30th November is St Andrew’s Day, and is therefore a special day in Scotland of which St Andrew in the patron saint. The X-shaped St Andrew’s Cross forms the national flag of Scotland and is therefore an essential element of the union flag of the United Kingdom.
Andrew was one of the original twelve disciples. The gospel
writers have somewhat different accounts of how the disciples were called,
although the stories in Mark and Matthew are quite similar in describing how
Andrew and Simon were brothers and fishermen who were invited by Jesus to
become “fishers of men”.
Luke makes no mention of Andrew being a fisherman and
neither does John, although they both state that he was Simon’s brother.
According to John, Andrew was the very first disciple, having previously been a
follower of John the Baptist. It was Andrew who then went to Simon to announce
that he had found the Messiah.
Andrew does not feature a great deal in the gospel story, but
he is mentioned as the disciple who finds the boy with the loaves and fishes in
the story of the feeding of the five thousand, although this detail only occurs
in John’s gospel.
Andrew is also mentioned (in Acts) as being in the upper
room in Jerusalem when the disciples were blessed by “tongues of fire” and were
thereby inspired to begin their missionary journeys. According to tradition,
Andrew is believed to have preached in Scythia, Greece and Byzantium, and to
have been crucified (on an X-shaped cross) at Patras in the year 60.
Andrew is recognised as the patron saint of a number of
countries besides Scotland, including Ukraine, Russia and Greece. The link to
Scotland comes from the supposed arrival of relics of St Andrew on the coast of
Fife, where the town of St Andrews now stands. The patronage of Scotland by St Andrew
dates from the 10th century.
© John Welford
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