The Journal

St George became England’s patron saint not through birth or geography, but through reputation. A Roman soldier believed to have been executed around AD 303 for refusing to renounce his Christian faith, George’s story spread across medieval Europe as a symbol of courage, loyalty and moral resolve. By the 12th and 13th centuries, his name was being invoked by English crusaders in battle and in 1350, King Edward III formally adopted St George as England’s patron saint with the founding of the Order of the Garter and the red cross on a white ground became inseparable from English identity.