Saint George's Day is the feast day of Saint George and now the National Day (but not a holiday) for England. 23 April is the date of Saint George's death in 303 AD.

Saint George was born about 275/281AD and died on 23 April 303 (Julian calendar) or 6th May in the Gregorian Calendar. He is regarded as one of the most important military saints.

He was born in what is now Turkey or Syria and was a member of the Roman Army. His father was Gerontius, a Greek Christian, and also an official in the Roman army. Saint George became an officer in the Roman army in the Guard of the Emperor Diocletian. However, Diocletian was still a pagan emperor, and he would not tolerate a Christian in his guard, so when George refused to give up his faith, he was killed, and thus became an early Christian martyr. Many countries besides England have Saint George as their patron saint, as does the Scout Movement.

The most famous myth concerning Saint George concerns George slaying the dragon, where the dragon represents Satan and or Diocletian. The young maiden in distress is the wife of Diocletian, Alexandra. The myth of Saint. George and the Dragon was brought back with the Crusaders. This story tells of a dragon that makes its nest at the spring that provides water for a city. To get water, the citizens have to offer the dragon a sacrifice, first a sheep and when there are no sheep left, a maiden.

She is offered to the dragon, but then Saint George appears on his travels. He faces the dragon, protects himself with the sign of the Cross, slays the dragon, and rescues the maiden. As a result, the citizens convert from paganism to Christianity.

In medieval times, the lance with which Saint George slew the dragon was called Ascalon.

In the Holy Land there is still a church dedicated to Saint George.

In England Saint George was mentioned among the martyrs by the Saxon monk Bede.

Saint George's Flag
The flag of England is the same as the Flag of Saint George. Many people think that the flag of Saint George is the official flag of England and wave it at sporting events such as football matches and on Saint George's Day, largely as a reaction to Scots waving a Blue Saltaire flag of Saint Andrew. However, there are no official flags of the parts of the United Kingdom, just the Union Flag.

The origin of Saint George as a patron saint of England, and of the red cross being part of the Union Flag, dates back to the Crusades and about 1188. At that time Henry I, the king of England, and Philip II, the king of France, went on the crusade together, and their armies went with them. To make it easy to sort out which force was which, Henry led his troops using a white cross, and Philip led his troops using a red cross. So the Saint George cross, as it has come to be known, was actually a French cross to begin with. No one knows when the English swapped over. That is because the king's official flag represented his coat of arms as you can see from the pictures here.

Some people believed that the Saint George cross was first used by Richard I of England (Richard the Lionheart), but in doing this he borrowed Saint George from the Genoans of Italy, who already had Saint George as their patron saint. But there is no evidence for Richard doing this.

In any case, by the time of King Edward I (nicknamed 'longshanks') and one of England's most famous warrior kings, soldiers were wearing a red cross on white. They didn't use flags as we know them today, but much smaller pieces of cloth, more like triangular pennants. Archers had them on their left forearms and cavalry attached to their lances.

King Edward I was a warrior king, and he was quite keen to be connected to a warrior saint like George, so he had the Saint George flag among his royal saints flags.

The problem was that, at this time, the saint connected to England was Edward the Confessor, king of England until just before the Battle of Hastings. But when King Edward II flew the Saint George flag when he defeated the French at the Battle of Crecy, he believed that the saint had been on his side, and so the Saint George flag became more important. When Edward II founded the Royal Order of the Garter (for exceptionally brave nobles), it was Saint George he chose as the saint connected to this honour. When John Cabot, sailed to begin England's colonising of North America, he sailed under the Saint George Flag (1497) on the orders of the king.

In medieval times there were hundreds of saints and over a hundred saint's feast days. One of these was dedicated to Saint George. As he was by then more important than most, his was "double major feast".

But when England and Saint George became fully connected was when a revised prayer book was printed in 1552. This was the time of the Reformation (change from Catholics to Protestants) and they banned all saint's flags except for Saint George. In Scotland Saint Andrew's Cross was used in much the same way, and in 1606 the two crosses were combined to form the Union Flag (which we popularly call the Union Jack).

No one thought of having a national flag at this time because the only important flags were royal ones. However, after the American Revolution after 1779, the idea of a national flag took off all over Europe.