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The saints

St. George

A soldier martyr behind the dragon legend, honored by Christians East and West.

Feast: 23 April · died about 303 · The early Church · Lydda, Palestine

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Medieval painting of St. George on a white horse spearing a dragon, a princess and a castle behind.

Bernat Martorell, 1434. Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.

Home / The saints / St. George

Lydda, in the Holy Land

George was very likely a soldier who died for Christ in the persecution of Diocletian.1

Almost everything else we have about him is legend.1

The most famous legend has him killing a dragon to save a princess and a town, who then were baptized.

Patron of soldiers1; England, Germany and Portugal1; Boy Scouts1

01St. George

Real courage

Behind the story is something true: a Christian soldier who refused to give up his faith and was martyred.1

02St. George

Everywhere at once

Crusaders brought devotion to him back to Europe, and England, Portugal and many other places took him as patron.1

Live it this week

Face your dragon

The dragon is a picture of the evil every Christian fights. Name the one sin that keeps beating you. This week, plan exactly how you’ll avoid its trigger, tell a trusted friend, and go to confession if you fall.

Notes

How we know · 1 source for this page
  1. Franciscan Media, Saint of the Day: “Saint George”. franciscanmedia.org. franciscanmedia.org

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: World English Bible, Catholic edition (public domain); Verse numbers are modern, with Douay-Rheims numbers in brackets where they differ. Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an errorCorrections.