Andrew is said to have been the brother of (saint) Peter and Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland; His white satire cross on a blue background is used as the national flag of Scotland and represented on the British union flag.
Andrew was thought to have been a fisherman in Galilee, who along with his brother Simon, became followers of Jesus, the Nazarene.
Andrew is said to have spread the tenets of the Nazerenre’s religion – which would become known as Christianity after the Romans declared him the prophesied Christ Messiah at the Council of Nicaea in the year we record as 400AD.
Andrew is said to have spread this new religion throughout Asia minor and Greece.
Tradition suggests Andrew was put to death by the Romans – who were still pantheist at this time – in Patras, Southern Greece, pinned to a cross: crucified.
After death Andrews bones are said to have been entombed and around 300 years later, as the Roman Emperor Constantine began creating a universal Roman identity throughout Rome’s empire, the Emperor Constantine moved them to his new capital – the New Rome in the East – called Constantinople.
Legend suggests a Greek monk called Saint Rule, or Saint Regulus, was warned in a dream that Andrews remains must be moved to ‘the ends of the earth.’ He supposedly set sail with several of Andrews bones – which at the time Britannia was considered to be nearest to in the known – flat – world of that time.
A portion of Andrews bones were then, supposedly, removed for transportation to ‘the ends of the earth.’
The monk was supposedly shipwrecked with his precious cargo and was said to have come ashore at a Pict settlement on the East coast of Scotland, which later became known as Saint Andrews.
Another – more plausible – account for the Scottish identity with Andrew is that Acca, the Bishop of Hexham, who was apparently a renowned collector of relics, brought the relics/bones to St. Andrews in the year we record now as 733AD
Whichever account is true the relics were placed in a specially constructed chapel, which would be replaced by the Cathedral of St. Andrews in the year we record as 1160AD.
In more, relatively, recent times Gordon Gray, the head of the Roman Catholic church in Scotland, was in Rome, during 1969, to be appointed as the first Scottish Cardinal since the reformation. Pope Paul VI gave him more relics of Saint Andrew with the words, “Saint Peter gives you his brother.”
universal journey 