Flag Display – St George’s Day

There will be a display of flags in the town centre to celebrate St George’s Day.

Every nation has its own ‘Patron Saint’ who in times of great peril is called upon to help save the country from its enemies. St George is the patron saint of England.

The best-known story about St. George is his fight with a dragon, but it is highly unlikely that he ever fought a dragon, and even more unlikely that he ever visited England.

Nothing of George’s life or deeds can be established, but tradition holds that he was a Roman soldier and was tortured and decapitated under Diocletian’s persecution of Christians in 303. His remains were taken to Lydda (now Lod, Israel), the homeland of his mother, and were later transferred to the church that was built in his name there. Various relics reportedly are housed in both Western and Eastern churches worldwide. St. George’s Chapel of Windsor Castle, for example, is said to have once held two fingers, part of the heart, and part of the skull of the saint.

George was known in England by at least the 8th century. Returning Crusaders likely popularized his cult (he was said to have been seen helping the Franks at the Battle of Antioch in 1098), but he was probably not recognized as England’s patron saint until after King Edward III (reigned 1327–77) made him the patron of the newly founded Most Noble Order of the Garter.