The History of the Society
THE FOUNDING OF THE MANILA ST. ANDREW’S SOCIETY IN 1879Past Chieftains list can be seen here....
The founding of the Manila St. Andrew’s Society in 1879, most of whose members have belonged to the Manila Club, was confirmed by one source and very strongly inferred by a second.
The first source was Gordon Weatherstone Mackay (1901-86). His father, John Alexander Mackay, who came to Manila in 1882 and died in 1924, told him that 1879 was the year the Society was founded.
The main current source is Angus Campbell as it is taken directly from his book "A social history of the British in Manila"
The second source was the Sunday Tribune of 22 November 1925, which stated that the St. Andrew’s Ball would be held on the following Friday at the Santa Ana Cabaret and that the occasion had been celebrated by the Society every year for the previous forty-seven years. In 1925 it had more than seventy members. James Walker Cairns was Chieftain (described as President), his Vice was J.R. Irvine, and Gordon Mackay was Honorary Secretary. Between 1903 and 1916, Manila City Directories list a ‘Caledonian Club’ with addresses in Binondo that are obviously the offices of its chieftains. Perhaps, therefore, it was founded under that name, or perhaps there was an intermediate change of name, for it seems extremely unlikely that a second Scottish group was formed and nor did Gordon Mackay ever mention one.
Forty-seven years before 1925 dates the Society to 1878, not 1879.
This was explained by James Flemming Macleod (c.1857-1926), known as Don Jaime, who arrived in Manila in1878 and who also attended the 1925 Ball, by his statement in the Sunday Tribune that the first known celebration by Scots in Manila in honour of St. Andrew was ‘in 1878 at Macleod & Co.’s Mess where now stands the Pacific Building’ (near the southwest corner of the Escolta). Doubtless similar annual celebrations had taken place after November 1827 when John Murray, James Strachan, and Robert Ker founded Ker & Co., but with no record of them surviving to the near end of the century.
Present at the celebration in Macleod & Co.’s mess were Alexander Stewart Macleod (1842-1911), the head of his firm; his cousin James Macleod mentioned above and William Colquhoun who both worked for Alexander; George Buchan Cadell (1839-c.1904), Harry Alexander MacPherson (1856-1939), and Alexander Armstrong (1835-1920), later senior partner in John Mackay’s brokerage; Dugald Munn (c.1848-c.1917), Frederick Bolton, and R.J. Paterson all of Ker & Co.; Robert Wright (c.1859-1944) of Findlay Richardson & Co.; George Martin; and Edward Bousted, Jr. (c.1845-c.1915) concerning whose daughter Nellie a duel was fought in Paris between José Rizal and Antonio Luna.
The 1925 Sunday Tribune, surely quoting James Macleod, described the 1878 affair thus:
A soul-stirring haggis, which was accorded due
honor, was a salient
feature of the celebration. All the whiskey (sic) in Manila – 4
bottles
of Glenlivet – was secured for the occasion, and were absorbed
as it was the belief in those days that whiskey would not keep
long in the tropics. A formal society was formed a few years later.
The statement that the Society was formed ‘a few years later’ can be attributed either to a lazy newspaper reporter or to James Macleod’s poor memory, but it is not strong enough to put in doubt what John Mackay told to his son Gordon about the founding in 1879.
By happy coincidence, St. Andrew, the Patron Saint of Scotland, is also (alias San Andrés) one of the secondary patron saints of the City of Manila, together with St. Policarpio, St. Dominic and St. Francis of Assisi. The primary position is held by Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, as Patroness Saint of the Philippines and therefore also of the City of Manila.
A list of Past Chieftains from 1903 to the present can be found here....
St Andrew - More
Saint Andrew is the Patron Saint of Scotland, and St. Andrew's Day is celebrated by Scots around the world on the 30th November. The flag of Scotland is the Cross of St. Andrew, and this is widely displayed as a symbol of national identity.
The "Order of Saint Andrew" or the "Most Ancient Order of the Thistle" is an order of Knighthood which is restricted to the King or Queen and sixteen others. It was established by James VII of Scotland in 1687.
