Sphenogyne. _Sphenogyne piliflora._
Dedicated to _St. Saturninus_.
~November 30.~
_St. Andrew_, Apostle. _St. Narses_, Bp. and _Companions_. _Sts.
Sapor_ and _Isaac_. Bps. _Mahanes_, _Abraham_, and _Simeon_, A. D.
339.
~St. Andrew.~
PATRON SAINT OF SCOTLAND.
This saint is in the church of England calendar and the almanacs. He was
one of the apostles. It is affirmed that he was put to death in the year
69, at Patræ, in Achaia, by having been scourged, and then fastened with
cords to a cross, in which position he remained “teaching and
instructing the people all the time,” until his death, at the end of two
days. It is the common opinion that the cross of St. Andrew was in the
form of the letter X, styled a cross decussate, composed of two pieces
of timber crossing each other obliquely in the middle. That such crosses
were sometimes used is certain, yet no clear proofs are produced as to
the form of St. Andrew’s cross. A part of what was said to have been
this cross was carried to Brussels, by Philip the Good, duke of
Burgundy, and Brabant, who in honour of it, instituted the knights of
the golden fleece, who, for the badge of their order, wear a figure of
this cross, called St. Andrew’s cross, or the cross of Burgundy. The
Scots honour St. Andrew as principal patron of their country, and their
historians tell us, that a certain abbot called Regulus, brought thither
from Constantinople in 369, certain relics of this apostle, which he
deposited in a church that he built in his honour, with a monastery
called Abernethy, where now the city of St. Andrew stands. Many pilgrims
resorted thither from foreign countries, and the Scottish monks of that
place were the first who were _culdees_. The Muscovites say, he preached
among them, and claim him as the principal titular saint of their
empire. Peter the Great instituted the first order of knighthood under
his name. This is the order of the blue ribbon; the order of the _red_
ribbon, or of St. Alexander Newski, was instituted by his widow and
successor to the throne, the empress Catherine.[398]
* * * * *
Naogeorgus, in the words of his translator Barnaby Googe, says,
To Andrew all the lovers and
the lustie wooers come,
Beleeving through his ayde, and
certaine ceremonies done,
(While as to him they presentes bring,
and conjure all the night,)
To have good lucke, and to obtaine
their chiefe and sweete delight.
* * * * *
In an account of the parish of Easling, in Kent, it is related that, “On
St. Andrew’s day, November 30, there is yearly a diversion called
squirrel-hunting in this and the neighbouring parishes, when the
labourers and lower kind of people, assembling together, form a lawless
rabble, and being accoutred with guns, poles, clubs, and other such
weapons, spend the greatest part of the day in parading through the
woods and grounds, with loud shoutings; and, under the pretence of
demolishing the squirrels, some few of which they kill, they destroy
numbers of hares, pheasants, partridges, and in short whatever comes in
their way, breaking down the hedges, and doing much other mischief, and
in the evening betaking themselves to the alehouses.”[399]
* * * * *
At Dudingston, distant from Edinburgh a little more than a mile, many
opulent citizens resort in the summer months to solace themselves over
one of the ancient homely dishes of Scotland, for which the place has
been long celebrated, singed sheep’s heads boiled or baked. The frequent
use of this solace in that village, is supposed to have arisen from the
practice of slaughtering the sheep fed on the neighbouring hill for the
market, removing the carcases to town, and leaving the head, &c. to be
consumed in the place.[400] Brand adds, that “singed sheep’s heads are
borne in the procession before the Scots in London, on St. Andrew’s
day.”
* * * * *
There is a marvellous pleasant story in the “Golden Legend,” of a bishop
that loved St. Andrew, and worshipped him above all other saints, and
remembered him every day, and said prayers in honour of God and St.
