Fishermen’s Saint – an Address on St. Andrew by Wilfred Grenfell

This little book is an address by Wilfred Grenfell – missionary to deep sea fishermen – on St. Andrew, the Patron Saint of fishermen. My thanks to Redcliffe College for providing me with a copy to scan. This book is in the Public Domain.

Sir Wilfred T. Grenfell [1865-1940], The . Rectorial Address Delivered at St. Andrews University November 1929. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1930. Hbk. pp.44. [Click to download complete book in PDF]

The Fishermen’s Saint

I have no illusion that my role m life qualifies me for the Rectorship of a University. As a surgeon, my life has been spent among people so close to the bread-line that I have had to consider first of all in every case, what is the actual value of any course of action? Will it repay the outlay? Even when I accepted the great honour which you conferred upon me, this had to be uppermost in my mind – could I make this next half-hour worth your venture, and also my own in crossing the Atlantic for this occasion? I could have nothing to offer this famous seat of learning except the experience of having tried to put in action the teachings you have so often listened to here “I” being an average man who happens to be preparing to get off the stage just at the moment you are coming on it. The only cloud on my horizon while I was cruising the Labrador Coast this autumn was whether this venture might not prove to be but the baiting of a polar bear north of the Ancient Roman Wall. [Continue reading]