Andrew the Apostle

Life events

1. Born

   Andrew was born to a Jewish family in Bethsaida, Galilee, carrying a Greek name — Ἀνδρέας (andreías, "manhood, valor") — common among Hellenised Jews since the second or third century BC. No Hebrew or Aramaic name for him is recorded in any source.

2. Other — 28

   Before following Jesus, Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist. The Gospel of John records that Andrew and an unnamed companion — traditionally identified as John the Apostle — were the first two disciples called by Jesus; Andrew immediately recognised Jesus as the Messiah and brought his brother Simon Peter to him, the act that earned him the Eastern epithet Protokletos ("First-Called").

3. Other — 30

   Andrew appears at several pivotal moments in the gospel narratives: he told Jesus about the boy with loaves and fishes, acted as intermediary when Greek visitors sought an audience with Jesus through Philip, was present at the Last Supper, and was one of four disciples who questioned Jesus on the Mount of Olives about the signs of the end of the age.

4. Pilgrimage — 38

   According to tradition recorded by Hippolytus of Rome and in the apocryphal Acts of Andrew, Andrew founded the see of Byzantium around AD 38, installing Stachys as its first bishop — the diocese that became the seat of the Patriarchate of Constantinople under Anatolius in 451. Origen (quoted by Eusebius, Church History 3.1) records that Andrew preached in Scythia; Basil of Seleucia (5th century) extends his missions to Thrace and Achaea.

5. Martyred — 60

   Andrew is said to have been martyred by crucifixion at Patras (Patrae) in Achaea in AD 60. Early texts, including the Acts of Andrew known to Gregory of Tours (6th century), describe him as bound — not nailed — to a Latin cross; the tradition of an X-shaped crux decussata, on which he requested to be crucified as unworthy of dying as Jesus did, was not standardised in iconography until the later Middle Ages.

6. Translated — 357

   Most of Andrew's relics at Patras were transferred to Constantinople around 357 by order of Emperor Constantius II and deposited in the Church of the Holy Apostles. The skull, previously removed to Constantinople, was returned to Patras by Byzantine Emperor Basil I (r. 867-886).

7. Translated — 1208

   After the sack of Constantinople in 1208, Cardinal Peter of Capua the Elder carried relics of Andrew and Peter to Amalfi, Italy, where a cathedral was built over a crypt housing most of the remains. In 1461 Thomas Palaiologos brought what was purported to be Andrew's skull to Pope Pius II, who enshrined it in St. Peter's Basilica; the skull was returned to Patras by Pope Paul VI in September 1964 as a gesture of goodwill toward the Greek Orthodox Church.

8. Other — 1980

   The cross on which Andrew was martyred — taken from Greece during the Crusades and kept in the church of St Victor in Marseille — was returned to Patras on 19 January 1980, presented to Bishop Nicodemus of Patras by a Catholic delegation led by Cardinal Roger Etchegaray. All major relics (a finger bone, part of the cranium, and the cross) are now venerated at the Church of St Andrew in Patras on 30 November each year.

Relationships

Documented claims

• The Eastern Orthodox Church honours Andrew with the title Protokletos ("First-Called"), derived from the Gospel of John where he, a former disciple of John the Baptist, is the first to follow Jesus and recognise him as Messiah. (certain)
• The X-shaped crux decussata of Andrew's martyrdom forms the basis of the flag of Scotland, the Union Flag, the Russian Navy Ensign, and the flag of Tenerife; it also appears in the coat of arms of the king of Spain, traceable to the Duchy of Burgundy's Cross de Bourgogne. (likely)
• Andrew is patron saint of Romania, Russia, Scotland, Ukraine, and Barbados, and is considered the founder and first bishop of the Church of Byzantium — making him patron of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. Pope Benedict XVI called him "the Apostle of the Greek world." (likely)
• The Eastern Orthodox Church marks four fixed commemorations: 20 June (translation of relics), 30 June (Feast of the Twelve Apostles), 26 September (translation of skull, 1964), and 30 November (primary feast); movable feasts include the Sunday before 30 November and the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman. (certain)
• The apocryphal Acts of Andrew — known to Eusebius, who dismissed it as the work of a heretic — shows signs of mid-2nd-century origin and was listed among rejected books in the Decretum Gelasianum; scholar Dennis MacDonald argues it was modelled on Homer's Odyssey. (likely)