George Washington:
Born on 2/22/1732 in Popes Creek, Colony of Virginia.
Died on 12/14/1799 in Mount Vernon, Virginia.
First President of the United States
(1789-1797)
- Party affiliation: non-partisan
- Virginia House of Burgesses (1758-1765)
- Washington presided over the Constitutional Convention in 1787
- One of the founding fathers of the United States. Known as the “father of the country”.
- Washington in his will arranged for the release of all his slaves. He was opposed to slavery and considered it morally indefensible. He signed into law the Slave Trade Act of 1794 which limited the United States involvement in the Atlantic slave trade.
Military career:
- Colonial Militia
- Continental Army
- United States Army
- Rank:
Colonel (British Army)
General and Commander-in-Chief (Continental Army)
Lieutenant General (United States Army)
General of Armies (posthumously: 1976, by an Act of Congress) - Battles:
French and Indian War
Battle of Jumonville Glen
Battle of Fort Necessity
Braddock Expedition
Battle of the Monongahela
Forbes Expedition
American Revolutionary War
Boston Campaign
New York and New Jersey Campaign
Philadelphia Campaign
Yorktown Campaign
Northwest Indian War
*Often remembered for crossing the Delaware River in the middle of winter to defeat the British in two battles
Washington was affiliated with the established Anglican Church of Great Britain. Following the Revolution, in the United States it was reorganized as the Episcopal Church. Washington served as a church warden and vestryman in the Fairfax Parish and Truro Parish.
Washington regarded religion as a protective influence for America’s social and political order.
“He was educated in the Episcopal Church, to which he always adhered; and my conviction is, that he believed in the fundamental doctrines of Christianity as usually taught in that Church, according to his understanding of them; but without a particle of intolerance, or disrespect for the faith and modes of worship adopted by Christians of other denominations.” ~ Novak, M. and Novak, J., Washington’s God: Religion, Liberty, and the Father of Our Country, Basic Books, 2007, p. 161.
Upon his death, Washington was eulogized as “first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen” by Representative Henry Lee III of Virginia.
“If the freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be, led like sheep to the slaughter.” ~ George Washington
“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”
~President George Washington, Excerpted from Farewell Address 1796
This Episcopal See does hereby find that George Washington, the first President of the United States is worth to be numbered among The Just, those who lived in the world, leading exemplary lives as clergy or laity with their families, becoming examples for imitation in society, and by the authority afforded us by God and our fellow Bishops, Priests and laity we do hereby canonize George Washington as a Saint of this church.
I hereby set my hand and seal to this proclamation on this 31st day of March 2018:
Bishop Benedict Johns 
The Archdiocese of St Michael 