Who was Saint George?
George lived about 1,700 years ago, when Rome ruled a giant empire. Christians have long told that he came from a Christian family and served as a soldier in the Roman army, strong and brave, and some old accounts say he became an officer. Like many soldiers of his time, he obeyed his captains, but his heart belonged to Jesus.
In the year 303, the emperor Diocletian ordered churches torn down and holy books burned, and soon Christians everywhere were told to offer sacrifices to the old Roman gods. Christian tradition tells that George gave what he owned to the poor and told the rulers plainly that he was a Christian. They promised rewards and made threats, but he would not move, like a rock in a rushing river. So he died for Jesus, brave and at peace.
Christians honored his tomb at Lydda, a town near the sea in the Holy Land, and by the 500s pilgrims came from far away to pray there. Centuries later, knights coming home from the Holy Land carried his story to Europe and called him the soldier saint. England chose him as its patron, and its flag still carries the red cross of Saint George.
And the dragon? The story of George saving a princess from a dragon is a legend, first told about 800 years after he died and spread everywhere by a book of saints’ stories called the Golden Legend. The dragon is a picture of evil. George’s real battle was to stay faithful to Jesus when it would have been easy to give in.
When is Saint George’s feast day?
Saint George’s feast day is April 23. Tradition gives it as the day he died. In Catalonia people give each other a rose and a book for Sant Jordi, in Aragon it’s the region’s own day, and England, whose flag carries his red cross, keeps it as the feast of its patron.
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