Happy St Andrews Day

I have a Scottish relative I have not seen since I was a child. She may even be a gran on here for all I know. If your mother's christian name was Elizabeth (Betty) and your maternal grandfather's name was Stanley and you have lived in Bonnyrigg and Glasgow then we are related.

Message deleted by Gransnet.

Thank you Granny23. Of course he is also the patron saint of all sorts of other places, but I expect he can manage even if his toes are scattered across the world. Isn't it interesting how holy men support battles?

They have got Scottish emoticons over on Mumsnet.

Just thought you should know.

Should that be the Sea of Galilee rather than the Black Sea. And St Blaze was the patron of sore throats? Just asking?

Poor man - he must be in bits!

Sorry that should be 'one of his feet'!

I believe his foot ended up in Kefalonia.

Coincidently, I have this answer to hand, having been asked the same question by DGD, who needed the answer for school. I did know some of this but thought I would get the full story for her.

1. Andrew was a Galilean fisherman working in the Black Sea before he and his brother Simon Peter became disciples of Jesus Christ.
2. He was crucified by the Romans on an X-shaped cross at Patras in Greece and, hundreds of years later, his remains were moved to Constantinople and then, in the 13th century, to Amalfi in southern Italy where they are kept to this day.
3. Legend has it that a Greek monk known as St Rule or St Regulus was ordered in a vision to take a few relics of Andrew to the ‘ends of the earth’ for safe keeping. He set off on a sea journey to eventually come ashore on the coast of Fife at a settlement which is now the modern town of St Andrews.
4. In 832 AD Andrew is said to have appeared in a vision to a Pictish king the night before a battle against the Northumbrians in what is now the village of Athelstaneford in East Lothian. On the day of the battle a Saltire, an X-shaped cross, appeared in the sky above the battlefield and the Picts were victorious.
5. The Saltire, or Saint Andrew’s Cross, was subsequently adopted as the national emblem and flag of the Scots.
6. Andrew was first recognised as an official patron saint of Scotland in 1320 at the signing of the Declaration of Arbroath an appeal to the Pope by Scottish noblemen asserting Scotland’s independence from England.
7. The presence of Andrew’s relics in Scotland – a tooth, a kneecap, arm and finger bones – meant that St Andrews became a popular medieval pilgrimage site although they were destroyed in the 16th century during the Scottish Reformation.
8. In 1879 the Archbishop of Amalfi gifted Andrew’s shoulder blade to St Mary’s Cathedral in Edinburgh. Pope Paul VI donated further relics in 1969.
9. Andrew is also the patron saint of Greece, Russia, Romania, and Barbados.
10. His patronage extends to fishmongers, gout, singers, sore throats, spinsters, maidens, old maids and women wishing to become mothers.

Have a happy day Scottish grannies. Why is St Andrew the patron saint of Scotland?

Absolutely beautiful, freezing cold day here today and a St Andrews Cross in the blue sky (thanks jets). We are off to Phil and Aly's St Andrew's Party with the SNO and Scottish Youth Pipe Band + surprise guests at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow tonight. DH got two tickets for his birthday on 26th and I am to be his accompanying adult - hooray. We've been before so know it will be wonderful.

Happy St Andrews Day to all, especially St. Andreans (you know who you are.) I met DH in that august place in our first year, 1966- next weekend will be our anniversary. Seconding annodomini's sentiments !

Happy St Andrews Day to all you lovely Scottish Gransnetters

Thanks Baubles. That set my toes tapping and made me feel quite homesick - even now when I've been in England for 42 years!
To complete the toast:
Here's tae us, wha's like us? Dam' few and they're a' deid!
So here's to all us Scots grans, home and away; and to all our Sassenach friends too, since I'm feeling generous.

Good birthday present.

I met my husband on St Andrews Day nineteen years ago at a ceilidh

Happy St Andrews Day to you all