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Show ENGLAND'S PATRON SAINT. The story of England's patron saint is surrounded surround-ed by a mixture of truth and fable which defies definite sifting. He is generally believed to have been born at Lydia, but brought up in Cappadoeia, and suffered martyrdom in the reign of Diocletian. A. D. 303. The legend of his conflict with the dragon may have arisen from a symbolical or allegorical alle-gorical representation of his contest with the pagan persecutors. When our crusaders went to the east in 1096 they found St. George elevated to the rr.nk of warrior saint, with the title of the "victorious," and as they believed that they were indebted to him for aid in the siege of Antioch they adopted him a3 the patron of soldiers. Edward III. was thus led to make him patron of the Order of the Garter, and so gradually St. George became the tutelary saint of England. Xondon. Mail. |
