April 23rd has been St George's Day since 1222. St G is also patron saint of Aragon, Catalonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Palestine, Portugal, Germany, Greece, Moscow, Istanbul, Genoa and Venice; soldiers, archers, cavalry and chivalry, farmers and field workers, riders and saddlers, and he helps those suffering from leprosy, plague and syphilis. And Scouts. So he spreads himself a bit thinly. The whole business with the dragon came about because the story, which was made up by a medieval French bishop, chimed in with a similar Anglo-Saxon legend, and then Caxton printed it in a book called
The Golden Legend, making it very popular. AW
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