As a child with an overly Catholic mother, up until leaving the nest I practiced Catholicism with a lot of fervor. Looking back at that period of my life, it made sense. Mostly everything in my life sucked, there was no hope that my parents would make it better so of course I was willing to believe that there is an all-powerful entity that decided everything happening in the world and if praying and doing all this entity wanted me too would make my life suck less, I was willing to do it. I was a child growing up in a poor toxic family, and my belief in God was the only hope. I truly believe this is how people get to be religious, just take away all the hope and then give them a sliver of it and they will do anything you ask them to.
When I was living in Ramnicu-Valcea, in the church entry hallway, next to the sacrarium (the holy water basin designed to wash your hand, so you make the cross sign with a clean hand) there was a statue of St. Andrew. My mother and the priest of the church at the time told people that St. Andrew was the saint that fulfilled wishes. So, people would pray and fill the box under St. Andrew’s with money hoping their wishes will come true. I was one of them, I was a child and instead of using the little money I had to buy something for myself, I would put it in that box and ask St. Andrew for my parents to be happier, richer and to start being better parents to me and my sister. As you can imagine, that did not work, and I lost my faith in St. Andrew’s powers by the time I was 12.
I am mentioning St. Andrew because yesterday I’ve spent a whole day in St. Andrews. St. Andrews is a seaside town northeast of Edinburgh, on Scotland’s east coast, is part of the kingdom of Fife, the one I currently reside in. It has a population of 16800 people, and I can only assume this number does not include the students. Although small, St. Andrews used to have one of the biggest and most opulent cathedrals in Scotland and its ruins are still impressive today.
So, what is the link between St. Andrew the patron saint of Scotland and the saint I used to pray to as a child?
Continue reading “The connection between Scotland and Romania you probably have no idea existed”
