Photo: ikonnaya-lavka.ru Andrew was a Jew by birth, from Bethsaida of Galilee, a fisherman, and the brother of the Apostle Peter. Initially, he was a disciple of John the Baptist. When the Forerunner pointed to the coming Christ, saying, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world (John 1:29), Andrew was the first to become a disciple of Jesus Christ (John 1:35–42). He was the first to confess Him as the Messiah to his elder brother, Simon Peter, saying, We have found the Messiah, which is, being interpreted, the Christ (John 1:41), and was thus called the First-Called. From his work as a fisherman on the Sea of Galilee, Andrew was called by the Lord Himself to the rank of Apostle and, according to the Evangelist Matthew, occupies the second place among the Apostles (Matthew 4:18–19; 10:2).
Among the four disciples of the Lord, Andrew was granted the privilege of hearing His prophecy concerning the future of the Church and the world (Mark 13:3–5) and was among those who enjoyed a special closeness to Jesus Christ (John 12:21–22). In the upper room on Mount Zion, along with the other disciples, Andrew was comforted by the appearance of the Risen Lord and received from Him, together with the other Apostles, the power to bind and loose sins. In the same upper room, he was made worthy of the descent of the Holy Spirit. He suffered for the preaching of the Gospel in Jerusalem at the hands of the Jews and participated in the Apostolic Council held around 50 A.D. (Acts 15:28).
Bearing the labors and afflictions of proclaiming Christ, the Apostle Andrew preached the Gospel in many lands of Asia and Europe, including Bithynia, Propontis, Greece, Macedonia, Thrace, and Scythia. To spread the Gospel, he undertook three journeys from Jerusalem and Judea. His first journey was to Antioch in Syria, Tyana in Cappadocia, and as far as Sinope in the region of Scythia, the capital of Pontus, where local residents still point to monuments of his stay. From Sinope, Andrew traveled to Amisus (Amasia) on the coast of Pontus. He also visited Trebizond, from where he journeyed to Iberia, then to Parthia or Samkheti, and finally returned to Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover.
After the Feast of Pentecost, St. Andrew undertook his second journey to preach the Gospel and establish churches. From Jerusalem, he again traveled to Antioch in Syria, Ephesus, Laodicea, Odessus in Mysia, and Nicaea in Bithynia, where the Apostle converted many to Christ and baptized them. After spending two years in Nicaea, Andrew traveled to the neighboring city of Nicomedia. From there, he sailed to Chalcedon in Bithynia and then visited Heraclea by sea. He also spent a significant time in Amastris in Pontus, enlightening many with the light of the Gospel. From Amastris, he proceeded to the city of Chariopolis. After planting the faith of salvation in this city, the Apostle sailed to Sinope and revisited Amisus and Trebizond.
With great success, he preached the Christian faith in Neocaesarea and reached the city of Samosata in Armenia. From there, he returned to Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover.
From Jerusalem, the Apostle Andrew the First-Called embarked on his third and final journey to preach Christ to the Jews and Gentiles. He arrived in Edessa, visited Svanetia and the lands of the Ossetians. From Ossetia, he traveled to Abkhazia, stopping in the city of Sebaste (modern Sukhum). From there, he journeyed along the coast to the land of the Zygii. He then visited a coastal city on the Euxine Sea—Kerch, or ancient Bosporus, situated in the land of the Taurian Scythians. Continuing along the southern coast of Tauris, he visited Theodosia and traveled to the westernmost part of the peninsula, to the city of the Goths—Chersonesus.1
From Chersonesus, it is believed that the Apostle sailed up the Dnieper River to Scythia. According to ancient tradition, based on the accounts of Hippolytus and Origen, writers of the third century—and more importantly, accepted by the Church—the First-Called Apostle even reached the uninhabited hills of Kiev. There, he erected a cross and foretold the future enlightenment of Rus by the Christian faith. “Do you see these hills?” the Apostle said to his disciples. “Upon these hills shall the grace of God shine forth. A great city will rise here, and God shall raise up many churches.” The spot where the Apostle Andrew raised the cross is commemorated in Kiev by a church dedicated to his name.
From the hills of Kiev, the Apostle Andrew traveled as far as Lake Ilmen. Returning to Chersonesus, St. Andrew once again visited Bosporus, from where he crossed the Euxine Sea and for the third time arrived in Sinope, where his earlier labors had already established Christianity. Visiting many cities and villages where churches had been founded, the Apostle Andrew set sail from the Anatolian coast to preach the Gospel in Byzantium. There, in the present-day suburb of Constantinople, Argyropolis (the “City of Silver”), he ordained Stachys, one of the seventy disciples of Christ, as bishop for Byzantium (Romans 16:9).
From Byzantium, the First-Called Apostle arrived in the Thracian city of Heraclea and planted Christianity there. He then preached the Gospel in Thessalonica and strengthened the faith of those converted to Christianity by the Apostle Paul in the Peloponnese and the Achaean city of Patras. Here, the regional governor Aegeas, a wicked pagan, angered by the growing number of Christians and the decline of pagan temples, and especially enraged by the conversion of his own wife to Christianity, imprisoned the preacher of salvation. Yet the Apostle’s prison became a temple, where Christians gathered to hear his life-giving teachings.
