died circa 303
FEAST April 23
This popular Christian saint is venerated in the Eastern and Western churches and respected as a prophet in Islam. George may have been a soldier martyred at Lydda (now Lod, Israel) when the persecution of Roman Emperor Diocletian began in 303. But he is famous for exploits published about 1260 in “Golden Legend,” in which he slays a dragon attacking a princess and her city, which leads to a mass conversion and a wedding. Crusaders may have spread this story after seeing an image in Constantinople of Constantine destroying the devil in a dragon’s form. George is the patron saint of England, Portugal, Slovenia, Catalonia, Venice and Genoa, as well as knights, soldiers, farmers and Boy Scouts.