30 November: Saint Andrew the Apostle
Simon Peter’s brother
The Gospels present Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, as one of the two disciples of John the Baptist, who followed Jesus from the very beginning (Jn 1:35-39). He was born in Bethsaida in Galilee, on the shores of Lake Tiberias. He was a fisherman like his brother Simon (Peter). On his search for God, he became a disciple of John the Baptist, who baptized him. When John the Baptist pointed to Jesus as the “Lamb of God” (Jn 1:29-40) on the River Jordan, he immediately followed the Teacher and never left him.
Andrew was thus the first of the Twelve future Apostles and, together with Peter, and James and John, Zebedee’s sons, he was part of the group of the first four Apostles. Andrew was often the intermediary, who facilitated many encounters. He brought his brother Simon Peter to Jesus (Jn 1:39-42). During the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves, he was the one who introduced the young boy with the five loaves and two fish to Jesus to feed the multitude (Jn 6:9).
He was also the one who, with Philip his friend from Bethsaida, introduced Jesus to some people from Greece who wanted to meet him.
Tradition holds that after Pentecost, he went to preach the Gospel along the coast of the Black Sea. He visited Bithynia (Turkish coast), Ephesus, Mesopotamia, Thrace (between Bosphorus and the Danube), Byzantium and Achaia (a region north of the Peloponnese Peninsula). He was crucified in Patras, modern day Greece, around 60 A.D. during the reign of Emperor Nero on a diagonal cross, giving his name to the diagonally shaped cross known as Saint Andrew’s Cross.
In the fourth century, his relics were taken to Constantinople, but they are currently kept in the Cathedral of Amalfi. A large part of the relics were returned to the Church of Greece in the 1960’s, and a large Church was built to house the relics, in Patras.
The Ecumenical Patriarchate chose Andrew as its Patron Saint and invokes him as “the First-called” by Jesus.
The Apostle is sometimes depicted holding a big fishing net with several fish in it.