Tour Scotland 4K Winter travel video, with Scottish music, of St Rule's Tower in the Cathedral ruins and graveyard burial ground on ancestry, genealogy, family history visit to St Andrews, Fife. St Rule's tower is located in the cathedral grounds but predates it, having served as the church of the priory up to the early 12th century. The building was retained to allow worship to continue uninterrupted during the building of its much larger successor. Originally, the tower and adjoining choir were part of the church built in the 11th century to house the relics of Saint Andrew. The nave, with twin western turrets, and the apse of the church no longer stand. The church's original appearance is illustrated in stylised form on some of the early seals of the cathedral priory. Legend credits St Rule, also known as St Regulus, with bringing relics of St Andrew to the area from their original location at Patras in Greece. Today the tower commands an admirable view of the town, harbour, sea, and surrounding countryside. Beautifully built in grey sandstone ashlar, and, for its date, immensely tall it is a land- and sea mark seen from many miles away, its prominence doubtless meant to guide pilgrims to the place of the Apostle's relics. In the Middle Ages a spire atop the tower made it even more prominent. The tower was originally ascended using ladders between wooden floors, but a stone spiral staircase was inserted in the 18th century. Saint Regulus or Saint Rule, Old Irish: Riagal, was a legendary 4th century monk or bishop of Patras, Greece who in AD 345 is said to have fled to Scotland with the bones of Saint Andrew, and deposited them at St Andrews. His feast day in the Aberdeen Breviary is 17 October. The details of Saint Regulus' life are unclear and differ in the several extant accounts. Saint Regulus was a monk or bishop of the city of Patras, in present day Greece, then part of the Roman Empire. In AD 345 Regulus was told by an angel in a visionary dream that the Emperor Constantine had decided to remove Saint Andrew's relics from Patras to Constantinople, and in some retellings that Constantine was about to invade Patras. For safekeeping Regulus was to move as many bones as far away as he could to the western ends of the earth, where he should found a church dedicated to St Andrew. He was accompanied on his voyage by a number of consecrated virgins, among these Saint Triduana. According to the various accounts Regulus was either shipwrecked or told by an angel to stop intentionally on the shores of Fife at the spot called Kilrymont, a Pictish settlement which is now St. Andrews. Here he was welcomed by a Pictish king, Óengus I, who was actually of the eighth century. Regulus is claimed to have brought three fingers of the saint's right hand, the upper bone of an arm, one kneecap, and one of his teeth. The legend of St Regulus came to have political significance in the later Middle Ages. It served to authenticate the apostle Andrew as patron saint of Scotland. The Regulus legend was publicised by Scottish kings, nobles and churchmen from the 12th century onwards. Scottish independence had come under threat from England since the late 11th century, and the Scottish church was contesting a claim to primacy by the archbishop of York. By promoting the story of Saint Andrew's choice of Scotland in the 4th century, the Scots acquired an important saint, a separate identity from England, and a date for the supposed foundation of the Scottish Church which predated the foundation of the English and Irish churches by several centuries. Furthermore, during the wars of Scottish independence the Scots used the legend to persuade Pope Boniface VIII to issue the papal bull of 1299 which demanded that Edward I of England end the war against Scotland. The legend would also lead to the adoption of the saltire on the Scottish flag and the importance of the archdiocese of St Andrews in the early Scottish Church. St Regulus Hall, the student hall of residence at the University of St Andrews is named after Saint Regulus. By the meteorological calendar, the first day of Winter is always 1st December in Scotland; ending on 28th of February. Officially, the Scottish winter runs from the 21st of December through to the 20th March.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
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