雅思口语素材：St Andrew's Day(圣安德鲁日)_雅思英语口语

雅思口语素材：St Andrew's Day(圣安德鲁日)

　　St Andrews DayNovember 30th

　　St Andrew has been associated with Scotland for more than a millennium. Legend has it that relics of the Apostle, who was crucified in Patras in Greece, were first brought to Scotland as early as theseventh or eighth century.

　　A monk known as St Rule dreamt that St Andrews remains were to be moved from their tomb and on the directions of an angel took them as far away as he could for safe-keeping.

　　After a lengthy voyage St Rule was shipwrecked on the east coast of Scotland at Muckross, in Fife where, with the support of a Pictish king, he is said to have established a church and created the link between St Andrew and Scotland.

　　An alternative explanation is that the relics were brought to St Andrews by the Bishop of Hexham who gave them to the Pictish King Angus. Either way St Andrews became a major religious centre and St Andrews relics were enshrined within a church there. They were later kept within the magnificent confines of the great Cathedral of St Andrews.

　　The link between Scotland and St Andrew is also evident in another legend which offers an explanation of the adoption of the cross of St Andrew as the basis for the Scottish national flag.

　　When St Andrew was martyred he is said to have been crucified on an X-shaped cross as he believed himself unworthy of dying in the same way as Christ.

　　Centuries later just before an important battle St Andrew appeared in a dream to King Angus and told him victory was his. On the day of the battle itself a white X-shaped cross appeared against the blue sky in front of the kings army. Believing they had God and St Andrew on their side the Pictish army was indeed victorious.