Saint George, patron saint of England, Portugal, Palestine, Scouts and syphilitics, amongst others. It is, of course, his memorial day today, and also, appropriately enough, the date of death and allegedly birth of William Shakespeare.
There have been increasing calls over recent years for St George's Day to be celebrated on a larger scale, like SS Patrick, David and Andrew are in their respective countries of patronage. In principle, I absolutely agree, but what I've been wondering is: why George?
The thing is, St George has precisely no connection with England, not even a legendary one. He was born in Cappadocia (Turkey), to a Turkish father and a Palestinian mother; he did his dragon slaying in either Libya or Palestine, depending on which source you read; and he died in Palestine. So why him, and not, say, St Alban, St Cuthbert or St Augustine of Canterbury?
The answer would appear to be at least partly to do with precisely this lack of an English connection. Veneration of the various English saints seems to have had a primarily local focus, in the places specifically associated with them: St Cuthbert in Northumbria, St Edmund in Bury St Edmunds, St Alban in... well, I'll give you three guesses. This in effect meant that they were in competition with each other, which militated against one of them coming out 'on top', as it were.
St George, on the other hand, had been known in England since the 8th century, and venerated as patron saint of soldiers since the time of the Crusades, but he really came to prominence in England with the publication, in 1265, of the Legenda Aurea, which included the tale of George and the Dragon. The theory is that this legend took off particularly well in England because of its similarity to an older Anglo-Saxon one: after all, Christianity has a long history of 'piggy-backing' (and I mean that in a good way) on existing customs and traditions. And this, assisted by his popularity among military types (Very Important People in those days), led to him being acknowledged as the patron saint of England by the late 1300s.
There have been calls at various times for George to be replaced by St Alban or St Edmund, but in the meantime, happy St George's Day!
(Information mostly taken from Wikipedia, the Catholic Encylopaedia and here).
There have been increasing calls over recent years for St George's Day to be celebrated on a larger scale, like SS Patrick, David and Andrew are in their respective countries of patronage. In principle, I absolutely agree, but what I've been wondering is: why George?
The thing is, St George has precisely no connection with England, not even a legendary one. He was born in Cappadocia (Turkey), to a Turkish father and a Palestinian mother; he did his dragon slaying in either Libya or Palestine, depending on which source you read; and he died in Palestine. So why him, and not, say, St Alban, St Cuthbert or St Augustine of Canterbury?
The answer would appear to be at least partly to do with precisely this lack of an English connection. Veneration of the various English saints seems to have had a primarily local focus, in the places specifically associated with them: St Cuthbert in Northumbria, St Edmund in Bury St Edmunds, St Alban in... well, I'll give you three guesses. This in effect meant that they were in competition with each other, which militated against one of them coming out 'on top', as it were.
St George, on the other hand, had been known in England since the 8th century, and venerated as patron saint of soldiers since the time of the Crusades, but he really came to prominence in England with the publication, in 1265, of the Legenda Aurea, which included the tale of George and the Dragon. The theory is that this legend took off particularly well in England because of its similarity to an older Anglo-Saxon one: after all, Christianity has a long history of 'piggy-backing' (and I mean that in a good way) on existing customs and traditions. And this, assisted by his popularity among military types (Very Important People in those days), led to him being acknowledged as the patron saint of England by the late 1300s.
There have been calls at various times for George to be replaced by St Alban or St Edmund, but in the meantime, happy St George's Day!
(Information mostly taken from Wikipedia, the Catholic Encylopaedia and here).
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