Saint Andrew's Day

30th November is traditionally the saint day of St Andrew, patron saint of Scotland and is celebrated by Scots around the world. The Cross of St Andrew or Saltire is Scotland’s national emblem as depicted in the Scottish Flag.

In the Christian tradition, St Andrew was one of Jesus’ apostles and the older brother of St Peter. After Jesus’ crucifixion, Andrew is said to have preached in Asia Minor, becoming the first Bishop of Byzantium and Patriarch of Constantinople. According to legend, St Andrew was crucified in Patra, modern day Greece on an X shaped cross known as a saltire. His relics were then moved to Constantinople and then on to Scotland.

According to legend, St Rule was visited by an angel who warned him of the doom that awaited Constantinople and told him to take the relics of St Andrew to the ends of the earth, which in 4th century AD was Scotland. St Rule landed on the coast of Fife, close to a Pictish settlement in what is now the town of St Andrew’s. However another tale is that Acca, an exiled bishop from Hexham brought the relics to a Christian settlement that was established earlier by St Rule.

Whichever tale is true, St Andrew’s Cathedral was later established to house the saint’s relics, becoming an important medieval pilgrimage and St Andrew’s association with Scotland was cemented. One local legend tells of a cloud in the shape of the Saltire appearing before the battle of Athelstaneford bringing victory to the Pictish King Angus mac Fergus. The saltire was adopted as a national symbol in 1390 and was used on coinage in Scotland since the reign of Robert III.

When St Andrew’s Cathedral was sacked during the Scottish Reformation of the 1560s, the relics were lost. Fortunately, after the fall of Constantinople some of St Andrew’s relics had found their way to Amalfi in southern Italy. In 1969, the Pope presented the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland with a collection of St Andrew’s relics, which are today displayed in the reliquary in St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Cathedral in Edinburgh.

As well as Scotland, St Andrew is the patron saint of Russia, Greece, Romania and Amalfi. Though St. Andrew’s Day (30th November) is not a public holiday in Scotland.