Culture Spot - St Andrew was one of the Twelve Apostles (disciples of Jesus) and brother of Simon Peter (St Peter).
He was a fisherman by trade...He is believed to have died on a diagonally transversed cross which the Romans sometimes used for executions and which, therefore, came to be called St Andrew's cross. His cross in white on a blue background standing for the sky is the Scottish national flag. This flag is also known as the Saltire and is said to be one of the oldest national flags, dating back at least to the 12th century.
It was very important in the early days of Christianity that the bones of saints, and other articles that had been closely associated with them, should be preserved. This helped people to understand that Saints were real people, no matter how extraordinary their lives had been. These objects were known as relics and often the relics of the saints would be split up and parts given to different churches. One legend says that a man who later became St. Regulus (or Rule) carried the bones of St. Andrew to Scotland. His ship was wrecked on the Fife coast, and the spot at which the ship landed became the site of the town of St. Andrews. A cathedral was built there which was started in 1160 and took 158 years to build (the ruins can still be seen today) and the town became an important site of Christian pilgrimage. Another legend has it that two monks from the North of England went to Rome and brought back the relics of St. Andrew.
One of the monks passed the relics on to the reigning king in Scotland at the time - Angus McFergus who became king in 731. The other version says that Angus was walking with some friends when St. Andrew appeared to him and told him that when he marched against his enemies he would see the white cross. So Angus had banners made for his soldiers to carry to battle with the white cross on them. One of the first times that Andrew is recognised officially as the patron saint of Scotland was at the signing of the Declaration of Arbroath in 1320. This was a declaration signed by many of the Scottish noblemen, as well as Robert the Bruce, asserting Scotlands independence from England. St Andrews relics disappeared during the Reformation of the Scottish churches, when the Protestant Church came into being and broke away from the Roman Catholic church. Now there are few relics of Andrew in Scotland. A fragment is in St. Marys Cathedral in Edinburgh.
Other countries have St. Andrew as their patron saint - Romania, Greece and Russia. Scotland is one of the few countries to have one of Christs disciples as their patron saint. Around midnight on 29th November, it is traditional for girls to pray to St Andrew for a husband. They would make a wish and look for a sign that they had been heard. A girl wishing to marry can: •Throw a shoe at a door. If the toe of the shoe pointed in the direction of the exit, then she will marry and leave her parents' house within a year. •Peel a whole apple without breaking the peel and throw the peel over the shoulder. If the peel forms a letter of the alphabet, then this suggests the name of her future husband.
