Back in 2015 I posted this blog about our Patron Saint of England. It seemed appropriate to revisit the post today.
Happy St George’s Day
“Saint George is the patron saint of England. He’s popularly identified with England and English ideals of honour, bravery and gallantry – but actually he wasn’t English at all.
Why is it that we don’t celebrate our patron saint’s day in the same way as the Irish? Why aren’t we in the streets dressed in red and white, wearing a rose and waving the St George Cross? Oh, I forget, we reserve that for the football World Cup. And we all know how successful that is.
Perhaps it is time we had a new saint for England, after all this chap came from Cappadocia, now Turkey, and has no direct connection with England. Very little, if anything, is known about the real Saint George and he obviously hasn’t caught the imagination of the English. George’s reputation grew with the returning crusaders. A miracle appearance, when it was claimed that he appeared to lead crusaders into battle, is recorded in stone over the south door of a church at Fordington in Dorset. This still exists and is the earliest known church in England to be dedicated to Saint George.
April 23 was named as Saint George’s day in 1222 replacing St Edmund who gave his name to the Suffolk town of Bury St Edmunds. Perhaps it is time to reinstate him?
What are your thoughts? Do you celebrate St George’s Day? Should it be a national holiday? Should we have a new patron saint of England? If so who would you choose?”
This post is a contribution to Fandango’s Flashback Friday. Have you got a post you wrote in the past on this particular day? The world might be glad to see it – either for the first time – or again if they’re long-time loyal readers.
TRAVEL WORDS 
Unfortunately, this day was hijacked by far-right organisations like The National Front, The League Of St George, The British National Party, and Column 88. The flag became a nationalist symbol, and not in a good way.
If I had to choose a replacement, we would have to go back quite a long way to find a Briton who was not from Norman, Viking or Saxon heritage. So I choose Queen Boudicca, an East Anglian tribeswoman who tried her best to free England from Roman rule.
Best wishes, Pete. x
Good choice there Pete. Perhaps we should have a new flag too.
Yes, a big square of plain red would suit me. 🙂 🙂
You’ve reminded me of the bad old days of Miss World competitions when the ladies had to dress in their national costumes. As we didn’t have a national costume, the English Miss had to dress like a Beefeater or a member of the Household Cavalry or something like that. I am happy with having Saint George mainly because of his dragon fighting.
Miss World contests were pretty dreadful.
I agree with Beetley Pete – Saint George’s flag has been hi-jacked – even the Union flag to a large extent. Instead of feelings of pride, they now engender the feeling that someone from the National Front is lurking round the corner. Which is a shame, because I’ve received greetings from Spain where my daughter and her Spanish family are celebrating the day of Sant Jordi with great gusto!
Yes, it is a shame that being a patriot in England is seen as a really bad thing, unlike the Irish and Scots who embrace their nationality.
Totally agree, Jude
I think it’s Brexit that’s done that. And prior to that, the antics of some football fans and their Saint George’s flags when England was playing abroad.
None of which helped.
I don’t celebrate St George’s Day (and it’s not because I am Scottish – I don’t even celebrate St Andrew’s Day, though if I still lived in Scotland I might, because it is a bank holiday), but I think we should. There’s barely any mention of it on the news, or in the papers, which seems such a shame.
Weird isn’t it? It seems that William Shakespeare gets more mention given it is his (assumed) birthday.
Yes, very odd. At least Google has acknowledged St George’s day today with their doodle. 🙂
Just like everything else English, it’s being taken away from us by people who wish to live in our country and disrespected in every way possible the same time. Shameful really. Good post.
I have to be reminded every year, but I’m not good on dates. He was harmless enough, unless you were a dragon 🙂 🙂
Do they celebrate him in the Algarve? Not this year of course, but usually? I know some parts of Portugal and Spain do.
Not that I know of. 😦
It’s not really a thing we do here. Although St Patrick’s Day is celebrated by some, usually in the pubs by people of Irish descent.
You do celebrate Australia day though. Or perhaps that’s changing too?
Yes, but it’s not a saint’s day. We have plenty of public holidays. Most important is ANZAC Day, which is tomorrow.
I had to look up to see whether Australia has a patron saint, apparently you have two. Both called Mary. Are they celebrated at all?
My Aussies are on Stradbroke island for the long weekend. Any tips?
Straddie is beautiful at this time of year. We did a great kayaking tour there. I hope they’re enjoying their long weekend. The weather is gorgeous.
I would have said Australia has no patron saints, and I was curious and looked it up too. I came across a site which said Australia has two patron saints but I would disagree with that. The first in the article is The Virgin Mary – that would have been decided by the Catholic Church and would only be as part of the wider church community not the whole country. The second is Mary MacKillop, who was canonised in 2010. She is Australia’s first and only saint and is recognised as the patron saint of the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane. I asked a few friends what they think and we all agree that Australia has no patron saints and saints days would only be celebrated by churches as part of a Sunday Mass. It’s just not a thing here. Except as I said, St Patrick’s Day and that’s an excuse for the Irish pubs to have a party. 🙂
Ah, OK, that sounds reasonable. The Catholic Church celebrate hundreds of saints when you look at Catholic countries. I think St Paddy’s day is the only one that is popular around the world.
In what seems to be the most secular era ever, what makes you think people would want any national saint?
I don’t. But the Irish seem to enjoy celebrating St Paddy all over the world, probably just an excuse to drink Guinness!
Strangely, we have a St George’s Cross in Glasgow, complete with statue stranded on what’s more or less a traffic island. I thought I might have posted him at some time but it seems not. Contrary to what Elaine thinks, St Andrew’s Day is not a public holiday here, though it has been proposed. It’s marked to some extent, but not as much as Burns’ Night!