The 30th of November is the feast day of St Andrew, the Patron Saint
of Scotland, Russia, Greece and Romania. Here in Scotland’s capital
city, at St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh, an annual St Andrew’s day
church service is held on the Sunday nearest to the feast day of the
saint. Prior to the start of this service, a procession led by the
Knights of the Most Ancient and Most Nobel Order of the Thistle marches
into the Cathedral. On the jewel worn by members, St Andrew dressed in
blue features, holding a white X shaped cross signifying the Saltire
flag of the nation.
Membership of the Order of the Thistle is the highest national honour that a Scot can receive from the Monarch. St Giles Cathedral is the spiritual home of the Order containing as it does the beautiful Thistle Chapel built between 1909 and 1911 in a neo-gothic style by the famous Architect and Freemason Sir Robert Lorimer. The origins of the Order are now lost but it is generally accepted that a revival took place during the reign of James the VII of Scotland and II of England. What we certainly do know however is that St Andrew and the Saltire are to be found at the heart of many Scottish traditions and institutions.
The Scottish Freemason’s, who have a statue of St Andrew adorning their Grand Lodge in Edinburgh, venerate the saint even though it has always been accepted that the Patron Saints of Scottish Masonry are the two Holy St John’s. This aside and in keeping with national tradition, Scottish Freemasons chose St Andrew’s day to found their Grand Lodge in 1736. Nearly 300 years later, the Installation of the Grand Master Mason of the Grand Lodge of Ancient and Accepted Freemasons of Scotland still takes place on the Thursday closest to St Andrew’s day.
Taking these three saints together there does appear to be some interesting connections. St John the Baptist was the herald of Jesus Christ who had amongst his disciples both Andrew and John. John the Evangelist, as he was to become known, became the attributed author of the fourth and most mystical of the gospels. It is this gospel specifically that is adopted by many mystical groups, including the Freemasons, within their ceremonies. According to tradition it was also followers of the disciple John that were said to have first come to Scotland where they gave rise to Celtic Christianity. Apart from the Baptist himself, it was Andrew who first acknowledged Christ as the Messiah (according to John’s Gospel) after which both he and John became disciples of Jesus.
According to the famous Declaration of Arbroath sent to Pope John XXII in 1320 it state that the Scot’s were “almost the first to come to His most holy Faith”. It further state “He would not have them confirmed in the Faith by merely anyone but by the first of His Apostles….. the most gentle Saint Andrew, the Blessed Peter's brother, and desired him to keep them under his protection as their patron forever.” This fascinating document goes on to possibly hint that the Scot’s are in fact remnants of some the lost tribes of Israel! “Most Holy Father and Lord, we know and from the chronicles and books of the ancients we find that among other famous nations our own, the Scots, has been graced with widespread renown. They journeyed from Greater Scythia by way of the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Pillars of Hercules, and dwelt for a long course of time in Spain among the most savage tribes, but nowhere could they be subdued by any race, however barbarous. Thence they came, twelve hundred years after the people of Israel crossed the Red Sea, to their home in the west where they still live today". Scythia is the area around the Steps of Russia where St Andrew was a missionary in the early days of the church.
The ‘Declaration’ was designed to assert Scotland’s position as an Independent Sovereign nation with King Robert Bruce as its head in the aftermath of the War of Independence against England. Another significant message in the document was that if the King were ever to betray the Scot’s they would choose another King. This statement was the first recorded instance in European history of the contractual theory of monarchy. The importance of the freedom of the people, which is explicitly stated within the document, greatly influenced the American Declaration of Independence - written by a number of Freemasons.
The martyrdom of St Andrew took place during the reign of the Roman Emperor Nero on 30 November A.D. 60, where tradition states he was crucified on an X shaped cross. Later the Emperor Constantine, in 312 before the battle of Milvian Bridge had a vision from God in which he was told to mark the first two letters of Christ name in Greek, the Chi Rho, which includes a X, on the shields of his army. The sign appeared in the sky as he heard the words In Hoc Signo Vinces (In this sign you shall conquer). The emblem became known as Labarum and is thought to derive from a Celtic word though the etymology has never been proven. This legend became the basis of Constantine’s conversion to Christianity.
The Scottish legend that establishes St Andrew as its patron Saint makes reference to the Emperor Constantine. It claims that a man called Regulus or Rule was ordered by the Emperor to bring the relics of the saint to Constantinople, the newly created centre of the Eastern Christian Church. On route an angel visited Regulus and commanded him not to travel to Constantinople but to a faraway country at the edge of the world. This land was to become Scotland and the place where the relics were brought is now called St Andrew’s.
The blue and white Saltire flag of Scotland is the oldest standard in the British Commonwealth and it’s origins came about from a legendary account that mirrors the Constantine tale. In this legend the Pictish King Angus joins forces with the Irish Scot’s based in Argyle in an attempt to stop the advancing Northumbrians under King Athelstane from invading the Lowlands. In the year 756 AD, at the place now known as Athelstanford, the combined force beheld a miraculous white cross appear in the blue sky prior to the battle. They took this a divine sign and after their victory adopted the emblem as their standard.
One
of the oldest examples of the Saltire that exists is on an old trade
banner known as the Blue Blanket and is housed in the Trades Maiden
Hospital in Edinburgh. A legendary account states that this was the
first flag to be flown from the walls of Jerusalem after the Crusaders
had taken the Holy city from the Moslems. Historians however do not
accepted this but they do agree that it has been in existence from 1482
when during the reign of James III of Scotland he replaced an older
banner in thanks for the citizens of Edinburgh negotiating his freedom.
As
I write this short article on 30 November, I pour myself a ‘wee dram’
and raise it to St Andrew in thanks for the privileged position I find
myself in. I am, and have been for the last four and a half years, the
current custodian of the Blue Blanket of Edinburgh that bears his
Saltire cross upon its now faded blue background.
Ian Robertson – St Andrew’s day 2008, Edinburgh, Scotland
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