St. George

Happy Veteran's Day.  In Honor of all those who serve, our saint for today is St. George.

There have been a lot of soldier saints, but none of them have the same fame as St. George. Many stories have been attached to George, but the best known is the story of the dragon. It is the age-old story of a beast that terrorizes the people.  Whole armies have gone up against the fierce creature, without success.  The monster ate two sheep each day and when mutton was scarce, lots were drawn and maidens were sent instead of sheep.  In rides our hero. Hearing of the dragon on a day that a princess was going to be eaten, he crossed himself, rode into battle against the beast and killed it with a single blow of his lance.  Contrary to the fairy tale ending of the hero marrying the princess, this story ends with George giving a wonderful sermon and converting the Princess, the King and all the people of the realm.

Of course, this is all legend built up around a popular Saint and Martyr.  The fragments of information about St. George don't even say that he was a soldier.  His patronage of soldiers comes mainly from this legend and the Byzantine army's adopting him as their patron. When Crusaders from Western Europe passed through the Byzantine Empire and heard about this well loved local Saint, they adopted him as their patron as well.
His feast day is April 23.