In European legend, Saint George is famous for rescuing a princess and defeating a dragon.
The story of Saint George and the Dragon became especially influential in medieval Christian Europe. In its best-known form, a dragon terrorizes a community and demands victims. A princess is selected as the next offering, but George arrives, confronts the dragon, and kills or subdues it. The people then convert to Christianity in many versions of the tale.
The episode is not part of the earliest surviving accounts of Saint George’s life. It developed through medieval retellings, including the influential collection known as the Golden Legend, compiled in the thirteenth century. The dragon commonly represents evil, paganism, or spiritual danger, while George embodies Christian courage.
Saint George is the patron saint of England, Georgia, and several other places, although the English flag’s red cross is not itself a dragon symbol. The tale also differs from Saint Patrick’s traditional expulsion of snakes from Ireland, which is not a dragon-slaying story.