St George became the patron saint of England in the 13th century and it is this image of him - as a medeaival knight that people will probably be most familiar with. However the story of St George goes back much further - and although he is among the most famous of Christian figures, very little is known about the man himself. The earliest written source is Eusebius of Caesarea, writing c. 322, who tells of a soldier of noble birth who was put to death at Nicomedia on 23rd April, 303.

Other than this manuscript, the oldest literary evidence consists of a brief notice by Theodosius in his topography of the Holy Land. He records the existence of a shrine to St. George at the town of Lydda, where he had been both martyred and buried. The oldest epigraphic evidence consists of a Greek inscription from Zorava, or Ezra, in the late Roman province of Arabia, dating to AD515.

Another inscription in Sakkaia records the construction of a church of St. George by a certain bishop Tiberinus in the year AD549. Similarly, an inscription recording the name of St. George was found in a small temple at Caesarea Eitha in Arabia also.

From the various writings we can piece together that St George was born in Cappadocia of noble, Christian parents and on the death of his father, accompanied his mother to Palestine, her country of origin. He was martyred at Lydda in Palestine (Nicomedia). He held an important post in the Roman army - the rank of tribune (equivalent to colonel in modern terms) - during the reign of the Emperor Diocletian (245-313). Diocletian was a great persecutor of Christians and when the persecutions began George put aside his office and complained personally to the Emperor of the harshness of his decrees and the dreadful purges of Christians.

For his defiance he was thrown into prison and tortured. He would not recant his faith however and the following day he was dragged through the streets and beheaded. It is uncertain whether he also tore down the Emperor's decrees as they were posted in Nicomedia. So he was one of the first to perish. The Emperor's wife, Alexandria was so impressed at the Saint's courage that she became a Christian and so too was put to death for her trouble.

St George rapidly became venerated throughout Christendom as an example of bravery in defence of the poor and of the Christian faith. He was probably first made well known in England by Arculpus and Adamnan in the early eighth century. The Acts of St George recount his visits to Caerleon and Glastonbury while on service in England and were translated into Anglo-Saxon.

In 1061 a church in Doncaster was dedicated to St George. During the Crusades, St. George was adopted as the patron saint of soldiers. He was said to have appeared to the Crusader army at the Battle of Antioch in 1098 and, almost 100 years later also to King Richard the Lionheart, who placed his army under the protection of St George. Crusaders also probably returned with accounts of the respect paid to him in the Middle East - the red cross depicted on the English flag may well have come from the same source.

Because of his widespread following, particularly in the Near East, and the many miracles attributed to him, George became universally recognised as a saint sometime after 900AD. Originally, veneration as a saint was authorised by local bishops but, after a number of scandals, the Popes began in the twelfth century to take control of the procedure. In 1222 the Synod of Oxford appointed April 23rd as his feast day. By the end of the fourteenth century St George had become acknowledged as Patron Saint of England .

The fame of St George throughout Europe was greatly increased by the publication of the Legenda Sanctorum (Readings on the Saints) by James of Voragine in 1265. It was this book which popularised the legend of George and the Dragon. The legend may have been particularly well received in England because of a similar legend in Anglo-Saxon literature. St George became a stock figure in the secular miracle plays which continued to be performed at the beginning of spring.

The origin of the dragon slaying legend remains obscure. It is first recorded in the late sixth century and may have been an allegory of the persecution of Diocletian, who was sometimes referred to as 'the dragon' in ancient texts.
The story may also be a christianised version of the Greek legend of Perseus, who was said to have rescued the virgin Andromeda from a sea monster at Arsuf or Jaffa, near Lydda, where the cult of St George grew up around the site of his supposed tomb.

The banner of St George, the red cross of a martyr on a white background, was adopted for the uniform of English soldiers possibly in the reign of Richard I and later became the flag of England and the White Ensign of the Royal Navy. In a seal of Lyme Regis dating from 1284 a ship is depicted bearing a flag with a cross on a plain background. During Edward III’s campaigns in France in 1345-49, pennants bearing the red cross on a white background were ordered for the king's ship and uniforms in the same style for the men at arms.

In 1348, George was adopted by Edward 111 as principal Patron of his new order of chivalry, the Knights of the Garter. Some believe that the Order took its name from a pendant badge or jewel traditionally shown in depictions of Saint George. The insignia of the Order include a Collar and Badge Appendant, known as the George. The badge is of gold and presents a richly enamelled representation of St George on horseback slaying the dragon. A second medal, the Lesser George, also depicting George and the dragon, is worn attached to the Sash.

The objective of the Order was probably to focus the efforts of England on further Crusades to reconquer the Holy Land. The earliest records of the Order of the Garter were destroyed by fire, but it is believed that either in 1348 or in 1344 Edward proclaimed St George Patron Saint of England.

