Apostle and Evangelist
Feast day November 30th

St. Andrew, was the son of Jonah, or John, and was born in Bethsaida of Galilee. He worked with his brother St. Peter, as a fisherman on Lake Genesareth.

Andrew was first a disciple of John the Baptist, and, when he met the Lord at Jesus' baptism in the Jordan, he became Jesus' first disciple (John 1:29-40). He later introduced Jesus to his brother, Peter.

Its in the fourth Gospel that on the occasion of the miraculous feeding of the five thousand, we learn that it was Andrew who said: "There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fishes: but what are these among so many?". 

As one of the Twelve, he was present at the Last Supper; beheld the risen Lord; witnessed the Ascension; shared in the graces and gifts of the first Pentecost, and helped, amid threats and persecution, to establish the Faith in Palestine.

Its believed by early writers that Andrew preached in Cappadocia, Galatia, and Bithynia, then in the land of the anthropophagi and the Scythian deserts, afterwards in Byzantium itself, where he appointed St. Stachys as its first bishop, and finally in Thrace, Macedonia, Thessaly, and Achaia. Legend has it that he preached in Russia, reaching as far as Kiev in the Ukraine, from where the conversion of the country spread in the 11th century.

Just as the foundation of the Western Church is rooted in St. Peter, the Eastern Orthodox Church's beginning is attributed to St. Andrew.

In one of his several missionary journeys to Greece, Andrew visited the City of Patras. Through his preaching and the miracles of healing he performed, many persons were converted to Christianity. Among those healed was Maximilla, the wife of the Roman Proconsul, Aegeates. Seeing this miracle of healing, Stratoklis, the highly intellectual brother of the Proconsul, also became a Christian, and Andrew consecrated and enthroned him as the first Bishop of Patras.

As a prophet, he foretold of the greatness of Kiev as a city and a stronghold of Christianity. In Sinope, he prayed for the imprisoned Apostle Matthias, and his chains fell from him and the cell door opened. The people beat Andrew, breaking his teeth, cutting his fingers, and left him for dead in a dung heap. Jesus appeared to him and healed him, telling him "to be of good cheer".  When the people saw him the next day, they were amazed and they believed. At another time, he raised a woman's only son from the dead.

The conversions to the Christian Faith by members of his own family infuriated the Proconsul Aegeates, and he decided to crucify Andrew. The crucifixion was carried out during the reign of Nero, on 30 November, A.D. 60, on a decussate, which is an X-shaped cross (now known as a Saint Andrew's Cross), with the body of the Apostle upside down so that he saw neither the earth nor his executioners, but only the sky which he glorified as the heaven in which he would meet his Lord. Aegeates had him tied to the cross in this manner so that he would live longer and suffer more.

Legend has it that twenty thousand of the faithful stood by and mourned. Even then, Andrew taught them and exhorted them to endure temporary sufferings for the kingdom of heaven. Out of fear of the people, Aegeates came to remove Andrew from the cross. Andrew told Aegeates that he could still become a Christian, but that he had already seen Jesus, and he would not allow himself to be removed from the cross. Many tried to undo the knots, but their hands all became numb. Suddenly, a heavenly light illumined Andrew for about a half hour. When it left, Andrew had given up his spirit.

His body was tenderly removed from the cross by Bishop Stratoklis and Maximilla, and buried with all of the honor befitting the Apostle. Soon countless numbers of Christians made their way to Patras to pay reverence to the grave of Andrew, and when Aegeates realized that the man he had put to death was "truly a holy man of God" a demon fell upon him and tormented him so powerfully that he committed suicide.

In the month of March of 357 the Emperor Constantine (son of Constantine The Great) ordered that the body of Saint Andrew be removed from Patras and be reinterred in the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople. Saint Andrew was returned to the city that had first heard the message of Jesus Christ from his lips.

According to tradition a part of the remains of Andrew were taken to Scotland, and he was chosen as the Protector of the Scottish people. The Cross of Saint Andrew also adorns the British flag where it was placed after the union of Scotland and England.

The skull of Andrew was kept in Patras until the year 1460 when Thomas Paleologos, the last ruler of the Morea, brought the skull to Rome. In 1967, under the orders of Pope Paul VI, the skull was returned to Patras with all of the pomp and dignity of the Papal State.

St. Andrew remains the patron saint of Russia, Scotland and Romania to this day. He is the patron of fishermen, fishmongers, sailors, maidens, old maids, singers, spinsters, unmarried women, and women who wish to become mothers. He is invoked against sore throats, gout and stiff-necks.

You can see Saint Andrew's cross in the background of our window (over each of his shoulders and near his knees).