St. George

Why Saint George?

Although popularly depicted as a chivalric English knight on horseback slaying a dragon, folklorists, and historians suggest that George was probably a Greek-speaking Roman Army officer, never saw England, died a Christian martyr’s death, likely on 23 April, 303 AD, and was canonised as a saint by Pope Galasius in 494 AD.

During the One Hundred Years War, King Edward III credited St. George with helping England defeat the French at  the  Battle of Crécy in 1346. Not long thereafter Edward declared St. George the Patron Saint of England and featured  St. George’s cross on the newly created Noble Order of the Garter.

Besides England, St. George is celebrated as the Patron Saint of Barcelona in Catalonia, Aragon, Bavaria, Beirut, Czechoslovakia, Portugal, Lithuania and Hungary, to name a few. Virtually every European and Commonwealth country has a church dedicated to St. George, including Halifax’s St. George’s (Round) Church on Brunswick Street.

Although not vigorously venerated  today,  the story and image of St. George is a powerful allegory  emblematic of virtue and  courage, fighting the good fight and the triumph of good over evil. In Shakespeare’s Henry V, the king urges his soldiers on with the rousing lines:

“Once more unto the breach dear friends, once more.  Cry God for Harry, England, and Saint George!”