As the momentum increases for England to become independent, will this add extra credence to a campaign to oust St George as England’s patron saint and replace him with St Edmund?
Should St George remain our patron saint if he never set foot in this 
country? Should we not have a true English saint holding that very privileged title, a plan which has already angered Labour MPs.
St Edmund was originally England‘s patron saint until he was usurped by St George around 1100AD. But there is strong feeling in East Anglia to bring St Edmund back, he was a former king of East Anglia who was martyred in the year 869 for refusing to renounce his Christianity.
Bury St Edmunds MP David Ruffley has actively taken up the campaign, handing in a petition to Downing Street last Monday, St Edmund’s Day last, joined by organisers from the local newspaper and radio station.
However, he was surprised by the hostile reaction from Labour MPs when later in the week he presented the petition in the House of Commons.
He said petitions were normally read out in silence, but there were shouts of “Saint George” from the Labour side.
“It’s rattled them. They obviously haven’t done their history – we all know St George never set foot in England. I have never in all my time heard a petition being barracked. It shows the strength of our case. I think we have got them on the run.”
St Edmund was gruesomely murdered by the rampaging Vikings who tied him to a tree, shot arrows at him, then beheaded him. He was enshrined at Bury St Edmunds.
At the end of the day, have we all got used to St George as our patron saint and enjoy the story about him slaying the dragon? Do people really care who their patron saint is? As enchanting as this story is, I think we have forged strong traditional links with St George that are too strong to break. Or should we be true to the memory of St Edmund and reinstate him as our patron saint?
As I’ve said before, I think we have just too many cultural references to St George in our history to oust him. And I think this “independence” thing is a load of nonsense anyway. Have people thought through the implications?
Can you imagine the Irish reaction if the were proposals to replace St Patrick?
I wonder what St Edmund’s flag looks like? Would we have to redesign the Union Jack?
Jim, I believe it is a white background with a red cross and a symbol in the centre, but I can’t remember what of.
As much as I like the idea of St Edmund, rewriting Shakespeare when storming castles in France is going to be a non starter.
Ah – brand identity change! Nice idea to switch to St Edmund as it would give a boost to tourism in East Anglia too. If we change the flag, we could then aim to wrench it from the pants of footie hooligans (not literally of course). However as with all identity changes it is important to remember that symbolism isn’t the only factor – we would need to be clearer about what being English means, our values, and how we reflect them beyond flags, patron saints and national anthems.
Personally, I’d rather we had the debate first about being British including the Scots and Welsh.
More than interesting, Ellee. This one’s in this evenng.
I emailed David Ruffley and asked him about the next step in this campaign, he replied:
” As to the next step I will try for an adjournment debate – it is a bit of a lottery as to whether one gets one. In practice however there is quite a lot of resistance from a huge number of MPs who support St George. It is just a question of keep plugging away for St Edmund! Failing that Suffolk County Council said they would adopt St Edmund as a county patron saint though I have got to have meetings with Suffolk County Council on that.”
Hi Ellee, I do like the idea of St Edmund. He certainly has a place in ancient English tradition, but then St George has been at home here for almost a thousand years. When you look at the countries of Europe, many of them fly a similar cross to our St George, and so there’s also a powerful argument that the current English flag is an international symbol that connects us, in history and culture with our cousins abroad. In one sense it doesn’t matter about the myth, especially since the English have almost made it an art form to live with apparent contradictions.
The thing is St George has also become a much larger, explicit, part of the English consciousness in recent years. Looking back at the World Cup, you can’t fail to be impressed (with all that hitherto far-right baggage) at how inclusive a symbol the English flag became. Representative of nation of people, unashamedly yes, but a symbol of racial division – definitely not. It was very encouraging don’t you think?
If England ever did go it alone on the world stage, and I don’t wish it, I could see St George as the national patron saint, and St Edmund as the patron saint of the people of England – a civic saint if you like.
That’s assuming saints aren’t all one day reconciled to a secularist shredder of course.
St. Edmund’s symbol is a gold crown with arrows, so presumably the flag of England would be something along these lines:
St Edmund Flag?
Sperstillan, That’s a great flag. Here is a pic of a proposed St Edmund flag published by Radio Suffolk, which is also a combination of the St George and a crown with arrows:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/suffolk/content/articles/2006/10/26/st_edmunds_flag_feature.shtml
My mother is Orthodox too, btw, as she comes from Greece.
Nice flag, I like that idea. And we can still incorporate the red cross on a silver background as that’s just the symbol of a martyr, so ‘theoretically’ it could keep everybody happy.
A priest recently told me the Orthodox church took over the SPCK which I think is to be welcomed.