History
Saint Andrew’s Society of the Middle South
The Saint Andrew’s Society of the Middle South was founded in Birmingham, Alabama in 1966 by Robert Percy Gordon and a number of other great Scots. Our Society’s affiliation with the Saint Andrew’s Society of Edinburgh, Scotland, was confirmed in person by Winston Bush McCall on June 24, 1966.
Initially, the Society’s membership was limited to 100 members from Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee, but during the past thirty years, it has grown to over 200 members from fifteen states and Scotland. The Society was established as an organization whose purposes are “educational and patriotic with reference to the history of Scottish culture and heritage.” Close ties are maintained with the New York, Washington, Charleston and Savannah Societies. Our Society is proud to have had three of its members serve as President of the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games.
The 2022 Annual Banquet will mark our fifty-fifth celebration of Saint Andrew’s Day. The Sunday nearest the feast of Saint Andrew begins the church season of Advent. Various churches host the Saint Andrew’s Society of the Middle South for the Kirkin’ o’ the Tartan.
Saint Andrew
The patron saint of Scotland, Andrew, was one of the apostles of Jesus. Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist and a fisherman by trade. When he met Jesus by the Sea of Galilee, Jesus told the brothers Peter and Andrew, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.”
Andrew lived to preach the Gospel of Christ in the known civilized world, even Scythia near the Black Sea, and to Greece. He was crucified by barbarians at Petras on an “X” cross. This cross is symbolized on our blue X banner.
A legend states that around 750 A.D., the “relics” of Andrew were brought under supernatural guidance from Constaninople to Muckross, a Pictish town in what is now Scotland. Another legend relates that the skull of Saint Andrew was taken to the same Muckross and buried there. The site was renamed St. Andrews.
The lords of Scotland petitioned to have Saint Andrew named their patron saint on the basis that their Celtic ancestors came from Scythia by way of Ireland to Scotland and that Saint Andrew was the missionary to Scythia.