St George, Patron Saint of England
ROYAL pride subsequently kept St George in the public consciousness, especially as the prejudices of the clergy had banished the rest. His emblem, a red cross on a white background,* became part of the Royal Standard and in 1606, three years after James VI of Scotland was crowned James I of England, a new national flag was unfurled: a red cross of St George representing England and Wales, superimposed on a white-and-blue saltire* of St Andrew for Scotland. The red saltire of St Patrick was added in 1801, after Ireland joined the Union.
St George’s military connections and the legend of his victory over a dragon have made him a popular choice for war memorials. He does not stand there to glorify war; St George did not fall in battle for pagan Rome, but died defying an Imperial order to harass, beat and murder his Christian countrymen. He stands there for another kind of victory, and for the most noble kind of patriotism:* that greater love which makes a man lay down his life for his friends.*
See the White Ensigns flying from the Admiralty building in London as shown on our ‘About’ page.
A saltire is a cross in the shape of an X. The word derives from an Old French word for a stile. According to ancient tradition St Andrew, brother of St Peter, was crucified on an X-shaped cross. See also St Andrew, Patron of Scotland.
‘Patriotism, a healthy, lively, intelligent interest in everything which concerns the nation to which we belong, and an unselfish devotedness to the public service, — these are the qualities which make a people great and happy; these are the virtues which ought to be most sedulously cultivated in all classes of the community.’ In ‘Reasons for the Enfranchisement of Women’, by Barbara Bodichon (later co-founder of Girton College, Cambridge), October 6th, 1866.
See John 15:13: ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.’