General Chat

....to all our Scottish friends.... :-)




Who was St Andrew?


Ten fascinating facts about Saint Andrew, Scotland's patron saint:

1. Andrew was a Galilean fisherman working in the Black Sea before he and his brother Simon Peter became disciples of Jesus Christ.

2. He was crucified by the Romans on an X-shaped cross at Patras in Greece and, hundreds of years later, his remains were moved to Constantinople and then, in the 13th century, to Amalfi in southern Italy where they are kept to this day.

3. Legend has it that a Greek monk known as St Rule or St Regulus was ordered in a vision to take a few relics of Andrew to the ‘ends of the earth’ for safe keeping. He set off on a sea journey to eventually come ashore on the coast of Fife at a settlement which is now the modern town of St Andrews.

4. In 832 AD Andrew is said to have appeared in a vision to a Pictish king the night before a battle against the Northumbrians in what is now the village of Athelstaneford in East Lothian. On the day of the battle a Saltire, an X-shaped cross, appeared in the sky above the battlefield and the Picts were victorious.

5. The Saltire, or Saint Andrew’s Cross, was subsequently adopted as the national emblem and flag of the Scots.

6. Andrew was first recognised as an official patron saint of Scotland in 1320 at the signing of the Declaration of Arbroath an appeal to the Pope by Scottish noblemen asserting Scotland’s independence from England.

7. The presence of Andrew’s relics in Scotland – a tooth, a kneecap, arm and finger bones – meant that St Andrews became a popular medieval pilgrimage site although they were destroyed in the 16th century during the Scottish Reformation.

8. In 1879 the Archbishop of Amalfi gifted Andrew’s shoulder blade to St Mary’s Cathedral in Edinburgh. Pope Paul VI donated further relics in 1969.

9. Andrew is also the patron saint of Greece, Russia, Romania, and Barbados. Remnants of the cross he was crucified on remain in the St Andrew's Cathedral Patras in Greece. Saint Andrew was the first bishop there and then crucified by the Romans.

10. His patronage extends to fishmongers, gout, singers, sore throats, spinsters, maidens, old maids and women wishing to become mothers.




Cx <3

Happy St Andrew's Day to family and friends from Scotland.

Gwyn

Wishing all my family and friends up home and all my fellow Scots wherever they are - an enjoyable and very happy St Andrew's Day <3

Thanks for posting those details Cynthia <3

thanks Cynthia :-)

We have Greek friends, and we joke about what we have in common.... St Andrew for starters, the men wear an outfit that other people call a skirt...... and half the men are called Jimmy! (no offence intended OFITG <3 )

Wishing all my lovely Scottish friends a wonderful day :-) :-) :-) <3<3

Love Jem <3

Happy St Andrews Day one and all <3 <3

<3 :-DFor my wee Scottish Nickum <3 <3 ;-)

I'm off to bed now........ wearing my blue & white jammies.

:-D

Happy St Andrews Day to my fellow Scots,
honorary Scots (you know who you are)and all looking in. <3 <3

A song for St Andrew’s Day © Ian Davidson

Andrew is oor patron saint, as Scotland ay remembers.
His flags'll fly here every year, on the 30th o’ November.

Andrew wis a fisherman. His faither wis the same there.
His brither was Saint Peter, an’ they left when Jesus came there.

Andrew wis the first disciple (Got the loaves an’ fishes).
He learned the truths fae Jesus, an’ carried oot his wishes.

He brought the Guid News later oan, tae Russia an’ tae Poland,
an’ Turkey, Hungary an’ Greece. An’ intae many more lands.

Finally, in Southern Greece, he preached the Truth that frees us.
They hanged him, an’ he chose a cross, that’s no’ the cross o’ Jesus.

Efter years, his bones were sent tae be kept in Istanbul, then.
An’ later, some were moved tae Fife, by a bishop, or St Rule, then.

They built the saint a chapel there, an ‘ then a Cathedral came,
An’ then a host of pilgrims (An’ St Andrew’s wis its name.)

They tell the tale o’ Andrew’s cross: it helped the Scots in battle,
Appearin’ high across the sky, above the broadswords’ rattle.

Dear All

Hello

A very happy St Andrews Day to all our Scottish colleagues and friends.


Take gentle care
With good wishes
Elizabeth,
xx