Saint Andrew the Apostle
The thirtieth of November is the feast of the first-called among the apostles, Andrew. A Galilean fisherman by trade, from the village of Bethsaida in the Syrian al-Jawlân north of Lake Tiberias, Saint Andrew is one of the Twelve and the brother of Simon Peter the Apostle. He worked together with Peter as a fisherman prior to being called to follow our Lord. Peter, however, was married; Andrew was not.
His family seems to have been multicultural, or at least significantly-Hellenised enough that his parents saw fit to give him a Greek rather than a Semitic name. Andrew was principal among the devotees of Saint John the Forerunner, who took to preaching repentance and renunciation, baptising his followers in the Jordan River and proclaiming one who would come after him, one whose sandals he was not fit to lace. Andrew was therefore the first, along with his brother Peter, and James and John the sons of Zebedee, to follow Jesus – the One Whom John the Forerunner prophesied.
He was the first-called, the prōtoklētos, among the Apostles of Jesus – he was the one to proclaim Jesus as Christ to Peter, who then followed – but apparently he was not the closest. He was not present, for example, at the Transfiguration on Tabor – though Peter, James and John all were. Even so, there are three passages in the Gospels where Andrew is mentioned prominently.
In the feeding of the multitudes on Lake Tiberias in the Gospel of Saint John, Andrew is the one to point out the lad who brought the five loaves and two fishes. But in the same breath he wonders what good such a small amount will do for so many hungry mouths. Our Lord neither rebukes him nor corrects him for this observation; instead he merely asks his disciples to make the people sit while shares the bread and fish with them.
On another occasion, in the Gospel of Saint Mark, Saint Andrew is among the four chief disciples who hear Jesus proclaim that the stones of the Temple will be torn down, so that not even one will remain standing upon another. The four of them ask Him when these things will come to pass, and what signs may be given them. However, Jesus merely tells them how this will not take place: that many will come falsely proclaiming themselves to be Christ and will deceive many. He warns them not to be deceived nor disheartened, but counsels them to persevere to the end.
On yet another occasion, again in the Gospel of Saint John, Saint Andrew and Saint Philip deliver a message to Christ on the Mount of Olives from ‘certain Greeks’ who had come up to Jerusalem to worship for the Passover feast. Jesus told them to give them this reply:
The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.Christ’s answer to these ‘certain Greeks’ through Saint Andrew and Saint Philip was precisely that aspect of His teaching that was hardest for them to grasp. To wit, that the God, One and Formless and Changeless, the Unmoved Mover and the First Cause, whom the philosophers from Pythagoras and Plato and Aristotle had taught them to worship, would do the one thing the Greeks thought it impossible for Him to do: die. Andrew and Philip were the vehicles by whom Christ presented the Greeks with the Incarnational paradox that only by dying is it possible to live æternally.
Andrew was present with the other apostles of Christ at Pentecost; however, he did not remain in Jerusalem with much of the early Christian community. Instead, he left to spread the good news of the risen Christ among his fellow Greeks and among the Gentiles of other nations. He preached in Asia Minor, in Thrace, in Macedonia and in the Peloponnese, where he was martyred. He was also active in the Euxinus, so we are assured by early authorities like Origen, Eusebius and Nestor. He preached the Gospel among the Scythians: the forefathers and foremothers of the mediæval Alans and today’s Orthodox Christian Ossetians.
He ventured into Taurica and up the Dneipr, to the spot where Kiev stands today. There he erected a cross, and prophesied that one day, by the grace of God, a city shining forth with His beneficence would stand, and many gleaming churches would be raised. He did not stop in Kiev, but ventured still further north to what would become Novgorod, and blessed that place as well. Novgorod would carry forward the original, kenotic radicalism of Kievan Christianity well after Kiev had lapsed into imperial pride and subsequently fallen to dust beneath the swords of another Saint Andrew.
Saint Andrew was also the first to found the Church of Christ in Byzantion, then a small and picturesque fishing village. The first bishop he appointed was named Stachus, who was a member of the Seventy. Two hundred years and more later, the Emperor Constantine of Rome would meet there the successor of Saint Andrew and Saint Stachus – the bishop Metrophanes – and raise that little village into a vast city of otherworldly glory. It is for this reason that Saint Andrew is considered the Father of the Church of Constantinople, as well as of the Church of Russia. By his prayers may the two be swiftly reconciled.
Everywhere he went, Saint Andrew bore the same hard, paradoxical message of the Incarnation among the Greeks, which he had received from our Lord Himself on the Mount of Olives and which we read in the Gospel of Saint John. He was hated and persecuted by the pagans for it. In Sinope they pelted the apostle of Christ with stones, but he escaped from thence unharmed. He came to Patras in the Peloponnese, where he worked many wonders among the poor and ill of the town. He restored the sight of the blind, made whole the legs of the lame. Among those he healed was Sosios, a prominent citizen of Patras. Another two were Maximilla, the governor’s wife, and Stratokles, his brother. By these deeds and by his preaching, Patras soon had a flourishing community of Christians.
He attracted the attention of the pagan governor, a man named Ægeatos. Saint Andrew appealed to Ægeatos with loving words, and yet the proud pagan would not believe. Ægeatos became angry with Andrew, and ordered him to be executed by crucifixion. Andrew went willingly to the killing-ground, indeed with gladness in his heart that he could share in the death of the Master whom he loved. In order to prolong his suffering, the governor ordered that Andrew be bound, not staked, to the cross – which, at Andrew’s request, was in the form of a Greek chi rather than an upright and a horizontal plank. At the place where Andrew was crucified, a great crowd of the citizens of Patras gathered, and they cried aloud to the governor to release him. The governor, fearing them, ordered Andrew to be taken down, but the soldiers found they were unable to approach the saint. Andrew lifted his head to heaven, and cried aloud, ‘Lord Jesus Christ, receive my spirit!’ A light shone from the heavens upon him, and by the time it had faded, the Apostle had given up the ghost. He was taken down by Ægeatos’s believing wife Maximilla, and given an honourable burial.
During the reign of Emperor Constantius II, the relics of Saint Andrew would be taken from Patras and interred in a state of honour at the City – the same former village of Byzantion where Saint Andrew had appointed Stachus bishop. The right hand of Saint Andrew was sent to Russia; the head was taken to Old Rome. During late Antiquity, some of the relics of Saint Andrew visited the shores of Britain and were kept by Saint Acca of Hexham. It is on account of this visit of his relics to Britain that Saint Andrew was venerated in Scotland, though a later mediæval legend has it that the Scots began to venerate Saint Andrew as a result of his intercession in battle against Northumbria in 832. First-called among the Apostles Andrew, pray unto Christ our God that our souls may be saved!
Andrew, first-called of the Apostles
And brother of the foremost disciple,
Entreat the Master of all
To grant peace to the world
And to our souls great mercy.
Church of St Andrew, Patras, Greece
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