Sacred Relic of Saint George Sacred Relic of Saint George The sacred relic of Saint George was one of the most famous of relics, after the True Cross and Holy Lance, and was the arm of the Saint George (d. 303), ordered killed by the Roman Emperor Diocletian for his failure to renounce his faith in Christ. George, a secondary patron saint of the First Crusade, played a significant role and provided other relics, as the occupation of his tomb at Lydda (now Lod, Israel) marked the first Latin bishop of Israel as well as a service to ask for his intervention. The arm was
Saint George's Day in England feast" in the declarations of the Province of Canterbury in 1415 and the Province of York in 1421, but George was still eclipsed by his "rivals" Saints Edward and Edmund. St George finally rose to the position of the primary patron saint of England during the English Reformation, with the revised prayer book of 1552, when all religious flags, including all saints' banners except for his were abolished. The first recorded use of St. George's Cross as an English maritime flag, in conjunction with royal banners, dates to 1545. In 1606 it was combined with the Scottish St. Andrew's Cross