How come St. George is the Patron saint of England?

Question: How come St!. George is the Patron saint of England!?

When he never even visited England!?

Thanks, it is a question my mum asked, and i do not know!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

The medieval Catholic Church recognised many hundreds of Saints, most of whom had never been anywhere near England!. The early Christian martyrs, executed for their Christian faith, were sanctified and acknowledged throughout Christian Europe!.

St George first came to prominence (but not yet as a patron saint) during the First Crusade when "An apparition of George heartened the Franks (Europeans) at the siege of Antioch, 1098, and made a similar appearance the following year at Jerusalem!." The Saint was said to have been seen in the forefront of the battle, leading the troops and confounding the enemy!.

He appears on a map of Jerusalem of about 1170, leading mounted crusaders in a charge against Saracens!.

In England the Synod of Oxford in 1222 declared St!. George's Day a feast day in the kingdom of England!. The chronicler Froissart observed the English invoking St!. George as a battle cry on several occasions during the Hundred Years' War!. In his rise as a national saint George was aided by the very fact that the saint had no legendary connection with England, and no specifically localised shrine!. Only later was he considered a patron saint of England - St!. George is also the patron saint of Aragon, Catalonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Greece, Palestine, Portugal, and Russia, as well as the cities of Amersfoort, Beirut, Cáceres, Ferrara, Freiburg, Genoa, Ljubljana, and Moscow, as well as a wide range of professions, organisations and disease sufferers!.Www@QuestionHome@Com