Saint Andrew
St. Andrew is the Patron Saint of Scotland and his feast day is on November
30th.
Why St Andrew and Scotland?
Saint Andrew was one of Jesus' original disciples, the brother of Simon Peter
and a fisherman by trade. He lived in Bethsaida in Galilee (in present-day
Israel.) He was originally a follower of John the Baptist until Jesus called him
to follow Him.
After the crucifixion of Jesus and subsequent resurrection, Andrew travelled
widely in Greece and Asia Minor, preaching as he went and making converts to the
new Christian faith. But the Roman authorities were trying to stop the new
religion, which refused to worship the Emperor as a god, and Andrew was
crucified on a diagonal cross in Patras in southern Greece and buried there.
According to legend, 300 years after his death the Emperor Constantine
decided to remove Andrew’s bones to Constantinople, but according to a legend
the monk St. Regulus was warned in a dream by an angel, who told him to remove
as many bones as he could to the "ends of the earth" to keep them safe.
As far as the Greeks and Romans were concerned, Scotland was as near to the
world's end as you could get, so some of his remains were taken to Scotland. St.
Regulus brought the relics ashore at what is now St Andrews (some versions say
he was shipwrecked there) and a chapel was built to house the bones, followed in
1160 by a cathedral. St Andrews was the religious capital of Scotland and an
important place of pilgrimage.
Another version of how the Saint's bones found their way to Scotland is that
Acca, Bishop of Hexham, who was a renowned collector of religious relics,
actually bought the bones quite legitimately and took them there in 733 AD.
Unfortunately the bones have now disappeared, probably destroyed during the
Reformation when anything connected with "Catholic idolatry" was removed without
trace. The site where the relics had been is now marked by a plaque in the ruins
of the Cathedral in St Andrews.
Not all of St. Andrew's bones were originally sent to Scotland, the rest were
stolen from Constantinople by the Crusaders in around 1204 and taken to Amalfi
in Italy, from where some fragments were sent in 1879 to Scotland, and in 1969
Pope Paul VI gave some further relics to the Catholic church in Scotland during
a visit there and these are now displayed in a reliquary in St. Mary's Roman
Catholic Cathedral in Edinburgh.
St Andrew's Cross
The cross St. Andrew was crucified on has been adopted as the national flag
of Scotland, later incorporated into the Union Flag. One old legend says that in
832 AD an army of Scots led by King Angus was facing an army from the kingdom of
Northumbria under Athelstan. The Scottish king prayed to St Andrew for help, and
the saltire of St Andrew (the diagonal cross) appeared above them against the
background of a clear blue sky. This encouraged the Scots and the battle was
duly fought and won, and the saltire is now the national flag (reputedly the
oldest national flag in Europe.)
Customs and Traditions
St. Andrew's Day is mainly celebrated north of the Border and by Scots living
outside of Scotland, and "St. Andrew's Societies" flourish. The Saint's Day is
usually a celebration of Scottish traditions with traditional food, music
(especially bagpipes) and dancing, and of course good Scotch.
 The
thistle is widely regarded as the emblem of Scotland. There are several
varieties of thistle, most of them common weeds throughout the British Isles and
nearly all characterised by extreme prickliness. The legend of how the thistle
came to be adopted by the Scots tells of how a group of Scots were sleeping in a
field when a group of marauding Vikings crept up to attack. Fortunately one of
the Vikings stood on a thistle, whose prickles penetrated through to his foot
and made him yell with pain, waking the sleeping Scots who were able to fight
off their attackers. So, from that day, or so the story goes, the thistle has
been adopted as Scotland's national emblem.
Recipe:
Tatties-an-Neeps (Clapshot)
You will need:
- 400-800g (1-2 lb potatoes), peeled and cubed
- An equal amount of peeled and cubed swede (turnip)
- salt and pepper
- butter
- dripping
Method:
Boil the potatoes and swede separately until they are soft but not mushy
(test with a fork) and drain them well. Mash together with a knob of butter and
salt and pepper to taste.
Heat some beef dripping in a frying pan until hot - a haze will begin to
appear above the pan: DON'T let it burn. Fry the "bashed tatties and neeps"
until browned on the bottom; turn it by tipping carefully onto a plate and
sliding back into the pan to brown the other side.
You may prefer to form the mixture into small flattened cakes or patties and
frying these, turning them with a fish-slice when done on one side.
Serve with the haggis and a rich gravy.
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