In what may be the most spectacular own goal in the history of nationalist pageantry, hundreds of Britain First supporters marched through Manchester this week waving flags and chanting in honor of Saint George - a man who, by most historical accounts, never set foot in Britain and is also a beloved saint in Palestine.
So who exactly is Saint George?
Here is where it gets deliciously complicated. Saint George, patron saint of England, is believed to have been born around 275-285 AD in Cappadocia - a region in modern-day Turkey - to a Greek father and a Palestinian mother from Lydda (present-day Lod in Israel/Palestine). He is venerated across the Middle East, with the Orthodox Christian community in Palestine holding him in particularly high regard. The city of Lydda, where he is said to be buried, has celebrated him for centuries.
According to Al Jazeera, which covered the Manchester march on April 19th, the Britain First demonstration drew hundreds of participants rallying around the cross of Saint George - blissfully, or perhaps willfully, unaware of the geographical and cultural origins of their chosen symbol.
The flag, the myth, and the magnificent mess
The red cross on white background - the St George's Cross - has been adopted as a cornerstone of English and far-right nationalist identity for decades. The irony that this symbol connects England to the very regions and peoples that some of its most vocal wavers routinely campaign against is not lost on historians, theologians, or, frankly, anyone who spent five minutes on Wikipedia.
Saint George is venerated in Georgia, Ethiopia, Russia, Portugal, Greece, and yes - Palestine. The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem has a major church dedicated to him. Palestinian Christians have celebrated his feast day for well over a millennium.
A saint for everyone except, apparently, everyone
To be clear, celebrating Saint George's Day is entirely legitimate and many perfectly reasonable people across England do so with no political agenda whatsoever. The cultural tradition of April 23rd as a day of English pride is longstanding and broadly harmless in most contexts.
The specific twist here is the Britain First angle - a group whose platform is built substantially on anti-immigration and anti-Muslim sentiment - marching under the banner of a Near Eastern saint whose legacy is shared joyfully across the Muslim-majority Middle East, where many Christian communities also celebrate him.
History has, once again, refused to read the room.
