The amazing 1,700-year-old story of Scotland’s Saltire and why it should be a flag for all
Scotland should do more to celebrate St Andrew’s Day and ensure the Saltire is a flag for everyone, not just nationalists or anti-immigration protesters
Scotland’s Saltire flag – bearing the cross of St Andrew – has never been flown so proudly as it was last week when the Scottish football team secured a place at next year’s World Cup, and did so in some style at Hampden Park. I’m old enough to remember when Scotland regularly qualified for the World Cup, but it was something my own children had never experienced, and for them it will be a truly exciting occasion.
It is right that such achievements can unite us in national pride, with the Saltire as a symbol of that unity. Sadly, that has not always been the case. During 2014 independence referendum debate, we saw our flag hijacked for political purposes, as one side of the constitutional debate tried to claim it exclusively for themselves.
More recently, the Saltire has been politicised in a different way, appearing on lampposts across Scotland apparently as a symbol of opposition to immigration. Even in central Edinburgh, we’ve seen the appearance of joint Scotland-Palestine flags on lampposts, a new twist on the use of our national flag to send a political message.
The first apostle
With St Andrew’s Day approaching, it seems timely to ask who exactly St Andrew was, and what are the origins of his flag? I suspect many who wave it have little understanding of its true meaning.
Before Andrew was Scotland’s patron saint, he was a fisherman from Galilee who, according to the Gospels, was the first apostle called by Jesus Christ. He was the brother of Simon Peter whom Catholics celebrate as the first Pope.
Like all the apostles bar St John, Andrew was eventually martyred, in his case in Patras in modern-day Greece. He was condemned to be crucified but, believing he was unworthy of dying in the same manner as his Lord, asked to be tied instead to an X-shaped cross, which became his symbol.
That is the shape which appears on Scotland’s national flag – the white cross against a blue background. I wonder how many of those who wave the Saltire today realise it is a symbol of execution, like a hangman’s noose or headsman’s axe.
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The founder of St Andrews
So how did this Galilean fisherman who died in Greece end up as the patron saint of Scotland? Legend tells us that a 4th-century monk named St Rule, or St Regulus, had a vision in which he was told to take the bones of St Andrew from Patras and carry them as far west as he could travel. He found himself eventually on the east coast of Fife, where he built a church and founded what would become the town of St Andrews.
That town grew into one of medieval Europe’s great pilgrimage sites, with visitors coming from all over Scotland, and far beyond, to venerate the relics of the apostle. The grand St Andrew’s Cathedral, now in ruins, and once the largest church in Scotland, was built to honour the saint whose remains were said to rest there.
Fast forward to 834 AD and King Angus II of Scotland is facing a battle with the Angles at Athelstaneford in East Lothian. Praying for divine help, he sees a white cross appearing in the blue sky above his army and takes it as a sign of encouragement. When the Scots are victorious, the grateful King declares Andrew the patron saint of Scotland, and the white cross on blue becomes the national symbol.
Not forgotten during Reformation
In the subsequent centuries, Andrew’s importance grew with his image appearing everywhere, from cathedrals to coins. By the 15th century, the Bishop of St Andrews had been elevated to Archbishop by the Pope, and the town continued to draw pilgrims in great numbers.
Even the Reformation didn’t change Andrew’s significance fundamentally. In 1559, following a fiery sermon preached by John Knox at Holy Trinity Church, St Andrews, the Protestant mob stormed the cathedral, stripping altars, smashing images and removing decorations. At that point the relics of St Andrew disappeared from history and their fate remains unknown to this day, whilst the redundant and ruined cathedral remains as a monument to Presbyterianism and the power of the Reformation.
But St Andrew’s importance to Scotland was not forgotten. Even the Protestant Reformers appropriated him as the nation’s patron saint to articulate a distinct national and political identity, crucial in the era of the Bishops’ Wars and the struggle against Oliver Cromwell.
Andrew’s symbolic role continued through the Union of 1707, with Article One of the Treaty of Union stipulating the creation of a new flag combining the crosses of St George and St Andrew, with neither to be given precedence. The flag of the Union ensured that Scotland’s identity and Andrew’s legacy were woven into the fabric of the new country established at that point.
Celebrating Scotland’s national day
Today St Andrew’s Day is marked more often by Scots overseas than at home. I can recall years ago attending the St Andrew’s Day Ball in Toronto, where the Scots diaspora gathered in large numbers to celebrate their connections with their home country. Despite efforts in recent years to elevate the status of St Andrew's Day here, it is fair to say that take-up has been slow.
And, to me, that is a shame. One does not have to be either religious, or a nationalist, to recognise the significance of St Andrew as a figure prominent in Scottish history and tradition, and it would be good to see our national day have greater resonance than it currently has.
As part of that, we should ensure that our national flag – bearing the cross on which St Andrew was crucified – becomes once again a symbol for all and not weaponised for partisan purposes.
Murdo Fraser is a Scottish Conservative MSP for Mid-Scotland and Fife
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