St. George

St. George was an early Christian martyr who, according to tradition, served as a soldier in the Roman army and was put to death for his faith around the year 303, during the great persecution under the Emperor Diocletian. The historical record of his life is thin: the earliest accounts agree on little more than that he was a soldier martyred at Lydda (Diospolis, modern Lod in Israel), where a church was built over his tomb and veneration began remarkably early. Hagiographical accounts place his birth in Cappadocia to Christian parents, but details of his life cannot be verified. What is certain is the extraordinary breadth of his cult. By the fourth century George was honored across the Eastern Mediterranean, and the Byzantine Church acclaimed him the 'Great Martyr' and 'Trophy-bearer.' Tradition relates that when Diocletian's edicts against Christians were published, George openly professed his faith before the emperor, endured torture with unshaken constancy, and was beheaded, a witness that made him the pattern of the Christian soldier. The famous story of George slaying a dragon to rescue a princess is a medieval legend, popularized in the thirteenth-century Golden Legend, and has always been understood by the Church as an allegory of faith triumphing over evil rather than as history. Crusaders returning from the Holy Land spread devotion to the soldier-martyr throughout Europe, and he became the patron of knights, armies, and nations. St. George is venerated as the patron of England, where King Edward III placed the Order of the Garter under his protection, and his red cross on a white field became the national flag. He is also patron of the nation of Georgia, of Catalonia, of soldiers, and of scouts. His feast is kept on April 23, and his tomb at the Church of St. George in Lod remains a place of pilgrimage for Christians, and of honor even among Muslims of the region. Venerated from the earliest centuries, he is counted among the saints canonized before the Church's formal processes existed.