greek-saints

Saint Andrew Biography Greek Orthodox Saints

st-andrewSaint Andrew was of the 12 Apostles, also called Protocletus, because he was the first, together with his brother Peter, to follow Jesus. His memory is celebrated by Christianity on November 30.

Andrew came from Bethsaida in Galilee and was the son of the fisherman Jonah. He followed his father’s profession, as did his brother Peter, centering his activities on the western shore of Lake Tiberias (Gennesaret).

His name is Greek (Andreas means brave, from the word valor), common among the Hellenizing Jews of that time. There is no recorded Hebrew or Aramaic name for him. Both brothers seem to have had spiritual concerns, which is why they joined the circle of disciples of Saint John the Forerunner.

One day John the Forerunner seeing Jesus said to Andrew and Peter, who were near him: “Behold the Lamb of God”. The two brothers decided to follow Christ, with the intention of conversing with him and not becoming his disciples. This happened later, after the arrest and imprisonment of the Forerunner, when Christ announced to them “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men”.

After Christ was executed St. Andrew preached in Asia Minor and Greece. He was eventually crucified in Patras.
His relics were kept in Constantinople until 1210, when they were stolen. In the church of St. Andrew on Cephalonia a relic can be found.
There are many legends about St. Andrew. One tells us he was led to a ship by an angel, that took him to St. Matthew in Murgundia who had been disfigured and imprisoned.

The saint found the prison door open, and went inside to heal St. Matthew. For this the people of the dragged the saint through the town, but were converted by him. Another legend tells us St. Andrew had a young nobleman from Antioch following him against the parent’s wishes. They tried to burn the house the two men resided in, but the saint put the fire out with a glass of water. They then tried to enter the house, but were blinded and died five days later.

New Testament information is minimal for Andrew and non-existent for his apostolic work. Ecclesiastical writers report that the Apostle Andrew preached Christianity in Scythia (present-day South Russia), Epirus, Thrace and Byzantium, where he founded a church with Stachy as the first bishop. Continuation of this first church is considered the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, which honors the Apostle Andrew as its founder and first bishop of Byzantium.

Then the Apostle Andrew traveled through Thessaly to Achaia, where he founded a church and managed to convert to Christianity Maximilla, the wife of the proconsul Aegeatis, whom he cured of an incurable disease. The Roman official was enraged and ordered the crucifixion of the Apostle Andrew on an X-shaped cross, which has since been called “St. Andrew’s Cross”.

His remains, which were buried under the care of Maximilla and the local bishop Stratoklis, were transferred in 357 to Constantinople and deposited in the church of the Holy Apostles. After the fall of Constantinople to the Crusaders in 1204, parts of the relics of the Apostle Andrew were transferred to Amalfi in Campania, while in 1461 the despot of Mystras, Thomas Paleologos, before the Ottoman danger, entrusted the guarding of the Saint’s chariot to Pope Pius II, who deposited it in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. On September 26, 1964, the chariot of the Apostle Andrew was returned to Patras, in a gesture of goodwill from Pope Paul VI to the Orthodox. On January 19, 1980, the Cross of Saint Andrew was also returned. Both holy relics are kept in the church of Agios Andrew, which is a pan-Hellenic pilgrimage.

Andrew the Apostle is the patron saint of Ukraine, Russia, Romania, Barbados and Scotland, as well as the patron saint of Patras, Amalfi in Italy, Lucca in Malta and Esgueira in Portugal.

The flag of Scotland bears the cross of St. Andrew. After the union of Scotland with England, the swastika is also depicted on the flag of Great Britain.