Dedication
For Larisa
Foreword
Noah's Ark, the Ark of the Covenant, the Holy Grail are all religious artifacts that have caught the imagination. They have inspired treasure hunts and myth-making on a grand scale. Less famous and less influential in historical terms, but no less fascinating as a religious mystery, are the bones of St Andrew.
This book sets out to put flesh on the bones and to rediscover the man who was selected by Jesus to be his first disciple but who finds little place in the Gospels. It traces the legends that give Andrew a special role in the development of the Orthodox Church in both Russia and Greece, the special veneration he enjoyed in Roman Catholicism as Peter's elder brother and his adoption as the patron saint of Scotland.
To follow the travels of Andrew (and his bones in later centuries) is to take a pilgrimage through Christian history and to gain a fascinating insight into the way in which different nations reacted to the message of Christianity. New life was breathed into the bones - and a new Andrew created in the image of each nation. Finding the truth behind the diversity of images and icons is a mystery worthy of Indiana Jones and will hopefully prove as entertaining as his adventures.
Modern research and scholarship have unearthed much that is new about the Bible. The legends of Andrew have been no exception to this process, and I am grateful for the works by Peterson and Dvornik listed in the bibliography as well as for the more recent work done by Ursula Hall.
I also made use of the University of Glasgow Library and would like to express my gratitude to the Very Rev. Professor Robert Davidson, formerly of the Chair of Biblical Criticism at Glasgow, for his helpful comments on my typescript.
I could not have managed to cope with the sources for the chapter on Russia without the assistance of my wife Larisa. My gratitude is also due to Judith Longman, who happily and helpfully embraced the project on arriving at Hodder.
Finally, I want to single out my agent, Andrew Hewson of John Johnson, who as well as being an old St Andrean friend he has the special privilege of being an Andrew.
S.J.L. July 1996