The thirtieth November is St Andrew’s day. Who was St Andrew and why is he patron saint of Scotland? This is the story …
Patron saints
In the Catholic and Orthodox traditions, a patron saint is a canonised historic holy person, who’s alleged to be a guiding and protective force for people of a selected career or region. After the Reformation the concept of patron saints was dropped by Protestants. However, the concept of national patron saints stays in Britain and Ireland, but more for patriotic and historical moderately than religious reasons. St David is patron saint of Wales, St Patrick of Ireland, St George of England and St Andrew of Scotland.
The Apostle Andrew
St Andrew is mentioned in all 4 Gospel accounts and in Acts. Andrew was first a disciple of John the Baptist (John 1:40), and when he recognised Jesus because the Messiah he was quick to seek out his brother Simon (later called Peter) to inform him (John 1:41).
Andrew and Peter were fishermen on the Sea of Galilee (Matthew 4:18, Mark 1:16), and were the sons of John (John 1:42), and originally got here from Bethsaida (John 1:44)). It will not be known obviously whether Andrew was the older brother or the younger brother, but generally people have traditionally considered Andrew because the older brother.
At the time of the Gospels Andrew and Peter, were living in Capernaum where Andrew was living along with his brother Peter, and Peter’s wife and mother-in-law (Matthew 8:13, Mark 1:29). Possibly Andrew was married too, but there isn’t any direct mention of his wife. It seems that Jesus often stayed with them there. Andrew and Peter were among the many disciples who became apostles (Matthew 10:2, Mark 1:18, Luke 6:14).
Andrew is specifically named in three stories. After Jesus foretold the destruction of the Temple (Mark 13:1-2), it was Andrew, Peter and John who asked Jesus concerning the signs of the tip times (Mark 13:3). In the well-known story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 it was Andrew who introduced Jesus to the boy with the five barley loaves and two fish (John 6:8). After Jesus entered Jerusalem (which is recalled on Palm Sunday), some Greeks were worshipping with the Jews at Jerusalem and so they approached Philip and asked to see Jesus. Philip went and told Andrew who then told Jesus. (John 12:20-22). Andrew is on the Last Supper and at Pentecost (Acts 1:13) after which disappears from the narrative. In such cases the gap is filled in by Early Church history and tradition.
Black Sea Missions
St Andrew is alleged to have been shipwrecked on Cyprus, perhaps on the option to Byzantium (later Constantinople and now Istanbul) where he’s reputed to have founded the bishopric which later became the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
According to the Early Church historians Origen (c185-c253) and Eusebius (c260–265), Andrew went to take the Gospel to Scythia, which was the realm to the north of the Black Sea, which today includes the coastlines of Romania, the Ukraine, parts of Russia and Georgia. As a result, the Orthodox Churches in Romania, Russia, Ukraine and Georgia have St Andrew as their Apostolic founder.
Death
The generally accepted tradition is that Andrew was martyred by crucifixion at Patras in Achaea (now in Greece) in AD 60. He thought that he was unfit to be martyred on the identical sort of cross as Jesus had been, and so he was crucified on an x-shaped cross as an alternative. Many of St Andrew’s relics are reputedly kept in St Andrew’s Orthodox Cathedral in Patras, which is a spot of pilgrimage.
Patron Saint
Because Andrew is seen because the apostolic founding father of their churches, St Andrew is patron saint of Cyprus, Georgia, Greece, Romania, Russia and Ukraine. He is alleged to be the patron saint of fishermen and fishmongers. How he got here to be patron saint of Scotland is more curious.
Connection to Scotland
Some of St Andrew’s relics were reputedly dropped at Scotland by St Regulus, a fourth century monk, who in AD 345 is alleged to have fled Patras for Scotland taking with him a lot of St Andrew’s bones. The story goes that St Regulus had a dream during which Patras was under threat of attack, and he needed to take the relics as distant as possible to the western ends of the earth.
Sailing within the North Sea, St Regulus and his party were shipwrecked off the coast of Fife, where he was welcomed by the local Pictish king. A church and monastery dedicated to St Andrew arose at the positioning, and St Andrew became a vital saint for the Picts. The town was named after him, and now St Andrews is legendary for its ancient university and because the home of golf.
St Andrew’s Flag
St Andrew’s cross is predicated on the diagonal shape of the cross that St Andrew was put to death on. In heraldry a saltire is a diagonal x-shaped cross. There are two types of the saltire. In one form, there’s a blue cross on a white background, and in one other form there’s a white cross on a blue background. The Russian Navy uses a St Andrew’s flag which is a blue saltire on a white background, because St Andrew is patron saint of Russia.
Scottish flag
The type of St Andrew’s cross with a white cross on a blue background is alleged thus far back to an awesome battle between the Picts in AD 832. An army of Picts under King Hungus, High King of Alba, were being pursued by a bigger force of Angles and Saxons from Northumbria, under their King Athelstan. Fearing the consequence of the encounter, King Angus prayed for victory to St Andrew, and he saw a cloud formation that looked like a white saltire against a blue sky. This looked like St Andrew’s cross, and so he took this as an indication. The Scots won the battle, and where King Athelstan was killed is now the village of Athelstaneford in East Lothian.
Later when Kenneth MacAlpin united the Picts and Scots into the Kingdom of Scotland, St Andrew became the patron saint. Later the white cross on the blue background was adopted because the national flag of Scotland, and is considered one of the oldest national flags on the planet, although not all the time with the identical shade of blue.
St Andrew’s cross within the Union Jack
In 1606, after the crowns of England and Scotland were united, the jack of St George’s cross utilized in England, and the jack of St Andrew’s cross utilized in Scotland were combined to create the Union Jack (the jack referring to a small flag flown on a ship). In 1801, after the union with Ireland, the jack with St Patrick’s cross was added to create the present version of the Union Jack. Thus the flag of the UK has the St Andrew’s cross within the background, and this also appears within the canton (top left hand quarter) of the flags of Australia and New Zealand.
Today St Andrew’s flag is flown widely in Scotland, but is best known internationally from sporting events, where Scotland plays individually from the opposite nations of the United Kingdom, notably in football, rugby and within the Commonwealth Games. It can also be the premise of the flag of Nova Scotia (Latin for New Scotland) in Canada.
St Andrew’s Day
St Andrew’s Day is observed on 30 November within the Anglican, Catholic and Orthodox Churches, and since 2007 has been a bank holiday in Scotland. In Scotland and Scottish communities around the day is an excuse for patriotic celebrations.
Let us keep in mind that St Andrew, unique of all of the national patron saints of the United Kingdom, is the just one who was an actual biblical figure.
