George of Lydda ("Saint George")

Saint George, the patron saint of England, was an historical figure, although many things ascribed to him are not historical.

George of Lydda was born into a noble family in an area called Cappadocia (now Turkey), which at the time was populated by Greek speaking citizens of the Roman Empire. George was born around 280. His mother appears to have come from Diospolis/Lydda (now known as Lod, near Tel Aviv), the place where he was later to die. When his father died, George and his mother moved back to the town of her birth.

George was a soldier in the Roman army at the time of Emperor Diocletian. When the protracted persecution of Christians unleashed by Diocletian began to be directed at Christians in the army, George was martryred by decapitation at Lydda in the year 303.

George's death was said to have inspired Empress Alexandra of Rome (d. 314) to become Christian.

The later stories of dragon-slaying are not historical and do not appear in early hagiographies (biographies of a saint); the first records of this story date to Georgia in the 1000s.

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