Have you heard of people being called “saints”?
Have you ever wondered why or how they got that title?
Did they ever want to be recognized like that?

The term has always intrigued me.

You see I grew up hearing of people like:
St Peter
St Patrick
St George
...and even St Nicholas.
They were extra special people by way of what they did.
Their act or service seemed to be above and beyond what other mortal men or women could realistically achieve.

Today I read about St George.
What an amazing story!
Many of us have heard about some guy fighting a dragon, but from what I have researched that part was just a myth.

This George was born a long time ago in a place called Cappadocia. Born to Christian parents who died while he was still young, he joined the army of the day under Emperor Diocletian.
He rose to a high rank by the time he was only 20.

Unfortunately this same emperor hated Christians and demanded that all serving under his rule should sacrifice to the roman gods of the time. George refused to do this.

They tortured him many times and even offered him bribes to get him to change his mind...but he simply wouldn’t.
One account even has him being strapped to a machine with rotating blades that shredded parts of his body.
Knowing that his time was nearly up, he gave away all he owned and the wealth he had a accumulated.

In the end the emperor had him beheaded.
But it doesn’t finished there!
The emperors wife and a pagan priest who watched all this were so impacted by what they saw, that they became Christians and were beheaded the same day.

Over time some have decided that he should have the mantle of ‘saint’.
In the Bible it actually uses the phrase quite a few times but not in the way the rest of us might expect.
In fact it refers to everyone who is a disciple of Christ a ‘saint’.
You, me and everyone else who says they are Christian is supposed to be a saint.

Know you probably won’t have to be as hardcore as George…
…but maybe you feel just that little bit more encouraged to live out this life for God with a little more passion.
To give your all for him.

Something to think about…St [your name here]