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An icon of Saint George holding a spear, with sword and shield, from the Yuriev Monastery in Novgorod, about 1130

Saint George

Martyr of Lydda, remembered as a soldier; the dragon came into his story much later

Patron of
England, Portugal, knights, soldiers, scouts, fencers, archers
Western calendar
23 April
Orthodox calendar
23 April (6 May on the old calendar)

George suffered at or near Lydda in Palestine, probably before the time of Constantine, and that, says the Catholic Encyclopedia, is all that can safely be affirmed of him, though East and West have honoured him from a very early age. A decree of around 495 already counted him among the saints "whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose actions are only known to God". Tradition makes him a soldier who professed Christ before the emperor and was beheaded, while the story of the dragon and the king's daughter came much later, in the twelfth or thirteenth century. England and Portugal keep him as their patron, and knights, soldiers and scouts have taken him as their own.

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