|
In
most Christian countries and for many centuries the last day in November
has been observed as the feast day of St Andrew. The Church Calendar
begins with Advent (defined as the nearest Sunday to St Andrew’s Day),
and it seems fitting that Andrew, the first of Christ’s disciples,
should have the distinction of coming first in the Church Year. In
Scotland - and wherever else Scots are gathered - November 30th is
celebrated as our national day, for St Andrew is Scotland’s patron
saint and the St Andrew’s Cross (or Saltire) is Scotland’s flag. But
who was St Andrew, and how did he become our patron saint?
The Bible tells us that Andrew, a fisherman from
Bethsaida in Galilee, was the ‘first called’ of Christ’s disciples
and that he brought his brother Simon Peter to become a follower of
Jesus. After the Crucifixion, as tradition relates, Andrew travelled the
countries bordering the Black Sea and preached the Gospel in Scythia (as
the Ukraine and Southern Russia were anciently known) and in Greece.
(For a link between Scythia and the Scots, see the part of the Arbroath
Declaration quoted overleaf). His missionary work is still remembered in
that part of the world: to this day Andrew is patron saint in Greece,
Russia and the Ukraine. It was in Greece, in the city of Patras, that he
suffered martyrdom. Possibly because he felt himself unworthy to meet
his death on a cross of the same shape as his Lord’s, he was crucified
on a diagonal cross.
Part of the tradition is that St Andrew wore blue, and
so the white of the wooden cross against the blue of his robes gave us
the colours of our national flag. However, there is another legend to
explain the white cross on a blue background, a legend which had its
birth a long way from Greece, in the village of Athelstaneford in East
Lothian. |
