveys the idea of him having victory over evil. And it first appears in a document that’s produced in Georgia, in the Caucasus in the 11th century.

But he really picks up and he really takes off after the Crusades because, although his military career is not a big thing of the original stories, he is a soldier. And at the time of the Crusades, a lot of fighting kings want to have a patron saint, somebody who is a soldier like themselves. And so, in that way, he goes on to have quite an after-story.

So, in 1222, under Henry III, we have the first royally sponsored promotion of St George, a royal saint. Before that, the English Royal Saint is St Edward. And, it’s interesting, when the King is crowned on May the 6th, it will be the Crown of St Edward that is put on his throne.

But Edward was not a warrior king. Crusaders wanted a warrior patron, you see. So, in 1222, we have this promotion of him [George]. It’s then picked up by Edward III, who’s another warrior king in England in the 14th century and by Henry V in the 15th century. And he’s promoted and promoted. And the idea of him being a soldier also fighting the dragon is very, very popular.

We know, for example, before the Reformation, there are what are called Saint George’s Ridings. On the 23rd of April, people come out dressed as the dragon. They see him kill the dragon. It’s all true. It’s so trememdously popular. And then at the Reformation, it takes an absolute nosedive. Because, basically, the new Protestants in England say, ‘Well, what’s the evidence for this St George? What do we actually really know about him?’

And, suddenly, the thin basis becomes his biggest Achilles heel.

So, it’s not the dragon that’s the problem for St George. It’s the fact that we don’t know enough about him. And in 1552, he’s taken away from the celebration of saints. It’s decided we don’t know enough about him. We’re not too sure about these saints, anyway. And, in the Reformation, his career collapses.

In the 17th century, it fights back a bit. Towards the end of the 19th century and into the 20th century, it’s onto a bit more of a roll. But he never has quite the PR push behind him that St Patrick and St David and St Andrew — who never went to Scotland — had behind him.   

Emma Webb concludes:

So, here we have the fascinating history of St George over the centuries: a few ups, a few downs — and certainly not quite the royally sponsored saint that he once was before the Reformation, when St George seems to have fallen by the wayside.

There are a number of online biographies of St George.

The worst has to be the BBC‘s, which goes so far as to posit:

that he was entirely based on an ancient pagan myth. No one really knows, though.

Egregious.

The next best comes from English Heritage:

… he was actually born – in the 3rd century AD – more than 2,000 miles away in Cappadocia (modern day Turkey).

He is thought to have died in Lydda (modern day Israel) in the Roman province of Palestine in AD 303. It is believed that his tomb was in Lod and was a centre of Christian pilgrimage …

Like many saints, St George was described as a martyr after he died for his Christian faith.

It is believed that, during the persecutions of the Emperor Diocletian in the early 4th century, St George was executed for refusing to make a sacrifice in honour of the pagan gods.

However, the best comes from … London City Hall:

Edward I was a crusader and reigned from 1272-1307. He was fond of St George. His troops wore the St George’s cross to fight the Welsh. In 1300, he also raised the St George’s flag over Caerlaverock Castle in Scotland.

His grandson, Edward III reigned from 1327 to 1377. He heard stories from returning crusaders of St George’s bravery. By the 14^th century, St George was seen as a special protector of the English. So when Edward founded England’s Knights of the Garter, there was only one choice for patron. Later in 1415, George was named official patron saint of England …

Popular chap this George. He’s also patron saint of countries like Ethiopia, Georgia and Portugal, and cities such as Freiburg, Moscow and Beirut. George was seen as an especially powerful intercessor. That’s a person who uses prayer on behalf of others …

While the dragon story is great and has universal appeal, this enduring tale probably isn’t true. In the Middle Ages dragons were used to represent the devil. So it’s more likely that St George chased away bad spirits …

And it’s not the fact that they’re both ‘English’ folk heroes. The answer is that both died on 23 April, St George’s Day. This date is also believed to be Shakespeare’s birthday …

In 2010, for the first time since 1585, the City of London hosted a Pageant of St George. It saw St George paraded through the Square Mile on horseback. He was surrounded by the traditional figures of a king and his daughter, and a lamb led by a maiden in the parade …

St George’s Day became a major feast and national holiday in England on a par with Christmas in the early 15^th century. That tradition died out over time, but London’s annual Feast of St George in Trafalgar Square is packed with delicious food stalls, cooking demonstrations and live music – a great way to celebrate!

Wikipedia has more about George’s martrydom and its immediate aftermath on conversions:

George was executed by decapitation on 23 April 303. A witness of his suffering convinced Empress Alexandra of Rome to become a Christian as well, so she joined George in martyrdom. His body was buried in Lydda, where Christians soon came to honour him as a martyr.^[18][19]

The Latin Passio Sancti Georgii (6th century) follows the general course of the Greek legend, but Diocletian here becomes Dacian, Emperor of the Persians. His martyrdom was greatly extended to more than twenty separate tortures over the course of seven years. Over the course of his martyrdom, 40,900 pagans were converted to Christianity, including the empress Alexandra. When George finally died, the wicked Dacian was carried away in a whirlwind of fire. In later Latin versions, the persecutor is the Roman emperor Decius, or a Roman judge named Dacian serving under Diocletian.^[20]

The Wikipedia entry is long and fascinating, showing that St George was a real person, albeit without a dragon, and his influence even extends to the Muslim world.

May we have as much faith as St George when it comes to affirming it in the face of our enemies.