Seeing the continued preaching he despised, Aegeas condemned the Apostle to crucifixion. For his proclamation of the Gospel, he was crucified on a cross shaped like the letter X, henceforth known as the Cross of St. Andrew. The Apostle’s crucifixion lasted for two days, during which he continually taught the crowds that gathered around the cross. On November 30, around the year 70 A.D., the Apostle passed into eternity. The presbyters and deacons of Achaia buried the holy body of the First-Called Apostle and recorded the account of his martyrdom in a brief epistle that has survived to this day.
In 355 A.D., during the reign of Emperor Constantius, the relics of the First-Called Apostle were discovered and, at the emperor’s request, translated from Patras to Constantinople. They were placed in the Church of the Holy Apostles between the tombs of St. Luke the Evangelist and St. Timothy, the disciple of the Apostle Paul.
The account of the discovery and translation of the relics of St. Andrew the First-Called provides an instructive example of the profound reverence that early Christians held for the holy Apostles. When Emperor Constantius learned from a bishop that the bodies of Christ’s Apostles, Andrew and Luke, were buried in Achaea—Andrew in Patras and Luke in Thebes of Boeotia—he was exceedingly overjoyed. He exclaimed before those present, “Call Artemius to me!” Artemius came immediately.
“Congratulations to you, most beloved of God,” said Constantius to him. “Is there anything more favorable than the discovery of the bodies of Christ’s Apostles?” Artemius replied, “Who now, and from where, shall reveal to us this treasure?” “The bishop of Achaea, who currently presides in Patras,” said Constantius. “Go quickly and bring their relics to Constantinople.”
Upon hearing this from the emperor, Artemius set out to transfer the holy remains of the Apostles to Constantinople. The relics of the Apostle Andrew, the Evangelist Luke, and St. Timothy, who had reposed in Ephesus of Ionia, were brought from Achaea and placed in the Church of the Holy Apostles. From the time of this translation, the memory of St. Andrew the First-Called, commemorated on November 30, began to be celebrated with greater solemnity.
In the fourth century, the holy fathers—Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom, Proclus, and others—glorified Andrew the First-Called in their teachings. St. Gregory the Theologian, in his fourth discourse against Julian, declared: “Did you not fear the sacrifices offered for Christ’s sake, nor revere the great ascetics—Peter, Paul, John, James, Stephen, Luke, Andrew, Thecla, and all those to whom great honors and feasts are dedicated, whose very bodies, as well as their souls, are powerful when venerated or touched?”
In the fifth century, Anatolius of Constantinople praised him, as did Andrew of Jerusalem in the seventh century. In the eighth century, hymns in his honor were composed by John of Damascus, Germanus of Constantinople, and Malax, which are still sung today by the Orthodox Church in his honor.
During the Crusades, the relics of St. Andrew were transferred in 1208 on May 8 to the city of Amalfi in Italy, where this day is still solemnly celebrated. The head of St. Andrew, however, was taken to Rome by the last emperor of Constantinople, Constantine, where it is venerated to this day in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.
Due to the long presence of the relics of St. Andrew in Constantinople and the close familial and spiritual relations between the emperors and patriarchs of Constantinople and the sovereigns and hierarchs of Russia, portions of the relics were frequently shared with Russia. For instance, a portion of his right hand is preserved in Moscow’s Dormition Cathedral, brought as a blessing to Tsar Michael Feodorovich by Archimandrite Galaktion of Thessalonica on behalf of Ecumenical Patriarch Parthenius. Likewise, Patriarch Athanasius of Jerusalem sent a portion of St. Andrew’s relics as a sacred gift to the Holy Synod, which is now kept in a silver reliquary in the Synodal Chamber.
The reverence of the early Christians toward St. Andrew has preserved for posterity even his physical appearance: He was of considerable height, slightly stooped, with an aquiline nose, eyes full of grace, well-shaped brows, and thick hair and beard.
As Western Christians particularly revere St. Peter, attributing to him the foundation of the Roman Church, so do Eastern Christians turn with special love to St. Andrew, who traversed the boundaries of the Orthodox Church.
In 1698, Russia established the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called, designating the Apostle as its special patron. Thus, the day commemorating St. Andrew the First-Called in our homeland also serves as the chivalric feast of the order founded in his honor.
On the day dedicated to the memory of the Holy Apostle Andrew, the Church glorifies him as “the First-Called of the Apostles, the God-inspired proclaimer of courage, and the follower of the chief Apostle Peter, his kinsman. For as he once called to him, so now he calls to us: Come, we have found the One we desire (Christ). The city of Patras revealed you, O Apostle Andrew, as its shepherd.”
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Source: Philaret (Gumilevsky), Archbishop of Chernigov. Lives of the Saints Venerated by the Orthodox Church, with Information on the Feasts of the Lord and the Theotokos, and on Miraculous Icons. Compiled by Archbishop Philaret (Gumilevsky), with additions from other sources. Illustrated with depictions of saints and feasts by academician F. G. Solntsev. St. Petersburg: Published by bookseller I. L. Tuzov, 1900. November. 414, IV pp.