Andrew, insomuch that the devil spitefully determined to do him
mischief. Wherefore, on a certain day, the devil transformed himself “in
to the fourme of a ryght fayre woman,” and came to the bishop’s palace,
and desired in that “fourme” to confess, as women do. When the bishop
was informed of the message, he answered that she should go and confess
herself to his “penytauncer,” who had power from him to hear
confessions. Thereupon she sent the bishop word, that she would not
reveal the secrets of her confession to any but himself; therefore the
bishop commanded her to be brought to him. Whereupon, being in his
presence, she told him, that her father was a mighty king, who had
purposed to give her to a prince in marriage, but that having devoted
herself to piety, she refused, and that her father had constrained her
so much, that she must either have consented to his will, or suffered
divers torments; wherefore she chose to live in exile, and had fled
secretly away to the bishop, of whose holy life she had heard, and with
whom she now prayed to live in secret contemplation, “and eschewe the
evyll perylles of this present lyfe.” Then the bishop marvelled greatly,
as well for the nobility of her descent, as for the beauty of her
person, and said choose thee an house, “and I wyll that thou dyne with
me this daye;” and she answered that evil suspicion might come thereof,
and the splendour of his renown be thereby impaired. To this the bishop
replied, that there would be many others present, therefore there could
be no such suspicion. Then the devil dined with the bishop, who did not
know him, but admired him as a fair lady, to whom therefore the bishop
paid so much attention, that the devil perceived his advantage, and
began to increase in beauty more and more; and more and more the bishop
marvelled at the exceeding loveliness before him, and did homage
thereto, and conceived greater affection than a bishop should. Then a
pilgrim smote at the bishop’s gate, and though he knocked hard they
would not open the door; then the pilgrim at the gate knocked louder,
and the bishop grew less charitable and more polite, and asked the
beautiful creature before him, whether it was her pleasure that the
pilgrim should enter; and she desired that a question should be put to
the pilgrim, which, if he could answer, he should be received, and if he
could not, he should abide without as not worthy to come in. And the
company assented thereto, and the bishop said, none of them were so able
to propose the question as the lady, because in fair speaking and
wisdom, she surpassed them all. Then she required that it should be
demanded of the pilgrim, which is the greatest marvel in the smallest
space that ever God made? And then the bishop’s messenger propounded the
question to the pilgrim, who answered that it was the diversity and
excellence of the faces of men, because from the beginning of the world
there are not two men whose faces “were lyke, and semblanle in all
thynges:” and the company declared that this was a very good answer to
the question. Then she said, that to prove the further knowledge of the
pilgrim, he ought to be asked what thing of the earth is higher than all
the heaven; and the pilgrim answered, the body of Jesus Christ, which is
in the imperial heaven, is of earthly flesh, and is more high than all
the heaven; and by this answer they were again surprised, and
marvellously praised the pilgrim’s wisdom. Then she desired that a third
question might be asked of the pilgrim, which if he could answer, then
he would be worthy to be received at the bishop’s table; and by her
order, the messenger demanded this question of the pilgrim, “What is the
distance from the bottomless pit unto the imperial heaven?” and the
pilgrim answered, “Go to him that sent thee to me, and ask the question
of _him_, for _he_ can better answer it, because he measured this
distance when he fell from heaven into the bottomless pit, and _I_ never
measured it:” and when the messenger heard this, he was sore afraid, and
fearfully told the pilgrim’s message to the bishop and all the others,
who when they heard the same, were also sore afraid. Then forthwith the
devil vanished away from before their eyes; and the bishop repented, and
sent the messenger to bring in the pilgrim, but he could not be found.
So the bishop assembled the people and told them what had happened, and
required them to pray that it might be revealed who this pilgrim was,
that had delivered him from so great peril: and the same night it was
revealed to the bishop, that it was St. Andrew who had put himself into
the habit of a pilgrim for the bishop’s deliverance. “Than began the
bisshop more and more to have devocyon and remembraunce of saynt Andrewe
than he hadde tofore.”
* * * * *