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St.
Andrews Factsheet (II)
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 St
Rules Catherdral
In the late 11th century the first cathedral
was built at St Andrews. It was called St
Rules, after a Greek monk called Regulus (Rules
in English), who, according to legend, brought
St Andrew's relics to Scotland from Constantinople.
With it’s tall square tower, the cathedral
was a beacon of light to weary pilgrims who
travelled from near and far to visit the building
and its saintly contents - believing that
such a journey would ease their journey to
heaven when the time came.
It was extensively funded by Queen Margaret - later Saint Margaret.
She provided a jewelled cross for the high altar, where pilgrims
would have seen the Mòr Breac - the portable reliquary
of St Andrew - which contained part of his relics - three fingers
of the right hand, a knee cap, an arm bone and a tooth.
Some historians have argued that the relics
were 11th century propaganda - an initiative
of the great church reformer, Queen Margaret,
who wanted promote a new, more orthodox saint
for Scotland, over the Celtic christianity
inherent in the cult of St Columba. However,
Margaret gave her patronage to St. Columba
too and the Church was staffed by a Columban
order, the Céli Dé, or Culdees,
(Servants of God) - a Columban order from
Ireland. Also, it wasn’t Queen Margaret
who brought the reformed monastic orders to
St Andrews, but her son, King Alexander I
(1107-1124). He introduced Augustinian monks
in 1123 and enlarged St Rules to accommodate
more pilgrims.
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The
Great Cathedral
 For
the kings of medieval Scotland, to promote
St Andrew was to promote Scotland within European
Christendom. King David I, appealed for the
Bishop of St Andrews to be elevated to the
Archbishop of Scotland.
The massive Cathedral, which began construction
in 1160, was the largest in Scotland and
was designed to be larger than York or
Canterbury - who both laid claim to jurisdiction
over the Scottish Church. It took over
150 years to build the Cathedral. The
east end of the cathedral was complete
with a new high altar and reliquary in
1230, yet even then the rest of the building
wasn’t completed until 1318, when
King Robert Bruce attended the consecration
ceremony.
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The Pilgrim Experience
The crowds of pilgrims would have entered the cathedral through
the north door then progressed around a one-way-system to St Andrew
relics. Inside, the cathedral would have been filled with shrines,
lit by hundreds of candles, with the smell of incense floating
through the nave, illuminated in a rainbow of colours from huge
stained glass windows. The cathedral would have been a riot of
colour, with hundreds of brightly painted, carved effigies of
the saints, with St Andrew at the highpoint of the devotion. At
the east end of the building, the pilgrims, already filled with
awe, would encounter the casse - a jewelled box - where the bones
of St Andrew lay.
This was the holiest spot in Scotland until 1559, when an army
of the Protestant reformers smashed the shrine and destroyed the
relics - branding treasures 'idolatrie' - which, of course, they
were. However, worship of idols was central to the cult of saints
- a form of worship which brought people closer to their God.
St Andrews was a major pilgrimage centre from
at least the 10th century. Across Fife and
eastern Scotland an infrastructure of hostels,
inns, roads, bridges and crossings at the
rivers Forth and Tay serviced these medieval
tourists.
Today, St
Andrew has returned to Scotland, or part of him at least. One
of his relics can be seen in St James’ Church in the town
of St Andrews and two more in St Mary’s Cathedral, Leith
Walk, Edinburgh. The pilgrims have returned too, still inspired
by, or merely curious about, the great saint.
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