April 16, 2026
Thought & Prayer
By the Rev. Geoff Lloyd
When I was growing up in Truro in the UK I was a Wolf Cub in a troop from Highertown C of E. At this time of the year we celebrated St George with all the other Boy Scout and Wolf Cub troops in Truro. We had a great parade through the city and a big service in Truro Cathedral. Being not long after the victorious Second World War there was a real sense of triumph and patriotism in the service and we listened in awe as we heard about St George slaying the dragon and possibly also the sea monster. What an exciting time it was!
You can imagine my dismay, therefore, when a few years later I and my fellow Wolf Cubs were told the true story about St George. He was not English at all and was probably a soldier living in Palestine at the beginning of the fourth century. He was martyred at Lydda in about the year 394, the beginning of the Roman Emperor Diocletian’s persecution and became known throughout the East as the ‘Great Martyr’. There were churches dedicated to St George before the Norman Conquest.
The story of his slaying the dragon is probably due to his being mistaken in iconography for St Michael, himself usually depicted wearing armour; or it may be a mistaken identity representing Perseus’s slaying of the sea monster, a myth also associated with the area of Lydda.
George replaced Edward the Confessor as Patron Saint of England following the Crusades when returning soldiers brought back with them a renewed cult of St George. Edward III made St George patron of the Order of the Garter which seems finally to have confirmed his position. He commanded his tribute day be April 23rd every year.
From my boyhood days I still love celebrating St George’s Day and I much prefer him to have been a real person living in Palestine than a doubtful English historical figure. Long may we and the Church celebrate him and his contribution to the Gospel through his martyrdom!
Prayer:
God of hosts, who so kindled the flame of love in the heart of your servant George that he bore witness to the risen Lord by his life and his death; give us the same faith and power of love that we who rejoice in his triumphs may come to share with him the fullness of The Resurrection. Amen.
