St. Andrew's Day

Today is St. Andrew's Day. Or, more particularly, the National Day of Scotland. How did St. Andrew come to be linked with Scotland I hear you ask? Wikipedia knows:

About the middle of the tenth century, Andrew became the patron saint of Scotland. Several legends state that the relics of Andrew were brought under supernatural guidance from Constantinople to the place where the modern town of St. Andrews stands today (Pictish, Muckross; Gaelic, Cill Rìmhinn).

The Saltire (or "St. Andrew's Cross") is the national flag of Scotland.

The oldest surviving manuscripts linking St. Andrew to Scotland are two: one is among the manuscripts collected by Jean-Baptiste Colbert and willed to Louis XIV, now in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; the other is the Harleian Mss in the British Library, London. They state that the relics of Andrew were brought by one Regulus to the Pictish king Óengus mac Fergusa (729–761). The only historical Regulus (Riagail or Rule) — the name is preserved by the tower of St. Rule — was an Irish monk expelled from Ireland with Saint Columba.

There are good reasons for supposing that the relics were originally in the collection of Acca, bishop of Hexham, who took them into Pictish country when he was driven from Hexham (c. 732), and founded a see, not, according to tradition, in Galloway, but on the site of St. Andrews.

Another legend says that in the late eighth century, during a joint battle with the English, King Ungus (either the Óengus mac Fergusa mentioned previously or Óengus II of the Picts (820–834)) saw a cloud shaped like a saltire, and declared Andrew was watching over them, and if they won by his grace, then he would be their patron saint. However, there is evidence Andrew was venerated in Scotland before this.

Andrew's connection with Scotland may have been reinforced following the Synod of Whitby, when the Celtic Church felt that Columba had been "outranked" by Peter and that Peter's older brother would make a higher ranking patron. The 1320 Declaration of Arbroath cites Scotland's conversion to Christianity by Saint Andrew, "the first to be an Apostle".

Of all these stories, the most likely is the St. Columba version. As you are all no doubt aware, I have spent some considerable time both at Iona and researching its links to St. Andrew. Modestly, I can say that I am Hamilton's foremost authority on St. Andrew's links to Iona.

I have never told this story to anyone, but it seems fitting to share it now. When last on Iona, I was admiring the lovely scenery on the western shore while Beth was practicing her best person speech. As I moved further away, I began to pick up flat stones to skip across the water. As I tripped over a branch, skinned my knee and was angrily shaking my fist at the ground, I noticed a strange shape resting there. As I approached, it appeared to be metallic. I picked it up and it was indeed rusted metal in the shape of a cross. The front had designs carved into it, the back had one word - Aindreas - Gaelic for Andrew.

When Beth and I were last in London, I took the cross to be carbon dated at the British Museum. It takes approximately six weeks for the results to come back. They came back today - the cross was manufactured between 560 and 600 AD. These dates coincide nicely with the life of ... you guessed it ... St. Columba. You can see the cross now on display in Room 22 of the British Museum in the same room as those Sutton Hoo thingys.