According to the Gospels, Andrew was a fisherman
from Galilee and the first disciple of Christ. Few details of his
apostolic career are known, but he was latterly in Byzantium, Thrace,
Macedonia, and Thessaly. He is believed to have been martyred by
crucifixion at Patrae (or Patras) in Achaia (in modern day Greece),
on 30 November, AD 60. His remains were apparently removed to Constantinople
about AD 357, but when Constantinople was sacked during the Fourth
Crusade in 1204, the relics were taken to the cathedral of Amalfi
Saint Andrews: the place
The town of St Andrews has its origins in
a Pictish settlement, originally called (in Anglicised form) 'Kinrimont'
(sometimes later referred to as 'Kilrymont or 'Kilrimont’), probably
in its earliest form a monastic church. The church was endowed with
land by the Pictish kings and, later, the kings of Scots. Constantine,
King of Scots, retired to become abbot of a group of Culdees there
in 943. By then it become the chief church of the kingdom. By 1144
the settlement around the monastery had burgh status and was known
as ‘St Andrews’. The earliest surviving crown charter is from Malcolm
IV (1153-1165) but this is a confirmation of privileges granted
to a burgh already in existence. At some point in the 9th century
or earlier the church acquired relics of Saint Andrew. These traditionally
consisted of three fingers of the saint’s right hand, a part of
one of his arms, one kneecap, and one of his teeth. Miracles were
attributed to the saint and Kilrymont/St Andrews thrived as a place
of pilgrimage: relics and pilgrimage routes, as well as being religious
phenomena, were important in economic terms in the middle ages.
How did St Andrews come by the relics?
It is possible that relics relating to the
saint may have been brought to the kingdom of the Picts from Hexham,
in the neighbouring kingdom of Northumberland, where veneration
of Andrew was particularly strong (at least 9 parish churches in
Northumberland today are dedicated to St Andrew). After the emergence
of the kingdom of Alba (Scotland) by 900 Andrew continued to be
venerated. By the 12th century a more elaborate explanation for
the acquisition of the relics had been distilled from several myths.
According to this the bishop of Patrae, St Regulus (sometimes named
‘St Rule’), obeying an apparition of an angel, removed the relics
about AD345, shortly before the Emperor Constantine took the rest
of Saint Andrew’s remains to Constantinople. Regulus sailed northwards
and founded a church where his ship was wrecked, on the Fife coast.
Coincidentally Saint Andrew appeared in a vision to the Pictish
king ('Onuist', sometimes referred to as 'Hungus' or 'Angus') at
that time, who was about to fight a major battle against the Saxon
king (Athelstan), and promised the Picts victory. The grateful king
welcomed Regulus and the relics and endowed the fledgling church
with the lands around the bay where the saint had landed. The dating
of the Regulus legend is problematical, as the above-mentioned kings
reigned in the 8th or 9th centuries, not the 4th.
A political legend?
The promotion of the Regulus legend by Scottish
kings, nobles and churchmen from the 12th century onwards was politically
inspired. Scottish independence had come under threat from England
since the late 11th century, and the Scottish Church was contesting
a claim to primacy by the archbishop of York. In the medieval world
precedence was important, and by successfully promulgating the story
of Saint Andrew’s choice of Scotland in the 4th century, the Scots
acquired a top-rank patron saint, a separate identity from England,
and a date for the supposed foundation of the Scottish Church, predating
the conversion of England and Ireland to Christianity by several
centuries. This medieval ‘spin-doctoring’ was successful in that
it helped persuade the papacy to recognise the independence of Scotland
(and the Scottish Church). In a bull of Pope Boniface VIII, addressed
to King Edward I of England, 27 June 1299, the pope demands that
Edward end the war against Scotland, as it is a land which belongs
to the church of Rome, and is not dependent on England - a significant
and much-argued point at the time. Included is the sentence: "[Edward]
may know how the realm itself [Scotland] was converted, and won
to the unity of the Christian faith, by the venerable relics of
the blessed Apostle Andrew, with a great outpouring of the divine
The Regulus myth was incorporated into the
national history by medieval historians of Scotland, such as Walter
Bower, in his 15th century Scotichronicon. Bower also claimed that
Robert the Bruce called on St Andrew’s aid at the Battle of Bannockburn.
