the other. This breaks the continuity of direc- 

 tion of the arms of St. Patrick's cross, but 

 permits the Irish and Scottish crosses to be 

 distinguished from one another. 



The union jack flies from the jackstaff of 

 every man-of war in the British navy. With 

 the Irish harp on a blue shield displayed in the 

 center, it is flown by the Lord Lieutenant of 

 Ireland. The Governor General of India adds 

 to it the star and device of the Order of the 

 Star of India and flies it; colonial governors 

 add the badge of their colony in the center and 

 fly it; diplomatic representatives use it with 

 the royal arms in the center. As a military 

 flag it is flown over fortresses and_ headquar- 

 ters, and on all occasions of military cere- 

 mony. The admiral of the fleet hoists it at 

 the mainmast of a man-of-war as his flag. 



830. The red cross of St. George is reputed 

 to have originated during the Crusades. The 

 story goes that while engaged in a great battle 

 the soldiers of England were wearied and, 

 seeing that the number of enemies did not de- 

 crease, began to despair. At this critical mo- 

 ment an infinite number of heavenly soldiers, 

 all in white, descended from the mountains, 

 the standard bearers and leaders of them being 

 St. George, St. Maurice, and St. Demetrius. 

 When the Bishop of Le Puy first beheld them 

 he cried aloud to his troops, "There are they, 

 the succours which in the name of God I 

 promised you." As a result of the miracle the 

 enemies turned their backs and lost the field, 

 there being slain one hundred thousand horse, 

 besides foot innumerable, and in their trenches 

 such infinite store of victuals and munitions 

 were found that the Christians were refreshed 

 and the enemy confounded. This great victory 

 at Antioch led to the recovery of Jerusalem, 

 and during the Crusades England, Aragon, 

 and Portugal all assumed St. George as their 

 patron saint. 



The cross of St. George was worn as_ a 

 badse over the armor by every English soldier 

 in the fourteenth century, if indeed not in 

 earlier times. It was the flag under which the 

 great seamen of Elizabeth's reign traded, ex- 

 plored, and fought ; it was the flag that Drake 

 bore around the world; and to this day it is 

 the flag of the British admiral (see 605). 



831. St. Andrew has been the patron saint 

 of Scotland since about 740 A. D. How lie 

 came to be such has never been satisfactorily 

 settled. When he suffered martyrdom, m the 

 year 69 A. D. at Papras, his remains were care- 

 fully preserved; but in 370, Regulus, one of 

 the Greek monks to whom they had been en- 

 trusted, learned in a vision that the Emperor 

 Constantine was proposing to move them to 

 Constantinople. In compliance with the in- 

 structions received in the vision, Regulus at 

 once visited the shrine and removed the arm 

 bones, three fingers of the right hand, and a 

 tooth, and, putting them into a chest, set sail 

 with some half dozen companions. After a 

 stormy voyage the vessel was dashed upon a 

 rock and Regulus and his companions landed 

 on an unknown shore and found themselves in 

 a gloomy forest. The natives there listened to 

 their story and gave them land on which to 

 build a church for the glory of God and the 

 enshrining of the relic. This inhospitable shore 

 proved to be that of Caledonia (Scotland). 



832. Authorities agree that, devoutly as mil- 

 lions love it, the use of St. Patrick's cross is 

 in defiance of all ecclesiastical usage and cus- 

 tom, because St. Patrick never suffered mar- 

 tyrdom, but died in his bed at the ripe age of 

 ninety. It is said that he was never canonized, 

 and that his sainthood, like his cross, is due to 

 popular error. It has been suggested by some 

 that the X-like form of cross, both of the Irish 

 and of the Scots, is derived from the sacred 

 monogram of the labarum of Constantine, 

 where the X is the first letter of the Greek 

 word for Christ. This symbolic meaning of 

 the form might readily have been adopted in 

 the early Irish church and thence carried by 

 missionaries through Scotland. Another sug- 

 gestion is that the red cross on a white field 

 was the heraldic device of the Geraldines, dat- 

 ing at least from Maurice Fitzgerald, the 

 grandson of Rhys, the great King of South 

 Wales, who landed in Ireland in 1160. on the 

 invitation of King Dermod of Leinster, and 

 that it is in fact a banner not of St. Patrick, 

 but of the Norman Invader, which was adroitly 

 held up to the people of these islands as dis- 

 tinctive of the patron saint. 



St. Patrick was born in Scotland, near where 

 Glasgow now stands. The date of his birth 

 was about the middle of the fifth century. His 

 father was of good family, and while the fu- 

 ture saint was under the paternal roof divers 

 visions revealed to him that he was destined 

 for the great work of the conversion of Ire- 

 land, at that time steeped in idolatry ._ _ He re- 

 signed his birthright and social position and 

 took the burden of the Irish upon him. Or- 

 dained a deacon and priest, he was ultimately 

 made a bishop, in which capacity he traveled 

 over the whole island, founding monasteries, 

 and filling the country with churches and 

 schools and with piety and learning. Tradi- 

 tion has it that he found Ireland a land of 

 barbarism and left it a seat of learning and 

 piety. It continued for centuries a center of 

 mental and spiritual light. 



833. With its three golden lions represent- 

 ing England, its red lion rampant standing for 

 Scotland, and its golden harp for Ireland, the 

 royal standard was first hoisted on the Tower 

 of London on the first day of January, 1801. 



How England came to be represented by 

 three lions is not entirely clear. Two lions 

 were assigned as the arms of William the Con- 

 queror, a lion each for Normandy and Maine, 

 but there is no distinct evidence that he bore 

 them. As a Crusader, Richard Cceur de Lion's 

 banner bore two lions combatant, but on his 

 second great shield three lions passant guard- 

 ant appear. The date of this shield is 1195,. so 

 that for nearly seven and a quarter centuries, 

 with the exception of the days of Cromwell, 

 the three golden lions on the red field have 

 typified the power of England. 



The rampant lion of Scotland dates from the 

 time of William the Lion, about 1165. It be- 

 came a part of the roval standard in 1603. 

 The Scots did not like the idea of their lion 

 being placed in the second quarter any more 

 than they relished the thought of St. Andrew s 

 cross being placed under that of St. George. 

 They claimed that after the death of Queen 

 Elizabeth the Scottish crown virtually an- 



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