The English Jack (Pl [I.] , fig. 1) is described in simple language as a white flag having upon it a plain red cross.
8. St. George's Jack.
This is the banner of St. George (8), the patron saint of England, and in heraldic language is described as "Argent, a cross gules" (on silver-white a plain red cross).
The great Christian hero, St. George, is stated by those who have made most intimate search into his legend and history[17] to have been descended from a noble Cappadocian Christian family, and to have been beheaded for his faith on the 23rd April, A.D. 303, during the persecution of the Christians by the Emperor Diocletian. The anniversary of that day is for that reason celebrated as St. George's Day. He was a soldier of highest renown, a knight of purest honour, and many exploits of his heroism and courage are narrated in ancient prose and poetry.
About three miles north along the shore of the Mediterranean, from the city of Beyrut (Beyrout), there was in the time of the Crusaders, and still remains, an ancient grotto cut into the rock, and famous as being the traditional place where the gallant knight St. George,
"Y' cladd in mightie armes and silver shielde, As one for knightly giusts and fierce encounters fitt."[18]
was reputed to have performed one of his most doughty deeds, and had "redeemed the King's daughter out of the fiery jaws of a dreadful dragon.[19]
The memory of St. George has always been greatly revered in the East, particularly by the Christian Greek Church, by which he was acclaimed as the "Victorious One," the "Champion Knight of Christendom," and early accepted as the protector saint of soldiers and sailors. One of the first churches erected by Constantine the Great, about A.D. 313, and many other Eastern churches, were dedicated to him.
It is to be noted, however, that St. George has never been canonized by the Roman Church, nor his name placed in her calendar of sacred saints. His name, like those of St. Christopher, St. Sebastian and St. Nicholas, was only included in a list issued in A.D. 494, by Pope Gelasius, as being among those "whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose actions are known only to God.[20]