St. Andrew
The First-Called, Brother of St. Peter
The fisherman who heard the Baptist point to the Lamb of God, followed Him that same day, and then went to find his brother Simon — the first apostle called, and the one who brought Peter to Christ.
- Feast
- November 30 (St. Andrew's Day)
- Lived
- Born c. AD 5 at Bethsaida in Galilee; martyred at Patras in Achaea, c. AD 60
Invoked For
- Scotland
- Greece, Russia, Ukraine, and Romania
- The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople
- Fishermen and fishmongers
- Rope-makers and textile workers
- Singers
- Against sore throats
His Life
Andrew was born at Bethsaida on the Sea of Galilee and worked the water there with his brother Simon. His name is the first thing worth noticing about him: Andreas is Greek, not Hebrew — a sign of how thoroughly the Greek world had reached into Galilee, and a hint of the wide horizons his life would take.
He began as a disciple of St. John the Baptist. Standing beside his master when Jesus passed, he heard the words that changed everything — "Behold the Lamb of God" — and he followed, and stayed with Him that day. Then he did the thing for which the whole Church remembers him: he went and found his brother, and said, "We have found the Messias," and brought him to Jesus. For this the East calls him Protokletos, the First-Called, and Simon, whom he brought, was given the name Peter.
Afterwards came the call on the shore that St. Matthew and St. Mark record, with its promise to the two brothers: "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." And they left their nets at once.
In the Gospels Andrew is the apostle who brings people forward. It is Andrew who finds the boy with five loaves and two fishes before the feeding of the five thousand. When Greeks come asking to see Jesus, Philip goes to Andrew, and Andrew takes them in. He was at the Last Supper, and he was one of the four who sat with the Lord on the Mount of Olives and asked what the end of the age would look like.
After Pentecost the ancient writers send him far: Origen says he preached in Scythia, Hippolytus in Thrace, and tradition holds that he founded the see of Byzantium — the city that became Constantinople — and left Stachys as its first bishop. He was martyred by crucifixion at Patras in Achaea. The earliest accounts say he was bound rather than nailed, and preached to those who came to watch for as long as he had breath.
The Path to Sainthood
St. Andrew is a pre-congregation saint. No formal process canonized him; he was honored as an apostle and a martyr by the whole Christian people from the beginning, and both East and West keep his feast on November 30.
His relics have travelled further than most. Most were carried from Patras to Constantinople around 357; after the sack of the city in 1208 a great share was taken to Amalfi in Italy, where they remain in the cathedral crypt. His skull was brought to Rome in 1461 and enshrined in St. Peter's — and in September 1964 St. Paul VI, as a gesture of goodwill toward the Orthodox, sent it back to Patras. The cross of his martyrdom, taken to Marseille during the Crusades, was returned in 1980. Skull, finger, and cross are now venerated together at Patras each November 30.
Another portion is said to have gone the other way entirely. A monk named Regulus was told in a dream to carry hidden relics "to the ends of the earth" and was shipwrecked on the coast of Fife — the origin story of the town of St Andrews, and of Scotland's devotion to him. Legend has it that before a battle in 832 the Pictish king Óengus saw white clouds cross the sky in the shape of an X and vowed to make Andrew the patron of his people. That saltire, white on blue, is still the flag of Scotland, and by way of the Union Flag it is carried in flags around the world.
Because he is Peter's brother, his memory carries a particular weight in the search for Christian unity. Rome looks to Peter and Constantinople to Andrew, and Pope Benedict XVI called him "the Apostle of the Greek world," the brotherhood of the two apostles standing for the bond between two sister Churches. In the Latin calendar his feast also marks the turning of the year: Advent begins with the Sunday nearest to St. Andrew's Day.
Domenico Ghirlandaio, The Calling of the Apostles, 1481 — one of the original wall frescoes of the Sistine Chapel. Peter and Andrew kneel together on the shore; behind them their boat is still on the water. 
The martyrdom of St. Andrew, from the Menologion of Basil II, c. AD 1000 (Vatican Library). Note the shape: the earliest accounts have him bound — not nailed — to an ordinary cross. The familiar X-shaped saltire came later. 
Camillo Rusconi, 1713–1715 — St. Andrew among the Twelve in the nave of St. John Lateran, Rome, leaning on the great saltire that has been his emblem since the later Middle Ages. 
Leonardo da Vinci, The Last Supper, 1495–1498. Andrew is the third figure from the left, both palms raised in astonishment at the words “one of you shall betray me.” 
Adriaen van de Venne, Fishing for Souls, 1614 (Rijksmuseum). A vast allegory on the promise made to Andrew and his brother — “I will make you fishers of men.”
Prayers to St. Andrew
Tap any prayer to open it large and clear — set for reading aloud. Close it to return here and choose another.