Who was Saint Andrew the Apostle?
The 30th November is the feast day of Saint Andrew the Apostle. Like his brother Simon Peter, he was originally from Bethsaida at the Lake Kinneret, being the son of Jona. At the time Jesus Christ called him, Andrew was a disciple of Saint John the Baptist and worked as a fisherman.
Saint Andrew suffered martyrdom at the city of Patras in Achaea, Greece, in the year 60, having preached the gospel of the Lord in Scythia and Greece.
“The presbyters and deacons of Achaia wrote an account of his martyrdom, which they had witnessed with their own eyes.“
Jacobus de Voragine: The Golden Legend. Readings on the Saints, Princeton University Press 1993, p. 13
The story of Saint Andrew‘s martyrdom as told by Jacobus de Voragine in the Golden Legend
“Then blessed Andrew settled in Achaia, filled the whole region with churches, and led a great number of people to the Christian faith. Among others, he converted the wife of the proconsul Aegeus and baptized her. As soon as the proconsul heard of this, he came to the town of Patras and commanded the Christians to sacrifice to the idols. Then Andrew came to meet him and said: ‘You have earned the right to judge men on earth. Now what you ought to do is to recognize your judge who is in heaven, worship him, and turn completely away from false gods.‘ Aegeus spoke: ‘So you are that Andrew who preaches the superstitious sect which the princes of Rome recently ordered us to exterminate.‘ Andrew: ‘That is because the Roman rulers have not yet known that the Son of God has come on earth, and has taught that your idols are demons and their teaching an offense to God. So God, being offended, turns away from those who worship them and does not hear their prayers; and they, no longer heard by God, are made captive by the devil and deluded by him until their naked souls leave their bodies, carrying nothing with them but their sins.‘ ‘Yes,‘ Aegeus retorted, ‘and because your Jesus was teaching this nonsense, they nailed him to a cross.‘ Andrew replied: ‘It was to give us salvation, and not to expiate any misdeeds of his own, that he freely accepted the agony of the cross.‘ Then said Aegeus: ‘How can you say that the freely suffered death, when we know that he was handed over by one of his disciples, imprisoned by the Jews, and crucified by the soldiers?‘
Jacobus de Voragine: The Golden Legend. Readings on the Saints, Princeton University Press 1993, p. 16-18
Andrew thereupon set out to prove, by five arguments, that the passion of Christ was voluntary. (…) He then began to explain the mystery of redemption to the proconsul, proving, by five arguments, how necessary and appropriate this mystery is. Since the first man had brought death into the world by means of wood, a tree, it was appropriate that the Son of man should banish death by dying on a cross of wood. Since the sinner had been formed out of clean earth, it was fitting that the reconciler should be born of an immaculate virgin. Since Adam had stretched out his greedy hands toward the forbidden fruit, it was fitting that the second Adam should open his guiltless hands on the cross. Since Adam had tasted the sweetness of the apple, Jesus had to taste the bitterness of gall. And since he was giving his own immortality to man, it was by a fitting exchange that he took human mortality, because if God had not become man, man could not have become immortal. To all this Aegeus‘s reply was: ‘Go teach these inanities to your own people, but now obey me and offer sacrifice to the all-powerful gods!‘ And Andrew: ‘To almighty God I offer daily a Lamb without stain, who remains alive and whole after all the people have eaten him.‘ Aegeus asked how this could be, and Andrew answered: ‘Become his disciple and I will tell you.‘ Aegeus: ‘Well, then, I will torture an answer out of you‘; and, enraged, he had him imprisoned.
The next morning, taking his place in the judgment seat, he again called upon Andrew to sacrifice to the idols, saying: ‘If you refuse to obey me, I shall have you hung upon the cross you boast about!‘ And he threatened him with other torments. The apostle responded: ‘Make them the worst you can think of! The more bravely I bear suffering in his name, the more acceptable I shall be to my king.‘ Aegeus commanded twenty-one men to seize him, flog him, and bind him hand and foot to a cross, so as to make his agony last longer.
While the saint was being led to the cross, a great crowd gathered, shouting: ‘An innocent man is condemned to shed his blood without cause!‘ The apostle, however, begged them not to try to save him from martyrdom. Then, seeing the cross in the distance, he greeted it, saying: ‘Hail, O cross sanctified by the body of Christ and adorned with his limbs as with precious stones! Before the Lord was lifted up on you, you were greatly feared on earth, but now you draw down love from heaven and are accepted as a blessing. I come to you assured and rejoicing, so that you may joyfully accept me, the disciple of him who hung upon you, for I have always loved you and yearned to embrace you. O good cross, honored and beautified by the limbs of the Lord, long desired, constantly loved, ceaselessly sought, and now prepared for my wishful heart! Take me away from the world of men and return me to my Master, that he, having redeemed me by means of you, may receive me from you.‘ Having said these words, he shed his garments and gave them to the executioners, who fixed him to the cross as they had been commanded. For two days Andrew hung there alive and preached to twenty thousand people.“
“As Andrew finished his prayer, a dazzling light shone out of heaven and enveloped him for the space of half an hour, hiding him from sight; and as the light faded, he breathed his last. Maximilla, Aegeus‘ wife, took away the body of the holy apostle and gave it honorable burial. But Aegues, before ever he got back to his house, was seized by a demon and died in the street, with the crowd looking on.
Jacobus de Voragine: The Golden Legend. Readings on the Saints, Princeton University Press 1993, p. 18
We are told also that a flourlike manna and sweet-smelling oil used to issue from Saint Andrew‘s tomb, and that by this sign the people of the region could predict the next year‘s crops. If the flow was meager, the crops would be poor; if abundant, the yield would be plentiful.“
Saint Andrew the Apostle is the patron saint of fishermen, farm workers, and, among other places, of Greece, Cyprus, Ukraine, Russia, and Scotland.
Saint Andrew, holy Apostle and martyr, pray for us!