Inspiration of a Saint
It
was religion - not golf - that first brought fame to St Andrews. According to legend, an angel appeared to a Greek
monk named St Rule or St Regulus and warned him to remove the bones of St Andrew to ' the ends of the earth '
for safe-keeping. St Rule removed a tooth, an arm bone, a kneecap and some finger bones from St Andrew's tomb in
Constantinople and brought them to Scotland. Shipwrecked, he came ashore on the east coast of Fife and built a chapel
there to house the relics. Thus was born St Andrews.
A Place of Pilgrimage
St Andrew's relics were kept in the chapel of St Mary on the Rock, the remains of which can be seen above the harbour.
After the founding of the Cathedral in about 1160, the relics were moved there. It was also about this time that the
town first came to be known as St Andrews. The presence of the shrine made St Andrews one of the great centres of
religion in medieval Europe, and a place of pilgrimage for many thousands of pilgrims every year.
