Saint George in devotions, traditions and prayers was specially devoted to the saint and declared him the patron saint of Portugal. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Portuguese explorers carried the devotion across the oceans to India and South America. After the thirteenth century, a large portion of the art, iconography and legendary traditions associated with Saint George and many festivals that celebrate him involve the legend of Saint George and the Dragon. The association of Saint George with the dragon was not attested to until the twelfth century version of "Miracula Sancti Georgii" (Codex Romanus Angelicus 46, pt. 12, written in Greek). Jacobus De Voragine, the
Patron saint acclaim rather than through official declaration. Traditionally, it has been understood that the patron saint of a particular place prays for that place's wellbeing and for the health and happiness of all who live therein. However, the Wahhabi and Salafi movements within Sunnism have latterly attacked the veneration of saints (as patron or otherwise), which they claim are a form of idolatry or "shirk". More mainstream Sunni clerics have critiqued this argument since Wahhabism first emerged in the 18th century. The critiques notwithstanding, widespread veneration of saints in the Sunni world declined in the 20th century under Wahhabi and Salafi