A-Z Of The Church

Concepts of Heritage - The Angels

The Year of St Luke

Video of church renovation & angels

Andrew (d. c.60)

The apostle Andrew is patron saint of Scotland. According to the gospel of Matthew, Andrew and his brother Simon Peter were the very first two disciples whom Jesus called. “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” (Matt 4:18, 19)

Without more ado, they obeyed. “At once they left their nets and followed him.” The story is touching for the simple but total faith which they had in Jesus.

Whenever the gospels mention the disciples, Andrew’s name is always in the first four. Rather than a boisterous leader of men (like Peter), he seems to have been an approachable person who wanted to help people. It was Andrew who helped introduce a group of Greeks to Jesus (John 12:20-2) and Andrew who offered Jesus the five small barley loaves and two small fishes when Jesus challenged them to feed the five thousand. (John 6:8) His faith in Jesus over small things was richly rewarded, and this faithful, kindly Galilean fisherman turned disciple went on to become one of the 12 apostles of the Christian Church.

Andrew never settled back in Capernaum by Galilee. Instead, his ‘fishing for men’ seems to have taken him far. One ancient tradition links him with Greece, where both Scythia and Epirus claimed him as their apostle. Another place in Greece, Patras in Achaia, claimed to be the place where Andrew was eventually martyred.

Like Jesus, he was crucified, but the story goes that during the two days it took him to die, he preached earnestly to the people about Jesus. Andrew was not afraid of death on a cross – he had seen it before, and knew one thing for certain: because of Jesus, there was nothing but eternal life ahead of him.

In the West, Andrew’s feast-day was universal from the 6th century, and hundreds of churches were named after him in Italy, France and England. But how did he end up as patron saint of Scotland?

Well, according to one ancient legend, his relics were taken from Patras to Scotland in the 8th century, and ended up in Fife, where a church dedicated to him was built and became a centre for evangelization and later pilgrimage. As Andrew was the only apostle to make it as far as Scotland, he was chosen as patron saint.

But Andrew did not stay in Scotland. After the fall of Constantinople in 1204, it is said that the Crusaders took his relics to Amalfi. From there the despot Thomas Palaeologus sent his head to the pope in Rome in 1461 – where it became one of the most treasured possessions of St Peters - until it was sent to the church in Constantinople by Paul VI.

In art Andrew is depicted with a normal Latin cross in the most ancient examples. The satires’ cross ‘X’, commonly called St Andrew’s cross, and which represents Scotland on the Union Jack, was associated with him from the 10th century.

The Christmas Thorn of Glastonbury
A legend of ancient Britain

There is a golden Christmas legend and it relates how Joseph of Arimathea -- that good man and just, who laid our Lord in his own sepulchre, was persecuted by Pontius Pilate, and how he fled from Jerusalem carrying with him the Holy Grail hidden beneath a cloth of samite, mystical and white.

For many moons he wandered, leaning on his staff cut from a white thorn bush. He passed over raging seas and dreary wastes; he wandered through trackless forests, climbed rugged mountains, and forded many floods. At last he came to Gaul where the Apostle Philip was preaching the glad tidings to the heathen. And there Joseph abode for a little space.

Now, upon a night while Joseph lay asleep in his hut, he was wakened by a radiant light. And as he gazed with wondering eyes he saw an angel standing by his couch, wrapped in a cloud of incense.

"Joseph of Arimathea," said the angel, "cross thou over into Britain and preach the glad tidings to King Arvigarus. And there, where a Christmas miracle shall come to pass, do thou build the first Christian church in that land."

And while Joseph lay perplexed and wondering in his heart what answer he should make, the angel vanished from his sight.

Then Joseph left his hut and calling the Apostle Philip, gave him the angel's message. And, when morning dawned, Philip sent him on his way, accompanied by eleven chosen followers. To the water's side they went, and embarking in a little ship, they came unto the coasts of Britain.

And they were met there by the heathen who carried them before Arvigarus their king. To him and to his people did Joseph of Arimathea preach the glad tidings; but the king's heart, though moved, was not convinced. Nevertheless she gave to Joseph and his followers Avalon, the happy isle, the isle of the blessed, and he bade them depart straightway and build there an altar to their God.

And a wonderful gift was this same Avalon, sometimes called the Island of Apples, and also known to the people of the land as Ynis-witren, the Isle of Glassy Waters. Beautiful and peaceful was it. Deep it lay in the midst of a green valley, and the balmy breezes fanned its apple orchards, and scattered afar the sweet fragrance of rosy blossoms or ripened fruit. Soft grew the green grass beneath the feet. The smooth waves gently lapped the shore, and water lilies floated on the surface of the tide; while in the blue sky above sailed the fleecy clouds.

And it was on the holy Christmas Eve that Joseph and his companions reached the Isle of Avalon. With them they carried the Holy Grail hidden beneath its cloth of snow-white samite. Heavily they toiled up the steep ascent of the hill called Weary-All. And when they reached the top Joseph thrust his thorn staff into the ground.

And, lo! A miracle! The thorn staff put forth roots, sprouted and budded, and burst into a mass of white and fragrant flowers! And on the spot where the thorn had bloomed, there Joseph built the first Christian church in Britain. And he made it "wattled all round" of osiers, gathered from the water's edge. And in the chapel they placed the Holy Grail.

And so, it is said, ever since at Glastonbury Abbey -- the name by which that Avalon is known today -- on Christmas Eve the white thorn buds and blooms.
JP

(A new film suggests Jesus may have come to Britain, as described in the hymn Jerusalem, its director said. The documentary, And Did Those Feet, explores the story behind the legend which survives in the hymn, for which William Blake wrote the words.

The legend claims Jesus visited several places in the West Country, such as the Roseland peninsula and Glastonbury, with his uncle, Joseph of Arimathaea.

In the film, Scottish researcher Dr Gordon Strachan said it is plausible Jesus may have visited Britain to further his learning.

Ted Harrison, the film's director and producer, said: "There is a very much closer connection between early Christianity and the classical Greek and Roman world than previously thought.

"If somebody was wanting to learn about the spirituality and thinking not just of the Jews but also the classical and Greek world he would have to come to Britain, which was the centre of learning at the time. But there is nothing specific by way of archaeological finds; Jesus's shoe has not turned up."
Dr Strachan, a Church of Scotland minister who lives in Edinburgh, lectures on the history of architecture at Edinburgh University.

The film also explores how St Augustine heard the legend of Jesus's visit when he came to England around 597AD. He heard that Jesus built a chapel in Glastonbury and wrote to the Pope to tell him about it. Mr Harrison said: "The concrete evidence is this reference by St Augustine that at Glastonbury there was a small building or church that was put up by Jesus, built by the hand of the Lord himself. But the medieval Glastonbury Abbey has been built on top of it."

The documentary also claims Britain was at the forefront of learning and scholarship in the first century AD, particularly in mathematics. And it looks at the maths involved in structures such as Stonehenge and the standing stones in Calanish on the Isle of Lewis, and relates it to mathematics in the Bible, medieval cathedrals and the modern-day credit card.

The 45-minute film was launched at the British Film Institute in London in 2009)