An Account of the Life of the  
Holy Apostle, Saint Andrew  
(the First-called)

compiled by

The Very Reverend Archpriest, Michael S. Irby
KGCJ, KGCOComm, KGCV
Duke, Borelia de Clermont, &

Chaplain, Order of St. Andrew of Jerusalem  

Herewith is an Account of the Life of the Holy Apostle, Saint Andrew, Patron of the Order of St. Andrew of Jerusalem.

The glorious Apostle of Christ, Andrew, was the brother of the Holy Apostle Peter, and came from the village of Bethsaida on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. Unlike Simon Peter, who married, Andrew chose to live a chaste life, residing in his brother’s home. The two brothers earned their living as fishers, and lived righteously according to the Law of Moses.  

When Saint John the Baptist went about Judaea, proclaiming his message of repentance, Andrew hastened to join him as a disciple. Some days after he had baptized Jesus, John the Baptist was conversing with Andrew and his other disciple, John the Theologian, as the Lord passed by. John the Baptist looked at Him and said to his disciples: “Behold the Lamb of God!” (St. John 1:35). At these words, Andrew and the other disciple, John, followed Jesus to learn more about Him. Accompanying Jesus to the place where He was living, they asked Him many questions. At the conclusion of this conversation, Andrew became convinced that he was in the company of the Saviour and Son of God.

 Unable to contain his joy, he hurried home to his brother Simon, announcing: “We have found the Messiah!” (St. John 1:41), and then he brought Peter to Jesus. Being the first to recognise Christ and to announce Him to Peter, Saint Andrew is often given the title of ‘First-called.’

 From that time, Andrew followed the Saviour wherever He went. His loyalty was equalled by his compassion for people, for it was at Andrew’s intercession that the Lord multiplied the loaves to provide earthly food for the Five Thousand. It was also to Andrew’s intercession that the Apostle Philip turned when some Greeks asked to see Jesus.

 Saint Andrew witnessed all of the events in Jerusalem at the time of the Life-giving Passion of the Lord, and was present with the others at the appearances of Our Saviour after His Resurrection. He received the fullness of the grace of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and he was allotted to preach the Good News around the coast of the Black Sea and in northern Greece.

 His first journey was to Pontus, on the southern shore of the Black Sea, where he converted a large number of Jews, healing many of their diseases. Following the coast to Trebizond, he preached as far as the Caucusus before returning to Jerusalem for Pascha or Easter (the Feast of the Resurrection). After this, he set out for Ephesus with Saint John the Theologian, and later evangelised western Asia Minor. Andrew then turned north to the cities of Nicaea, Nicomedia, Chalcedon, Heraclea Pontica, and Amastris.

 On reaching Sinope, he delivered the Apostle Matthias from chains by his prayer. It was here that Andrew first shed his blood for Christ, losing a finger to an infuriated mob of pagans. Because he bore this with such patience and steadfast love, the people of Sinope repented and received Holy Baptism. After this journey, the Saint returned to Jerusalem for the Apostles’ Council (Acts 15).

 After the Feast of Pascha or Easter, Andrew accompanied Matthias and Jude Thaddeus to the borders of Mesopotamia, leaving them in order to preach along the northern coast of the Black Sea (Crimea & southern Ukraine). Turning west, he visited the still small town of Byzantium (later to be re-created as Constantinople) wherein he founded a Church dedicated to the Mother of God.

 From there, his journeys took him as far south as the city of Patras in the Peloponnese. Here, Andrew healed Maximilla, the Roman Proconsul’s wife, of an incurable disease, thereby bringing her to the Faith. Others followed her example so that a large community of Christians was established there. During the absence of the Proconsul Aegeates, Saint Andrew also converted his brother and deputy, Stratocles.

 Upon his return, Aegeates was enraged to observe the gains made by the Christians, even in his own household, and he had the Apostle arrested. In prison, Andrew continued preaching and made Stratocles Bishop of Patras. Some days later the Apostle was summarily condemned to be crucified head downwards. Aegeates died a violent death soon afterwards, and his wealth was distributed amongst the poor by Stratocles, who built a Cathedral Church over the place of the Apostle’s Martyrdom.

 Many years later, in 357 A.D., the relics of the Apostle were brought from Patras to Constantinople at the command of the Emperor Constantius, the son of Saint Constantine. They were placed with those of Saint Luke and Saint Jude Thaddeus in the new Church of the Holy Apostles. Five hundred years later, they were returned to Patras by Emperor Basil I, the Macedonian (867-886).

 In 1460, on the eve of the Turkish invasion of the Peloponnese, where the Barony of Clermont was located, Thomas Palaeologos presented the relics of Saint Andrew to Pius II, Pope of Rome. Thomas was a member of the Byzantine Imperial Family, had ties to the West and he even had hopes of a re-union of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. The skull of the Apostle was finally returned to Patras on 26 September 1964, by the Pope, Paul VI.  Amalfi, where the skull had been kept on its way to Rome is the home of a Cathedral dedicated to Saint Andrew, and a copy of the Rule of the Order of St. Andrew of Jerusalem is on deposit there.

 In the Slav tradition, Saint Andrew’s mission extended as far as Russia, giving the Russian Church an Apostolic origin identical to Constantinople (Byzantium).

 In the Western tradition, Saint Andrew is especially venerated as the Patron of Scotland. Saint Regulus, a monk from Constantinople, is said to have brought a part of the precious relics of the Apostle to Scotland in obedience to a vision. He was instructed to journey to Patras and to then deliver the relics to, “the West, in the utmost part of the world.”  Arriving in 347 A.D., he was shipwrecked at Kinrymont and founded a Church in Fife at the place now called St. Andrews, which became a centre of evangelisation and pilgrimage. In the Middle Ages, there were more than eight hundred Churches in Scotland dedicated to the First-called of the Apostles, Saint Andrew.

 Revered as the Patron of fishers, and of the countries of Greece, Russia and Scotland, Saint Andrew was also chosen as the heavenly Protector of the Order of Chivalry which bears his name, when, in 1232, the Crusading Order of St. Andrew of Jerusalem was founded in the City of Acre of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. November 30 is celebrated as the High Feast of the Order to this day with the Divine Liturgy being offered and the Members around the World being urged to offer Devotions. The Saint’s Feast is also recognised by the Anglican, Orthodox, Roman Catholic and other communions on the same date.