![[Saint Andrew the Apostle stained glass]](sta12007.jpg "35kb jpg photograph of Saint Andrew the Apostle stained glass window; artist unknown; from Immaculate Conception Church, Earlington, KY; thanks Father Martin")
Andreas the Apostle Endres the Apostle
Some peculiar marriage-related superstitions have attached themselves to Saint Andrew's feast day.
- An old German tradition says that single women who wish to marry should ask for Saint Andrew's help on the Eve of his feast, then sleep naked that night; they will see their future husbands in their dreams.
- Another says that young women should note the location of barking dogs on Saint Andrew's Eve: their future husbands will come from that direction.
- On the day after Andrew's feast, young people float cups in a tub; if a boy's and a girl's cup drift together and are intercepted by a cup inscribed "priest", it indicates marriage.
There are several explanations for why Andrew became the patron of Scotland.
- In 345, Emperor Constantine the Great decided to translate Andrew's bones from Patras to Constantinople. Saint Regulus was instructed by an angel to take many of these relics to the far northwest. He was eventally told to stop on the Fife coast of Scotland, where he founded the settlement of Saint Andrew.
- In the 7th century, Saint Wilfrid brought some of the saint's relics with him after a pilgrimage to Rome. The Scots king, Angus MacFergus, installed them at Saint Andrew's to enhance the prestige of the new diocese.
- When the Pictish King Angus faced a large invading army, he prayed for guidance. A white cloud in the form of a saltire cross floated across the blue sky above him. Angus won a decisive victory, and decreed that Andrew would be the patron saint of his country. Following Robert Bruce's victory at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, the Declaration of Arbroath officially named Saint Andrew the patron saint of Scotland. The Saltire became the national flag of Scotland in 1385.
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fish fishing net man bound to a cross man preaching from a cross old man with long white hair and a beard, holding the Gospel in his right hand, and leaning on a transverse cross preacher holding some fish Saint Andrew's cross saltire (x-shaped) cross
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Catholic Encyclopedia Catholic Online For All The Saints, by Katherine Rabenstein Goffine's Devout Instructions Golden Legend, by Jacobus de Voragine Google Directory New Catholic Dictionary Vikipedio esperanto Book of Saints, by the Monks of Ramsgate Nutall Encyclopedia Our Sunday Visitor's Encyclopedia of Saints, by Matthew Bunson, Margaret Bunson, and Stephen Bunsonfrom a homily on the Gospel of John by Saint John Chrysostom