Saint George's Day is celebrated on April 23rd, the traditionally accepted date of
Saint George's death in 303 AD. St George's Day was a major feast and national holiday in England on a par with Christmas from the early 15th century to the end of the 18th century. Today, St. George's day may be celebrated with anything English.
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| Saint George and the Dragon. Oil painting by Raphael (1505–1506) |
Little is known about the life of Saint George (d c303) apart from the fact he was a soldier in the Roman army who was martyred for his Christian beliefs at Lydda in Palestine at the beginning of the 4th century.
Many stories have been ascribed to the saint, the best known being the legend of George and the dragon. A pagan town in Libya was being victimized by a dragon (representing the devil), which the inhabitants first attempted to placate by offerings of sheep, and then by the sacrifice of various members of their community. The daughter of the king (representing the church) was chosen by lot and was taken out to await the coming of the monster, but George arrived, killed the dragon, and converted the community to Christianity.
By the 5th century the Christians of Syria and Egypt were consecrating monasteries and churches to him and within a hundred years the same thing was happening in Western Europe.
The cult of Saint George, was originally introduced to the English by the crusaders. In 1222 , the Council of Oxford ordered that the feast of Saint George be celebrated as a national festival. Later in the thirteenth century the popular collection of rather outlandish details concerning the saints, The Golden Legend, which included the story of Saint George, enhanced his reputation even further.
As a result of the success of the war cry "St George for England", King Edward III appointed Saint George as patron saint of England, replacing Saint Edmund the Martyr, probably in 1348.
