23 April – St George's Day

Saint George has enjoyed a long history of veneration in the Christian church, although he is perhaps best known as the patron saint of England – as well as soldiers and boy scouts. Devotion to the saint as a soldier and martyr had its early centre at Diospolis (Lydda – Lod in present-day Israel) in Palestine (Donald Attwater, Dictionary of Saints). However, there is no early Life to give biographical details, as Attwater points out, 'as early as the beginning of the sixth century he was referred to as a good man “whose deeds are known only to God”'. The legendary details, maiden, dragon and all, were popularised in Jacobus de Voragine's Golden Legend at the end of the Middle Ages.

The English haven't really embraced their patron saint in the more recent past. His cult was probably brought back by Crusaders at the turn of the twelfth century and it managed to displace that of Edward the Confessor by the middle of the fourteenth century (who still enjoyed a special status, as can be seen from the Wilton Diptych). The popular devotion to the saint was expressed through guilds and contfraternities which in late medieval English towns were the focus of local piety and religious fund-raising. He also makes an appearance in most of the Christmas mumming plays, in combat with the 'Turkish Knight' – called 'Bold Slasher' in the mumming play I remember from reading Enid Blyton's Christmas Book when little.

But the Reformation rather did for St George, as it did for other saints. As Steve Roud points out in The English Year, the saint's effigies did not escape the wrath of reform in the sixteenth century and ever since, there's been a degree of apathy, despite campaigns in the national press, marketing campaigns and the growing popularity of waving his flag to support the national sports teams. Whether this sporting connection – or scepticism towards the European Union – will lead to a renaissance in affection for the saint is another matter.

Ronald Hutton also charts the rise and fall of St George in The Stations of the Sun:

The compromising of St George's Day by its Catholic associations combined with England's subsequent lack of any dramatic national renewal to leave it unusual among nations in its total lack of a patriotic holiday.

The Victorians had a go at a revival, helped by the catholic revival in the Anglican Church, which reduced the English Church's ingrained hostility towards the saints. But the twentieth century, despite the efforts of press and marketing, has seen another decline, epitomised by the lack of an official holiday, to the present day.

Nevertheless, Saint George was in Leek in North Staffordshire the Saturday just gone, in Crusader garb on a white horse. It provided an opportunity for what seemed to be local re-enactors to get in their medieval costumes; and was a marketing ploy for the excellent fine food market, which is definitely one to re-visit in future weeks. It was perishing cold on Saturday, so we had a quick wander round, bought some steak pies, black pudding and a chicken carcass to turn into stock at 20p... We'll be back for the next one (it's every third Saturday), where we'll try to notice more than just the wind!