Most people, whether or not Scottish, would be able to identify St. Andrew as the patron saint of Scotland, and it is likely that some will know of the history of the Scottish flag, the Saltire, or St Andrew's Cross. I suspect fewer would realise that the "Scottish" St. Andrew was the brother of Simon Peter, and an Apostle of Jesus.

It is from this starting point that Michael Turnbull's book takes us forward to examine in some detail how it was that a fisherman from Bethsaida on the shores of the Sea of Gallilee came to be the Patron Saint of Scotland and Russia and the focus for Scottish traditionalists worldwide.

While it is clear that Andrew the apostle shared in the daily life and ministry of Jesus there is not that much reference to him in the Bible. He appears to have been a practical man who preached in Greece, the Ukraine, Poland and Constantinople.

He is thought to have been crucified at Patras in Greece about 70 AD by being tied to a Y shaped olive tree and left there until he died. The cross - the X shape, came along with tenth century elaboration of his story and the use of the Greek symbol for the first letter of Christ. So the St. Andrew's Cross does not have its origin with the death of the Saint.

What is pointed out, however, is that only the bare bones of St. Andrew's life and character are known, a fact that made him "a particularly suitable vehicle for imaginative theological transformation". Thus over the centuries, St. Andrew has been credited with many miraculous works in many countries which have been sustained by oral traditions and the exaggerations of the story tellers such that

"Andrew had become a folk hero in the mould of Sinbad the Sailor".

It is this idea of St. Andrew, and the cult following that developed around his alleged mystical deeds and the healing powers of his relics that underpinned missionary work and pilgrimage to Scotland in later times.

Michael Turnbull's rounded examination of St. Andrew opens new vistas for the reader and offers alternative views on issues such as the origin of the Saltire. On the one hand there is the vision and promise of allegiance to Christ by Constantine before his victory at the Milvain Bridge, outside Rome in 312 AD. Alternatively there is the traditional origin through the vision of King Angus Mac Fergus, High King of Alba, at Athelstaneford before a battle in 832 AD which itself echoes the experience of Brude, King of the Picts at the battle of Nechtansmere in 685 AD at Dunnichen near Forfar.