Chapter 9 - Picking Over the Bones
The destruction of the cult and the cathedral did not destroy Andrew's status as patron saint of Scotland, but it resulted in profound changes in the way in which ordinary people viewed St Andrew. There was a steady evolution from piety to patriotism, from the veneration of bones to a more social and convivial use of Andrew.
In patriotic terms, for his role in securing victory at Athelstaneford, Andrew was now part of the national flag of Scotland. He also became patron of the Order of the Thistle, the ancient order of chivalry which ranks as one of the highest in the world. Founded in its present form by James V in 1540, it was revived by James VII and II in 1687, then by Queen Anne in 1703 and is now limited to sixteen peers plus royal princes. It was paralleled in Russia by the Order of Chivalry created by the Tsars which features a white X cross on blue background, also the flag of the Imperial Russian Navy.
When Scots emigrated throughout the British Empire they took their patron saint with them and founded St Andrew's societies, which began as charitable bodies for poor relief but which today fulfil a more cultural and social role. The oldest is possibly Boston (1657); then Philadelphia (1749); New York State (1756) and Baltimore (1806). The Canadian St Andrew's societies at Montreal and Toronto were founded in 1835 and 1836.
St Andrews is now the Royal and Ancient Burgh, the Auld Grey Toun, the capital of golf or the Red Gown University, depending on your priorities. It is no longer the hub of religious activity in Scotland. Even the bishops of St Andrews and there are two - no longer live there. When the Roman Catholic hierarchy was restored in 1874 the more practical place of residence for the Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh was in the latter. The Bishop of St Andrews in the Scottish Episcopal Church (who combines Dunkeld and Dunblane in his title) lives in Perth. (One of his predecessors during the Covenanter period, Archbishop Sharp, was murdered on his way through Fife, but there is no reason to suppose the change of venue has anything to do with this fact.)
Churches dedicated to St Andrew in Scotland are scarcer than one might have expected. There are Roman Catholic cathedrals dedicated to St Andrew in Glasgow and Dundee, but fewer than fifty Church of Scotland parishes out of 1,400 have the national saint in their title. Many of these are not pre-Reformation parishes, and they tend to cluster in the central and southern parts. The northern isles and north-west Scotland possess scarcely any.
One cluster of commemorations to Andrew within the Presbyterian Church of Scotland is in the part of Scotland that was once Northumbrian: Dirleton, Gullane, Melville (Lasswade), Peebles and Eccles. Lothian was a staging post in the pilgrimage route to St Andrews and in Kirk Green, North Berwick, a mould was found for the manufacture of pilgrim badges. The pilgrims passing this way did not need to go further west along the Forth to the Queensferry (set up by Queen Margaret) but could cross by ferry to Fife, landing at Earlsferry.
As I write this in south-west France, a jet has just passed overhead in the cloudless blue sky on its way to Toulouse. Its vapour trail intersects with another which passed towards Barcelona half an hour ago. Together they form a perfect `St Andrew' cross - a white X on a royal-blue background. I am not suggesting this is an omen, more a parable. It illustrates how the world has changed since the time of Andrew. His fellow fishermen would never have dreamt of jet aircraft - to them the silver metal bird would have seemed supernatural. The difficulty that they would have in coming to terms with our world is paralleled with the difficulty we have in coming to terms with theirs. The miracle legends of the Acts of Andrew seem hard to swallow today. We prefer natural explanations for signs in the sky, such as vapour trails or cloud formations, to divine intervention. We prefer saints who fight for political justice or feed the hungry, and thus some saints have gone out of fashion. Yet Andrew has not. One reason is that he has proved to be a man for all seasons, reinvented as occasion has demanded.
Looking back on the stages in the life (or lives) of Andrew covered by this book, I would summarise them as follows:
Not all the eight lives were legitimately connected with Andrew, but they have become inseparable from his name.
That is not to debase him from a place of honour in the Christian Church. Whether or not he visited a place, whether or not they were actually his bones that were being venerated, whether or not he actually performed some of the Acts which were attributed to him matters in one sense, but it does not matter in another.
It matters for the sake of intellectual integrity, historical accuracy and sheer curiosity. On the other hand, as long as we remain honest about what is actually known, if we use legends and symbols and relics to promote faith which is grounded in reality, then it ceases to matter whether the details of the legend are factual or not. I am relaxed about the legends of Andrew. I neither want to expurgate them nor swallow them whole.
In the Daily Telegraph's `Meditation' of 20 January 1996, the Rev. Dr Denis Duncan calls Andrew an `encourager'. Expanding on the incidents in John's Gospel in which he brings the inquisitive Greeks to Jesus and is the first to respond among ' his fellow fishermen, Dr Duncan puts Andrew's ability to encourage others to find faith as the prime quality for which he `so simply yet profoundly stands'.
To be an encourager, or enabler, requires humility in order to undertake the search for faith with someone in a way which does not imply we already know it all. It also requires a strength of faith of our own if we are to guide people through confusion and not simply get lost ourselves. Those qualities of humility and strength taken together are what comes through all the different lives of Andrew.
The signatories of the 1320 Arbroath Declaration of Independence men of the sword ready to fight to the death - recognised them as important when they brought the `gentle Andrew' into their plea.
There is another life which Andrew is living in our own times. Andrew's ninth life is to symbolise the quality of enabling and encouraging others and is still relevant today. We could no doubt reinvent Andrew the fisherman as the patron saint of our seas, which are threatened with pollution and are over-fished. Topical, relevant and legitimate as that would be, it would limit him to our own age. Better still to see him as a timeless symbol - the fisherman whose rod is the proclamation of the Gospel, whose hook is the strength of faith and whose line is the memory of what happened in Galilee at the time of Christ. That analogy is not mine but belongs to St John Chrysostom (Greek for `Goldenmouth') in a homily on Andrew. He asks the rhetorical question `Do dead fishermen catch live people?' Andrew might be an enigma but he retains the ability to catch the imagination of people around the world, to encourage and enable them to experience the Christian faith. In that sense, he is not dead, simply enjoying yet another life.