[MR] BBC: St. George's Day

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends,

Oops! I missed this story yesterday, but it is still worthy of sharing.
April 23rd is St. George's Day, the patron saint of England's feast day.

St. George was a Christian Roman soldier who was allegedly tortured for
seven years during the Diocletian persecutions. According to legend, George
died three times but was restored to life by St. Michael. Eventually George
was beheaded in 304. As was common with the *vitae* of several other
saints, this ended both his suffering and his miraculous recoveries.

St. George's long patronage portfolio includes horsemen, halberdiers,
knights, soldiers, crusaders, archers (behind St. Sebastian on that one),
Boy Scouts, and oddly, sheep and shepherds. He is also protector against
herpes, various skin diseases and lepers (not clear if this is for or
against, maybe both). Nothing is said about protection against dragons, but
considering the alternative outcome to victory, when facing a dragon
invoking St. George probably would be a good idea.

You can read about St. George and see a really cool statue of him trouncing
the dragon at http://catholicsaints.info/saint-george/ , or try
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_George .

Why is he patron saint of England? The BBC discusses this at
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-43864595 , though it isn't clear from
the story if this is because of English character, or if St. George shaped
it. Strange that his feast day is not a bank holiday.

Yours Aye,

Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