According to Bower, Bruce, in his rallying speech to the Scottish
troops on the morning of the battle, promised that, with Christ
as the commander, St Andrew and the martyr St Thomas would fight
with the saints of Scotland to achieve victory. Even before this,
the image of St Andrew had come to symbolise Scotland. In 1286,
when Scotland was ruled by the Guardians of Scotland in the absence
of a king, the saint was depicted on the Guardians’ seal, used to
authenticate their legal documents and communications to the rest
of Europe. The seal included the inscription: "Andrea Scotis dux
esto compatriotis" (Andrew be leader of the compatriot Scots). One
such sealed document, a precept dated 1292, survives in the National
Archives of Scotland. It features the cross of St Andrew, leaving
us one of the earliest depictions of the now familiar symbol. It
should come as no surprise therefore that reference is made to St
Andrew in the most famous claim to Scottish self-determination and
what is probably our greatest documentary treasure: the letter of
the Barons of Scotland to Pope John XXII, dated April 1320, popularly
known as the Declaration of Arbroath.
Imagery of St Andrew
Typically the saint is depicted as an old
man with a long beard, holding a book and standing before his cross.
From the 14th century until the 17th century the Scottish crown
minted gold coins, which had an image of St Andrew on the cross.
A later coin minted by James V was called a ‘St Andrew’. In the
15th century there was 'revival' of St Andrew as royal saint. James
III (1460-88) founded the chivalric Order of St Andrew (St Andrew
was also the patron saint of Duke of Burgundy's Order of the Golden
Fleece, from the early-15th century). St Andrew was also to become
the patron saint of the Order of the Thistle, the highest honour
bestowed by the monarch in Scotland from 1687 until the present
day. On the breast star of the Order, instituted by George I in
1714, a silver saltire, with a pointed ray between each of the arms
of the cross, surrounds a gold medallion containing a representation
of the thistle. In the 19th century the figure of St Andrew and
the saltire proliferated in public sculpture and architectural decoration
(the saint was particularly popular with Scottish financial institutions,
it seems). For further details of the imagery on seals and sculpture
see the FAQs opposite.
were pilgrimages and relics so important to St Andrews?
does the Declaration of Arbroath say about St Andrew?
does the saltire (St Andrew's Cross) come from?
did St Andrew begin appearing on seals?
sculptures of St Andrew survive?
St Andrew on the seal of St Andrews burgh.
Archives of Scotland
Monuments and Sculpture Association
D E R Watt & others (e.d), Scotichronichon
by Walter Bower (Aberdeen, 1991)
D M McRoberts, ‘The Glorious House of St Andrews’ in McRoberts (ed.),
The Medieval Church of St Andrews (Glasgow, 1976)
Marinell Ash and Dauvit Broun, ‘The adoption of St Andrew as patron
saint of Scotland’, in John Higgitt (ed.), Medieval Art and Architecture
in the Diocese of St Andrews (1994)
Francis H Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (New edition,1896)
G W S Barrow, Robert the Bruce (2nd edition, Edinburgh, 1976)
National Museums of Scotland, Angels, Nobles and Unicorns: art
and patronage in medieval Scotland (1982)
Ray McKenzie, Public Sculpture of Glasgow (Liverpool, 2002)
St Andrew on the seal of the Guardians of
Alan Borthwick, Robin Urquhart (both SCAN),
George MacKenzie, Alison Lindsay (both National Archives of Scotland),
Dauvit Broun (University of Glasgow). SCAN is grateful for help
received from the Public Monuments and Sculpture Association (PMSA),