The cult of St George was suppressed in England at the Reformation, though St George's Chapel, Windsor remained the official seat of the Order, where its chapters assemble. The Monarch and the Prince of Wales are always members, together with 24 others and 26 Knights or Ladies Companion.

Much later, in 1818, the Prince Regent, later George IV, created the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George to recognise exemplary service in the diplomatic field. The Order was founded to commemorate the British protectorate of the Ionian islands and Malta, but in 1879 membership was widened to include foreigners who had performed distinguished service in Commonwealth countries. The medal of the Order shows St George and the Dragon on one side, and St Michael confronting the Devil on the other with the inscription, auspicium melioris aevi ('augury of a better age'). The Chapel of the Order is St Paul's Cathedral.

Saint George is a leading character in one of the greatest poems in the English language, Spencer's Faerie Queene (1590). St George appears in Book 1 as the Redcrosse (sic) Knight of Holiness, protector of the Virgin. In this guise he may also be seen as the Anglican church upholding the monarchy of Elizabeth I:

But on his breast a bloody Cross he bore
The dear remembrance of his dying Lord,
For whose sweet sake that glorious badge we wore
And dead (as living) ever he adored.

The legend of St George took on a new lease of life during the Counter Reformation. The discoveries in Africa, India and the Americas presented vast new fields for Church missionary endeavour,and St George was once again invoked as an example of danger faced and overcome for the good of the Church. Meanwhile, the Protestant author, John Bunyan (1628-88), recalled the story of George and the Dragon in the account of the fight between Christian and Apollyon in Pilgrim's Progress (1679 and 1684).

In more modern times, St George was chosen by Baden-Powell, its founder, to be patron of the Scouting Movement, and on St George's Day, scouts are bidden to remember their Promise and the Scout Law. Baden-Powell recounted in Scouting for Boys that the Knights of the Round Table 'had as their patron saint St George because he was the only one of all the saints who was a horseman. He is the patron saint of cavalry, from which the word chivalry is derived'.

In 1940, during the worst days of the Luftwaffe’s Blitz, King George VI instituted the George Cross for ‘acts of the greatest heroism or of the most conspicuous courage in circumstances of extreme danger'. The award, which is second only to the Victoria Cross, is usually given to civilians and can be given posthumously. For lesser, but still outstanding acts of courage, the King created the George Medal. The island of Malta was awarded the George Cross for its heroism in resisting attack during World War 2.

Indirectly, the spirit of George the soldier saint played another part in the war effort when Sir Laurence Olivier's film of Henry V was issued in 1944 . The famous speech “Once more unto the breach dear friends” was particularly poignant and relevant in view of the recent Normandy landings and the on-going battle for the liberation of France. Incidentally, St George is also the patron saint of archers, which gives added resonance to those famous lines set on the eve of the battle of Agincourt.

St George is still venerated in a large number of places. George is the patron saint of Moscow and appears both on the Moscow shield of arms and the Russian state flag. Ancient Russian coins had drawings of a horseman with a spear since the 13th century. The Greater State Seal of Grand Duke Ivan III (1497) had the drawing of a horseman killing a dragon too. A horseman was a symbol of a Defender of Motherland. Since the times of Czar Ivan IV Groznyi a horseman was situated on the breast of double-headed eagle, the state coat of arms. In those times the horseman was a portrait of the czar». He had a crown and (sometimes) a mantle. Many people perceived the horseman as St. George - maybe because of the famous orthodox icon St. George and Dracon). He officially become St. George in 1730.

Interestingly, the United Kingdom and Russia share many saints - not only St George, but St Andrew (from which is drawn the blue and white colours of the Russian navy), but also St Patrick and St Alban.

Traditionally the English are seen as quite self-deprecating and not given to displays of patriotic fervor, as though our culture is something to be embarrassed about. Indeed, April 23rd our national day, is not even a Bank Holiday. That situation led C Mills in Where the Rainbow Ends to pen the following:

Alas for St George of England
The valiant knight of old,
Who slew the fiery dragon
And of whom many tales are told.
Although he is our Patron Saint
We think nought of his day
And there is silence everywhere
Where there ought to be grand display.

Having said that, in recent years there seems to have been something of a revival of interest (the flag trade reports sales of the red cross flag hugely increased), whether that’s because of football, a re-awakening interest in tradition, a growth in national awareness, a “rose-tinted” harkening back to days of honour and chivalry or a mixture of these or other reasons, who knows.

In the meantime we can at least be aware of the background of one of our best known national figures and how sometimes what appears to be a purely national tradition can link us to other peoples from around the world.