According to legend, some time during the 4th century an Angel visited a Greek monk named Rule, the custodian of the bones of the apostle St. Andrew. The Angel commanded Rule to carry five of the saint’s bones to the edge of the western world, where he was to build a city in his honor.
Rule set off from his home in Patras in southern Greece, carrying three of the apostle’s fingers, the upper bone of an arm, one kneecap, and one of his teeth. As luck would have it, Rule never made it to the edge of the western world – he was shipwrecked in Scotland, just north of the Firth of Forth.
Struggling ashore with his precious cargo, St. Rule built a shrine to the saint in the town known today as St. Andrews. In the process, St. Andrew became the patron saint of Scotland.
