St Andrew: Patron Saint of Scotland
But the connection is extremely tenuous!
30th November is St Andrew’s Day, and is therefore a special day in Scotland of which St Andrew in the patron saint. The X-shaped St Andrew’s Cross forms the national flag of Scotland and is therefore an essential element of the union flag of the United Kingdom.
Andrew was one of the original twelve disciples. The gospel writers have somewhat different accounts of how the disciples were called, although the stories in Mark and Matthew are quite similar in describing how Andrew and Simon were brothers and fishermen who were invited by Jesus to become “fishers of men”.
Luke makes no mention of Andrew being a fisherman and neither does John, although they both state that he was Simon’s brother. According to John, Andrew was the very first disciple, having previously been a follower of John the Baptist. It was Andrew who then went to Simon to announce that he had found the Messiah.
Andrew does not feature a great deal in the gospel story, but he is mentioned as the disciple who finds the boy with the loaves and fishes in the story of the feeding of the five thousand, although this detail only occurs in John’s gospel.
Andrew is also mentioned (in Acts) as being in the upper room in Jerusalem when the disciples were…
