TODAY is St George’s Day, the Palestinian patron saint of England.
I have always found it a little reassuring that our patron saint is a foreigner. He was a Roman soldier, but not even an Italian. He was born in Palestine in the third century when Roman citizenship was virtually open to any men and women of consequence within the boundaries of empire.
He never fought any dragons but he did die for his Christian faith at the hands of the Emperor Diocletian in 302. His flag was adopted by English crusaders in the 12th century and he subsequently became patron saint of a land he never visited.
He is also patron saint of Portugal, Cyprus, Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and the cities of Moscow, Genoa and Beirut among many others.
