Happy Feast Day to all - I see that all the pubs are making the most of the occasion. Even if it is largely a secular celebration, it is nice that the Christian roots survive, and we well to encourage celebration of our national patron St George in our parishes. That said, I have to confess a wish that St Edmund had remained our patron saint (partly out of a selfish motive, in that I live near the ruins of his medieval shrine). An Anglo-Saxon king who was martyred for his faith by Viking invaders in 869, he is an example for us close to home, and by his death inspired the flourishing of Christianity in medieval England, as its patron before St George become so. As a king, he shows us how even political rulers can stand by their convictions of faith in Christ, and make sacrifices for that faith when need be - an encouragement that I think politicians would benefit from. Anyway, sorry for hijacking the occasion! It is not St Edmund's Day, so let's at least celebrate the patron we are honoured with, the roman soldier martyred in the reign of the Emperor Diocletian. May his martyrdom similarly spur us on to a singleness of heart for Christ.
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