ST ANDREW'S CROSS
...s VII of Scotland in 1687. As an individual St. Andrew was thought to have been a fisherman in Galilee (now part of Israel), along with his older brother Simon Peter (Saint Peter). Both became apostles of Jesus. St. Andrew is said to have been responsible for spreading the tenets of the Christian religion though Asia Minor and Greece. Historians theorize that St. Andrew was put to death by the Romans in Patras, Southern Greece by crucified at a cross as Jesus was. The diagonal shape of this cross is said to be the basis for the Cross of St. Andrew which appears on the Scottish Flag. St. Andrews bones were entombed, and around 300 years later were moved by Emperor Constantine (the Great) to his new capital Constantinople (now Istambul in Turkey). Not sure if its folklore or true history but heres the nuts of bolts of the story………… a Greek Monk (although others describe him as an Irish assistant of St. Columba) called St. Rule (or St. Regulus) was warned in a dream that St. Andrews remains were to be moved and was directed by an angel to take those of the remains which he could to the "ends of the earth" for safe-keeping. St. Rule dutifully followed these directions, removing a tooth, an arm bone, a kneecap and some fingers from St. Andrew's tomb and transporting these as far away as he could. Scotland was close to the extremities of the know world at that time and it was here that St. Rule was shipwrecked with his precious cargo. St. Rule is said to have come ashore at a Pictish settlement on the Ea...