St Andrews, Patras and my relationship with Scotland
St Andrews is the Patron Saint of Scotland and the cross he was crucified on, now called a Saltire, is the single symbol on the Scottish flag. Few people know that he is also the Patron Saint of Russia, of St Petersburgh in Russia but also of the city of Patras (my birthplace), the third-largest city in Greece.
St Andrew’s Day (November 30th) is a public holiday in Patras, and the saint is celebrated on a special liturgy on the day.
The celebrations take place at St Andrew’s Cathedral, the largest church in Greece and one of the largest Byzantine-style churches in the world. The Cathedral, however, is not just special because of its size. It is the place where parts of the remain of the saint and the remains of the Saltire are kept. There are two St Andrew Churches on-site, the “old one” and “the new one”. The site was the place of martyrdom of the Saint, and next to the old one, is a subterranean cave where Andrew used to live, and drink water from a spring that is still providing freshwater to this date.
As the Bible’s New Testament was originally written in Greek, the names and epithets used for the saints, martyrs, the Virgin Mary and the Holy Trinity, were original Greek. Andrew was called later on “Protoklitos” which in Greek means “the first one to be called”. And that is probably the best fit for Andrew, as he was the first to be asked by Jesus to follow him: He was the first Christian in history. Andrew was preaching in Patras and was highly critical of the Governor’s wife. In the end, she made her husband execute Andrew. Before the execution, the Roman Governor spoke with him and apologise for what was about to happen. Andrew asked him of one favour. Crucifixion was a common method of execution in the Roman Empire, but Andrew asked to be crucified on an X-shaped cross because he was not worthy to be on a similar cross as Jesus. The governor granted his last wish. After his death, his remains and the cross were kept by the Christians in Patras until Christianity became the official religion of the territory.
At the time of Emperor Constantine, according to the legend, ana angel told St Regulus (or St Rule), the bishop of Patras, to take as many of the Saint’s bones and the cross to “the end of the world”. This was to keep them safe, as the emperor wanted to move the relics to the new capital of the Eastern Empire, Constantinople.
St Rule started travelling and when he reached almost the end of the known world at the time, he arrived (either shipwrecked or told by an angel to land) at Kilrymont, to a Pictish village that we now know as the town of St Andrews in Fife.
Scottish Kings, the Scottish Church (Catholic) and noblemen helped the story of St Andrew to stand the test of time and become a legend. The story of St Andrews came to become a political tool in Scottish independence and national identity. The choice of St Andrew of Scotland over England in the 4th century gave a historical point of reference to Scots who could now date the foundation of their Christian identity a couple of centuries at least before the English, not by any saint, but of the one was the first to be called, the first Christian.
The Scots used their country’s relationship with St Andrew, to ask for Pope Boniface VIII to interfere in 1299 and condemn the invasion of Scotland by Edward I. The Pope issued a papal bull that condemned the military invasion and asked Edward to start talks with the Scots, something that Edward ignored. The role of St Andrew as the First-Called and as the brother of St Peter was very significant at the time. It helped Scotland shape diplomatic relationships with other Catholic states in Europe. The two brother saints are today considered the source of what is called Apostolic Succession, which refers to the powers and rights of the Pope for the Roman Catholics and the Patriarch of Constantinople for Orthodox Christians.
The town of St Andrews had become the religion capita at some point, and a great cathedral was built to honour the patron saint of the country.
Today only ruins remain where the spectacular cathedral once stood, a victim of the outlawing of Catholic mass; it felt in disuse and was ruined during and after the Scottish Reformation.
St Rule’s Tower (right side of the photo) is however intact today, despite having predated the cathedral.
The importance of St Andrew has been made evident, in historic events from the Declaration of Arbroath and the references to the Saint and Scotland’s conversion to Christianity, to the use of the saltire later on the 15–16th centuries. St Andrew’s Cross (the saltire) is today not only the flag of Scotland but one of the crosses in the Union Flag.
In 2015 the Russian Orthodox Church
Today many people come to dispute the role and significance of the Saltire and St Andrews Day. Many argue that St Andrews day is not part of Scotland’s historical and cultural heritage. I will have to disagree with them.
It was not the Saint himself who came here, but his remains and the cross, and they became probably more powerful symbols in the construction of the Scottish identity than he would probably be if he visited while he was alive.
Scotland and I
When I was a kid I knew about Scotland from a very early age. I read of Rob Roy in the Classics Illustrated, about the Highlands, the beautiful Shetland Ponies in zoology and of course Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster.
I first visited Scotland in January 1996 and stayed at Stirling University where I attended a residential weekend for a course in Entrepreneurship. The first dinner I had in Scotland was Haggis, nips and tatties, and my first night was in a room at what was the Management Centre, with an unobstructed view of the Wallace Monument, which was lit for the occasion of Burn’s Night… and yes … it was snowing.
It was not hard to fall in love with the place. I made Scotland my home, I settled here, built my business, my professional reputation and established new friendships and relationships. Scotland is the place I call home. Greece was my place of birth, but Scotland is my Homeland.
I am happy and consider myself lucky to have moved here, and made this place my home. I do have a sense of destiny, starting my life in one place and continuing it in another, both small countries, both so far away from each other and both with something so beautiful in common.
