St George according to legend, was a Roman soldier of Greek origin, an officer in the Guard of the Roman emperor Diocletain. His parents were Greek descendants and early Christians, his father was a Roman army official from Cappadocia, and his mother was a Christian and a Greek native from Lydda, Syria Palaestina. (Heb: Lod) The Apostle Peter healed a man there who had been paralysed and bedridden for 8 years and everyone in the town became Christian.

George followed his father and joined the Roman Army, he became an officer in the Emperor's personal guard, but he also followed his parents faith. Emperor Diocletian and his chief advisor (think evil Grand Vizier) were both faithful pagan believers in the Roman gods, the emperor wanted to ban Christians from the bureaucracy and military to appease the gods, but Galerius (equivalent of a Grand Vizier) pushed for extermination. George as part of the Roman Army was ordered to make sacrifices to the Roman Gods, to prove he wasn't a Christian, he refused and was martyred for his faith.

St George as a soldier saint became popular in England during the crusades. A vision of St George and St Demetrius preceded the fall of Antioch on the First Crusade, and Richard I placed himself and his army under the saint’s protection. According to tradition it was King Edward III who made St George patron of the Order of the Garter in 1348, and whose soldiers first raised the cry, “For England and St George”. Soldiers and sailors began to wear his red cross on a white ground as a sort of uniform. A book featuring the Golden Legend with the famous episode of his vanquishing the dragon was published in the 12th Century by Caxton and sealed his fame. Saint George stands out among other saints and legends because he is known and revered by both Muslims and Christians. The dragon rather than a literal beast may have been the symbolic heraldry or standard of an enemy, just as with Christians the dragon of Revelations is symbolic of Satan. Its a good story, check it out at Lunchtime (Sext).

BORN: c. AD 256-285 Palestine

DIED: 23 April 303 (aged 17–47) Nicomedia, Bithynia, Roman Empire