A Patron Saint for the Persecuted

A Greek boy, with a father from modern-day Turkey and a mother from modern-day Palestine, who grows up to be a soldier in the Roman army. George may be a fitting patron saint for an island whose 'locals' have emerged from many strata of immigration, and continue to do so.

Perhaps the key thing to remember about him is that he was a public servant who faced immense pressure over being a Christian in his place of work. He served Emperor Diocletian as a soldier, and when Diocletian ordered that every soldier should sacrifice to the Roman gods and every Christian in the army should be arrested, George refused to back down on his faith. When a combination of bribes and torture failed to break his will or his trust in Jesus, he was martyred 1710 years ago today.

As I've written before, Aidan is a much better candidate for a local patron saint of England (or in these parts, Boniface, a Devonian apostle to Germany). But George's story points to global issue. Discrimination against Christians in this country is nothing like the vicious  persecution experience in other places - topping the list is another megalomaniac emperor, followed by a raft of places where the official religion (Islam) holds totalitarian sway. But there are signs that our government and public sector culture is hardening against Christians, both globally and locally. There is a steady feed of stories of discrimination within the UK.

The challenge of St. George is for Christians to live with courage, integrity and generosity in the public sector and in the workplace, so that even those who oppose the Christian faith can't find fault in the behaviour and character of Christians. It also calls for Christians to have more confidence in what they believe in.  Only 8 years after George's death, an edict across the Roman empire gave official tolerance to the Christian faith. A year after that came the conversion of Emperor Constantine, and the rest is history.

St. George? Here Be Dragons, I'm with Aidan.

this is a repost from a couple of years ago, and still stands:

Theologian Ian Bradley called for St. Aidan to be made the new patron saint of England. Not just England, but the entire UK:

He said: "St George had nothing to do with Britain and his legend was brought back here with the Crusades. St Andrew similarly had no links with Scotland and St Patrick was born in Scotland or England and put into slavery by the Irish. On the other hand, St Aidan unites three of the countries by having lived there and is, I believe, a better symbol for Britishness.

"It's like Billy Bragg says in his song 'Take Down the Union Jack' about Britain; 'It's not a proper country, it doesn't have a patron saint'. Aidan was the sort of hybrid Briton that sums up the overlapping spiritual identities of Britain.

"He also makes a good patron saint of Britain because of his character. He was particularly humble and believed in talking directly to people. When he was given a horse by King Oswald of Northumbria, he immediately gave it away because he was worried that he would not be able to communicate properly.

"He was also not shy of reprimanding the mighty and powerful about their failings. He saw it as part of his job to remind secular rulers not to get above themselves. At a time when we are thinking about what makes Britishness, he had a sense of openness and diversity for his time that I think makes him a good candidate as the patron saint of Britain."

I guess the fact that Aidan actually did some of the things he's said to have done might count in his favour as well.

Update: as RevEv notes in the comments, the idea of Aidan for the UK ignores the fact that the Welsh have a decent patron saint already in St. David. I'm struck by the irony of the BNP launching their election campaign with a dressed up 'St. George', someone who'd not be allowed into the country if they had anything to do with it.