Patrick Hamilton – The St Andrews Martyr

During the Scottish Reformation, the brutal struggle between the Catholic Church and the new Protestant ideas hit St Andrews particularly hard. Patrick Hamilton was one of the earliest preachers in Scotland’s main religious centre and walking a very dangerous path.

Hamilton was born into an aristocratic family but destined to be a churchman from a young age. A bright future awaited him in the Church, but he returned from studying in Paris with his head full of ideas of Protestantism. Seeing it as his duty to share this message with the people of Scotland, Hamilton took to the streets and preached.

In 1528 he was called before a council of the clergy to answer to charges of heresy. Refusing to deny his faith, Hamilton was sentenced to be burnt at the stake outside St Salvator's Chapel. The execution was to take place that same day to make sure Hamilton’s friends had no chance to interfere. Unfortunately, that also meant the authorities didn’t have time to prepare.

On a damp day, with freshly gathered wood, the fire burned slowly. As the flames licked at his heels and the smoke billowed around him, Hamilton was in agony. Gunpowder was thrown on the fire to try and speed things along, but the explosions only increased his pain without ending his suffering.

When things were finally too much for poor Hamilton to bear, he pled for death and cried out "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!" It had been 6 hours of torture but at that moment, the young man finally died. After the smoke cleared, something unusual was spotted. The impression of a tortured face had mysteriously appeared on the wall of St Salvator’s and it can still be seen there today.

On the pavement outside, the initials PH mark the spot where Hamilton was burned. It's considered very bad luck for St Andrews students to step on them. If they do, the only remedies are to jump in the sea during the May Dip or run backwards around the quad naked.