well we’ve had St.Pats and now it’s St George’s the patron saint of all things English.
Strange haw diffrent peoples mark there special days, St George’s will be marked by the flying of the English flag on the church towers, in Oldham they are giving away 1000 red roses to ladies of the bourgh. But in general it’s a low key event, maybe it’s because England is so multi-cultural now it’s lossing it’s national identity?
anyway a happy St George’s day to one and all 
We don’t even get a bank holiday!
Then again, we’ve just had two for Easter and two more to come before the end of May, so I guess it would be difficult to squeeze another one in.
I shall be drinking red & white beer tonight and wearing my dragon costume in the office all day.
We used to have a statue of Saint George and the dragon at the art museum, but they traded it for some ugly ancient Roman sarcophagus. It made me sad. 
“Cry God for King Harry, England and St. George!!”
St. George was a knight and born in Cappadocia. On a time he came in to the province of Libya, to a city which is said Silene. And by this city was a stagne or a pond like a sea, wherein was a dragon which envenomed all the country. And on a time the people were assembled for to slay him, and when they saw him they fled. And when he came nigh the city he venomed the people with his breath, and therefore the people of the city gave to him every day two sheep for to feed him, because he should do no harm to the people, and when the sheep failed there was taken a man and a sheep. Then was an ordinance made in the town that there should be taken the children and young people of them of the town by lot, and every each one as it fell, were he gentle or poor, should be delivered when the lot fell on him or her. So it happed that many of them of the town were then delivered, insomuch that the lot fell upon the king’s daughter, whereof the king was sorry, and said unto the people: For the love of the gods take gold and silver and all that I have, and let me have my daughter. They said: How sir! ye have made and ordained the law, and our children be now dead, and ye would do the contrary. Your daughter shall be given, or else we shall burn you and your house.
When the king saw he might no more do, he began to weep, and said to his daughter: Now shall I never see thine espousals. Then returned he to the people and demanded eight days’ respite, and they granted it to him. And when the eight days were passed they came to him and said: Thou seest that the city perisheth: Then did the king do array his daughter like as she should be wedded, and embraced her, kissed her and gave her hls benediction, and after, led her to the place where the dragon was.
When she was there St. George passed by, and when he saw the lady he demanded the lady what she made there and she said: Go ye your way fair young man, that ye perish not also. Then said he: Tell to me what have ye and why weep ye, and doubt ye of nothing. When she saw that he would know, she said to him how she was delivered to the dragon. Then said St. George: Fair daughter, doubt ye no thing hereof for I shall help thee in the name of Jesu Christ. She said: For God’s sake, good knight, go your way, and abide not with me, for ye may not deliver me. Thus as they spake together the dragon appeared and came running to them, and St. George was upon his horse, and drew out his sword and garnished him with the sign of the cross, and rode hardily against the dragon which came towards him, and smote him with his spear and hurt him sore and threw him to the ground.
And after said to the maid: Deliver to me your girdle, and bind it about the neck of the dragon and be not afeard. When she had done so the dragon followed her as it had been a meek beast and debonair. Then she led him into the city, and the people fled by mountains and valleys, and said: Alas! alas! we shall be all dead. Then St. George said to them: Ne doubt ye no thing, without more, believe ye in God, Jesu Christ, and do ye to be baptized and I shall slay the dragon. Then the king was baptized and all his people, and St. George slew the dragon and smote off his head, and commanded that he should be thrown in the fields, and they took four carts with oxen that drew him out of the city.
Quoted from The GOLDEN LEGEND or LIVES of the SAINTS vol. 3
Compiled by Jacobus de Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa, 1275 First Edition Published 1470
English translation by WILLIAM CAXTON, First Edition 1483
From the Temple Classics Edited by F.S. ELLIS, 1900
Gee, thanks Aaron, I was just going to write in and ask for a
brief reminder as to who St. George was. You certainly explained
that one nicely.
Wonderful Walden! I hope you don’t mind that I just emailed this around the office.
Little John
My native city of Rio de Janeiro unexpectedly gave St George’s day as a holiday. It worked very nicely because it connected with the Easter holiday and allowed people to have a full week off. Needless to say, i was very proud of them! 
Who was the Saint who turned into a man and walked on the Devil’s head?
St Bloomfield, i think?
Ummm…Cran, it’s generally a given that saints are human to begin with…
I think she was a human, but then she turned into a man and walked on the Devil’s head. I just don’t remember her name.
I am yet waiting to turn into a man. Applications from any Lady willing to help out are being accepted now. All will be considered. Age not a requirement. Fluency in Kalmyk a plus. Good looks also a plus. Must be financially independent.
What about St. Bernards? Aren’t they dogs? And St. Bruno is a pipe tobacco.
Ah, Martin, thank you; I almost toppled into the abyss. And to add to your helpful list, the miraculous St. André cheese. Appropriately triple (triune?) creme, and a blessing on any palate.
I tried searching on google for her name, but I couldn’t find anything. I know she was referenced in the movie Mermaids. And that’s all I know. LOL. But I’m pretty sure she really is a Saint.
Nice Story Walden, but St George the Real man was a little different.
St George is the patron saint of England and among the most famous of Christian figures. But of the man himself, nothing is certainly known. The earliest source, Eusebius of Caesarea, writing c. 322, tells of a soldier of noble birth who was put to death under Diocletian at Nicomedia on 23 April, 303, but makes no mention of his name, his country or his place of burial. According to the apocryphal Acts of St George current in various versions in the Eastern Church from the fifth century, George held the rank of tribune in the Roman army and was beheaded by Diocletian for protesting against the Emperor’s persecution of Christians. George rapidly became venerated throughout Christendom as an example of bravery in defence of the poor and the defenceless and of the Christian faith.
George was probably first made well known in England by Arculpus and Adamnan in the early eighth century. The Acts of St George, which recounted his visits to Caerleon and Glastonbury while on service in England, were translated into Anglo-Saxon. Among churches dedicated to St George was one at Doncaster in 1061. George was adopted as the patron saint of soldiers after he was said to have appeared to the Crusader army at the Battle of Antioch in 1098. Many similar stories were transmitted to the West by Crusaders who had heard them from Byzantine troops, and were circulated further by the troubadours. When Richard 1 was campaigning in Palestine in 1191-92 he put the army under the protection of St George.
The banner of St George, the red cross of a martyr on a white background, was adopted for the uniform of English soldiers possibly in the reign of Richard 1, and later became the flag of England and the White Ensign of the Royal Navy. In a seal of Lyme Regis dating from 1284 a ship is depicted bearing a flag with a cross on a plain background. During Edward 111’s campaigns in France in 1345-49, pennants bearing the red cross on a white background were ordered for the king’s ship and uniforms in the same style for the men at arms. When Richard 11 invaded Scotland in 1385, every man was ordered to wear ‘a signe (sic) of the arms of St George’, both before and behind, whilst death was threatened against any of the enemy’s soldiers ‘who do bear the same crosse or token of Saint George, even if they be prisoners’.
HAPPY ST GEORGES DAY EVERYONE
But the part of his martyrology that I quoted was indeed his most famous act.
What’s curious is that the patron saint of just about every country was not a native of that country - eg St George (prob. The Levant area but unknown), St Patrick (English and/or Scottish), et al. A venerated saint in Europe (northern Germany and Alsace) is St Boniface - and he was English, but how many English people know of him?