A disciple of Jesus and the brother of Simon Peter . The two are pictured as fishermen working beside the sea when Jesus summons them to follow him and become, "fishers of men." Although less prominent than his brother, Andrew is present at the miracle of the bread and the speech on the Mount of Olives. In the list of the Twelve, Andrew is listed second in Luke and Matthew and fourth in the books of Mark and Acts.
In all accounts he was one of the first, as a follower of John the Baptists, to be "called" a disciple. According to later traditions , Andrew became a missionary to Asia Minor, Macedonia, and southern Russia. In 70 AD he was martyred in Patras, Greece. Having many converts, he was feared by the Roman governor who had him cruxified on an X-shaped cross known as a Saltire Cross. (One of the many Medievil customs of torture).
It is this shape that is reflected in the Scottish flag. ( for culture buffs who attribute the southern "bubba or redneck" culture to early Scottish settlers, take note of the similiar designs between the Scottish flag and the Confederate flag). He was the patron saint of Greece, Russia and Of course Scotland.
St. Andrew is also invoked against gout and a stiff neck. St. Andrews bones were entombed, and around 300 years later were moved by Emperor Constantine (the Great) to his new capital Constantinople. Legend suggests that a Greek Monk (although others describe him as an Irish assistant of St. Columba) called St. Rule (or St. Regulus) was warned in a dream that St. Andrews remains were to be moved and was directed by an angel to take those of the remains which he could to the "ends of the earth" for safe-keeping.
St. Rule dutifully followed these directions, removing a tooth, an arm bone, a kneecap and some fingers from St. Andrew's tomb and transporting these as far away as he could. That place was Scotland and it is here the association is believed to have begun.
It was here that St. Rule was shipwrecked with his precious cargo. St. Rule is said to have come ashore at a Pictish settlement on the East Coast of Scotland and this later became St. Andrews. Another story is that Acca, the Bishop of Hexham, who was a reknown collector of relics, brought the relics of St. Andrew to St. Andrews in 733. There certainly seems to have been a religious center at St. Andrews at that time, either founded by St. Rule in the 6th century or by a Pictish King, Ungus, who reigned from 731 - 761.
Whichever tale is true, the relics were placed in a specially constructed chapel. This chapel was replaced by the Cathedral of St. Andrews in 1160, and St. Andrews became the religious capital of Scotland and a great center for Medieval pilgrims who came to view the relics.
There are other legends of how St. Andrew and his remains became associated with Scotland, but there is little evidence for any of these, including the legend of St. Rule. The names still exist in Scotland today, including St. Rules Tower, which remains today amongst the ruins of St. Andrews Cathedral. It is not known what happened to the relics of St. Andrew which were stored in St. Andrews Cathedral, although it is most likely that these were destroyed during the Scottish Reformation.
The Protestant cause, propounded by Knox, Wishart and others, won out over Roman Catholism during the Reformation and the "idolatry of catholism", that is the Saints, relics, decoration of churches, were expunged during the process of converting the Roman Catholic churches of Scotland to the harsh simplicity of Knox's brand of Calvanism.
The place where these relics were kept within the Cathedral at St. Andrews is now marked by a plaque, amongst the ruins, for visitors to see.
The larger part of St. Andrew's remains were stolen from Constantinople in 1210 and are now to be found in Amalfi in Southern Italy. In 1879 the Archbishop of Amalfi sent a small piece of the Saint's shoulder blade to the re-established Roman Catholic community in Scotland.
During his visit in 1969, Pope Paul VI gave further relics of St. Andrew to Scotland with the words "Saint Peter gives you his brother" and these are now displayed in a reliquary in St. Mary's Roman Catholic Cathedral in Edinburgh.
Compiled by Elizabeth Mckaskle from the following sources: Gateway to Scotland WP The Oxford Companion Bible The Dictionary of Christian Art
© copyright 2010 Manila St Andrews Society
TOP
Home | Membership | Activities | History | Community | Scotland | Links | Contact Us | News
