Today is St George’s Day , the national day of England although, unlike most national days, ours tends to pass with barely a nod of recognition by the majority of the nation. I wonder how many people will be wearing red roses today? Nevertheless this is England’s day and there will still be plenty of folk celebrating  and honouring  the memory of our patron saint, St George of Cappadocia. Whereabouts in England is that you may wonder?

Well, of course, it isn’t in England. Cappadocia was a province of Asia Minor at the time of the Roman Empire (now a part of modern Turkey) and St George is said to have been a Roman soldier of great valour who died for his Christian beliefs. How strange, one might think,  that we should have as a patron saint a man from the Middle East with no apparent connection to England. Well maybe, but it’s not without precedent. The most widely celebrated patron saint in the world, St Patrick, wasn’t even Irish; he was born in either Wales or Scotland, depending upon which historical account you read!

St George was adopted by the English in mediaeval times because of his religious beliefs and because he represented the qualities that honourable Englishmen aspired to in those times. With all heroes a legend develops and the story of his fight with and eventual conquest of the dragon was mere allegory and a symbol of the victory of good over evil. The St George cross (a red cross on a white background) was used as a flag by the Crusaders in their wars with the Saracens and was also painted on to their shields to demonstrate their Christian beliefs, if not their behaviour – as a cursory inspection of the history of the Crusades will reveal! It became the official emblem of England at about the same time and in 1222 the Council of Oxford declared that April 23^rdbe treated as a day of national celebration, a tradition that has continued for nearly 800 years.

Whatever the nationality of St George the man and whatever the truth or otherwise of his exploits he is our patron saint and any man who symbolises, as he does, the victory of good over evil is someone we should all feel proud of. This is our day. Let’s all enjoy it and toast the memory of our patron saint with a glass of finest English bitter. Happy St George’s Day!