The story of the discipleship of Andrew is well known to all Christians. A fisherman from Capernaum and a follower of John the Baptist, he and his brother Simon Peter became the first of Jesus’ disciples. He was the disciple who took the boy with the leaves and fishes to Jesus by the sea of Galilee. He was with him on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple when Jesus warned the disciples with him of the trials and hardship they would be likely to face when they went out to preach the gospel.

After the death of Jesus, Andrew went to Scythia and Greece and it is believed that he met his death in Patras Achaia in Greece. A fourth century account reports that he was crucified on a decussate cross (X-shaped) Traditionally his date of death is some time between 60 or 70 AD. Even in the early writings there was uncertainty concerning both the exact location of his mission and his death. He was called "protokletus = first called" in Byzantium and early church legends recount his missionary activity in and around the Black Sea. He became the patron saint of Russia and was much revered in Greece. Ancient legends include an account of a journey to Ethiopia preserved in an Old English poem "Andreas" which is attributed to Cynewulf.

There are conflicting accounts as to what happened to his relics after his death. St Jerome records that they were taken from Patras to the Emperor Constantine II in 357. After the fall of Constantinople in 1204 the Crusaders took his body to Amalfi in Italy. They were housed in the church of St Andrea in 1208. The despot Thomas Palaeologus gave Andrew’s head to the Pope in 1461. It became one of the most treasured relies in St Peters until in September 1964 Pope Paul VI returned it to Patras as a gesture of goodwill to the separated Christians of Greece.

Another version that his relics were translated from Patras to Scotland in 368 and thus St Andrew became the patron saint of the Scots. A Scottish saint, Saint Rule is credited with carrying the relics of Saint Andrew to Scotland. Rule was a native of Patras in the fourth century and the story goes that he was visited in a dream by an angel. He was instructed to take the relics in his care to an unknown destination in the north west. He travelled until the angel told him to stop at a place on the coast of Fife and to build a church to house them. This building became the monastery of Kilrymont or Kilyrmond and later the cathedral church of St Andrew. The city that grew up in this place took its name St Andrews from the church.

Andrew’s feast day is 30th November and a time of celebration for the Scots. His emblem is the white X-shaped cross on which he died. The Scottish flag consists of this white cross on a dark blue background and it has been incorporated into the flag of Great Britain. Sportsmen and women wear shirts and vests of this same dark blue whenever they go out to do battle with the world for the honour of Scotland.

P.S. While I was researching St Andrew, I came across a reference that intrigued me somewhat. In certain parts of Europe girls looking for husbands would invoke the help of Saint Andrew-but how and why, it didn’t say!