Today's saintAll livesApril saints

Image 1 of 1: Saint George, Carlo Crivelli

Saints and feasts

St. George

Martyr

George stands as martyr and one of the most widely honored saints in the Christian world. The ancient cult and the real martyrdom remain in view while the larger legendary story is treated with caution.

Sources

The life below remains the existing Butler-based reading, with its edition citation. The profile preserves the feast date and source title already listed in the library. Additional personal dates and historical details are shown only when separately documented.

Patron of: England
His established English patronage is distinct from the later dragon legend.
Also traditionally patron of: Canada and Portugal
Parkinson’s 1911 country list records George for Canada and Portugal, with Anne also listed for Canada. The historical and shared nature of that list is retained.

Butler sourceButler's Lives of the Saints, Volume II (April-May-June), April 23, St George, Martyr, Christian Classics 1990.

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1909)Herbert Thurston, St. George, The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VI, Robert Appleton Company, 1909. Modern transcription of the original article.

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1911)Henry Parkinson, “Patron Saints,” The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XI, Robert Appleton Company, New York, 1911; sections on countries, trades and professions, and declared patronages.

Emblems of Saints (1860)Frederick Charles Husenbeth, Emblems of Saints, second edition, Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, London, 1860, p. 267, “Patrons of Arts, Trades, and Professions.”

Emblems of Saints (1860)Frederick Charles Husenbeth, Emblems of Saints, second edition, Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, London, 1860, p. 268, “Patrons of Arts, Trades, and Professions.”

Mary, Help of Christians (1909)Bonaventure Hammer, O.F.M., Mary, Help of Christians, and the Fourteen Saints Invoked as Holy Helpers, Benziger Brothers, 1909, Part III, chapter I, pp. 154-155; catalogue of traditional invocations. Imprimatur of John M. Farley, March 4, 1909.

The reading

ⓘ Butler source

Butler's Lives of the Saints, Volume II (April-May-June), April 23, St George, Martyr, Christian Classics 1990.

George is one of the most famous saints in Christendom, and that fame makes honesty more important rather than less. The martyr's cult remains in full view: ancient, powerful, and spread through East and West with astonishing strength. At the same time the life refuses to turn later legendary expansions into firm biography. The dragon story and the embroidered acts belong to the history of devotion, not to the earliest secure account.

What remains, however, is far from thin. A real martyr named George stood so vividly in the Church's memory that soldiers, princes, cities, and ordinary believers all took him as patron. England especially bound itself to his name. The life is strong because it shows how deep a martyr cult can run even when the fuller narrative later grows beyond what history can certify.

Historical note

This life uses St. George because Butler gives him the principal page on the date while also warning that much of the fuller legend is not secure history.

Carry this reading into prayer

Act of Charity

Ask God for love of Him and your neighbor, and carry this reading into your own life.

Pray now →

Keep reading

Nearby saint lives

Move through the calendar without leaving the saint library. These nearby feast-day lives help keep the reading trail connected.

Previous feast

Ss. Soter and Caius

April 22

Next feast

St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen

April 24

Browse April saintsBrowse all saint livesGo to today's feast
More prayers, novenas and litanies

More devotions

Continue in prayer

Choose a connected devotion or a clearly labeled general prayer.

Connected novena

Novena in honor of St. George

Open the prayers and source notes, then choose when to begin.

Open the novena

Connected novena

St. George Novena

Open the prayers and source notes, then choose when to begin.

Open the novena

Pray with all the saints

Litaniae Sanctorum

Invoke the communion of saints with the traditional Latin Litany of the Saints.

Pray the Latin litany

Keep learning

What is prayer?

Read question 1099 and its complete answer in the Baltimore Catechism.

Read the Beatitudes in Matthew 5