St George

As we have just passed the feast of England's patron saint, The Tablet has published an article on him.

Why St George is so relevant during the Covid-19 pandemic

A friend, protector and source of unity... there’s plenty in St George that deserves to be honoured this year...

You might have to register to read it, but it's free.

I gave a ten-minute talk on St. George at a recent RCIA thing. I covered:

* What we actually know (almost nothing)
* Hagiographic literature generally
* St. George in culture

I made it work. But, fundamentally, I have qualms about the cult of such saints in the modern world. St. George is 1% saint and 99% cultural phenomenon of an earlier age. To pay attention to him now is to engage in a sort of religious nostalgia at best, and in the conflation of culture and religion at worst.

Thanks, Tim. I tend to agree with you about St George and indeed many other saints. However St George, and his flag and cross, have been appropriated by some of the nastier right wing elements in England, and become associated with racism and xenophobia, so in a way it's good to see him being rehabiltated/reclaimed into midstream - and the Tablet is a very middle-of-the-road English Catholic organ.

And he did kill a dragon...