St Andrew the Apostle, the
First-Called
Commemorated November 30
As
the first to be called by Jesus Christ into his service, St.
Andrew commands a reverence a degree greater than those who
have followed. For this reason, St. Andrew is called
Protokletos, or "First-called."
St. Andrew, like his brother St. Peter, was a fisherman,
a toiler with net and boat recognised in the Psalms of the
Old Testament as one of those "who go down to the sea in
ships, that do business in great waters; these see the works
of the Lord and his wonders in the deep." His love of the
sea stemmed from his love of the Creator who made it, and
the perils of the sea which he challenged daily forged the
character with which he boldly assailed the seas of
ignorance and paganism in the sacred trust that had been
placed in his keeping.
St. Andrew, who lived in the Holy Land in the ancient
city of Bethsaida, accepted Christ with all his heart and
after a discipleship with St. John the Baptist went forth to
become one of the greatest missionaries in all history. When
the apostles drew lots to determine their sphere of labour
for the Saviour, St. Andrew exulted in his mission to preach
in Asia Minor, part of Greece, and an area along the coast
of the Black Sea, including its gateway, the city now known
as Istanbul, or Constantinople.
Wherever St. Andrew went he attracted throngs of people
who thirsted for a spiritual knowledge. His message of
deliverance was so eloquently convincing, even to hostile
minds, that he is credited with having converted countless
thousands to Christianity in a day when mass media did not
exist. As an apostle, his only tools were his power of
oratory and his love for Jesus, and his only press agent was
the word of mouth of those privileged to hear his
homilies.
St. Andrew came to Jerusalem for the First Synod of the
Apostles, about 50 AD, another historic first for him and
the other apostles, some of whom he had not yet met. There
he rejoiced in joining the great St. Peter together with
those but for whom Christianity might never have become the
glorious human experience it is today. Out of the Synod, the
apostles went forth with renewed vigour to establish the
ecclesiastical system.
St. Andrew alone is credited with having set up parishes
throughout Asia Minor, in Pontos, Bithynia, Thrace,
Macedonia, Greece, Scythia (Russia, where he is still
regarded as patron saint) and in the capital city of
Byzantium. It was in Byzantium that St. Andrew ordained
Stachys as first bishop of Byzantium (later Constantinople),
thereby establishing an unbroken line of 270 patriarchs down
to the present day Patriarch
Bartholomeos 1st. From Byzantium, St. Andrew went on to
more glory through his compelling oratory and power of
healing through Jesus Christ. He eventually found himself in
Achaia, in the city of Patras, where he was to suffer
death.
St. Andrew committed the grave crime in the eyes of the
state of converting Maximilla, wife of the ruler Aigeates,
to Christianity. Despite the fact that he was then eighty
years old, it was ordered that he be put to death by being
nailed upside down to an X-shaped cross. After three days of
agony on this vile device, St. Andrew died. The great
fisherman had cast his net for Christ for the last time. St.
Andrew's remains were brought to Constantinople two hundred
years later and in 1460 his head was given to the pope. On
24 September 1964, in an ecumenical gesture, the head was
returned to the people of Patras by the pope.
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