Saint Andrew the Apostle

Andrew was a fisherman from Bethsaida in Galilee, the son of Jonah and the brother of Simon Peter. The two brothers worked together on the Sea of Galilee and shared a house in Capernaum. His name was Greek rather than Hebrew, which hints at how open to the wider Greek-speaking world his family was.

Before he followed Jesus, Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist. In John's Gospel he is with a companion when the Baptist sees Jesus passing and calls him the Lamb of God. The two men go after Jesus, speak with him, and stay with him, and the Gospel even records the hour, about four in the afternoon. Andrew's first act afterward was to find his brother and tell him that they had found the Messiah, and he brought Simon to Jesus. For this reason the Eastern churches call him Protokletos, the First-Called.

Matthew and Mark describe a second meeting, on the shore, where Jesus saw Simon and Andrew casting their nets and told them to follow him and he would make them fishers of men. They left their nets and went with him. Andrew appears in a few other scenes, always as someone who brings people to Jesus. Before the feeding of the crowd, it is Andrew who points out a boy with a few loaves and fish. When some Greeks wanted to meet Jesus, Andrew led them to him.

Very little reliable information survives about his later life. Tradition holds that after Pentecost he preached the Gospel in Achaia, in Greece, and that he was crucified at Patras around the year 60. A later tradition says his cross was X-shaped, and that form is still called Saint Andrew's cross. The church of Constantinople venerates him as its patron, and Eastern Orthodox tradition regards the Ecumenical Patriarch as his successor. He is remembered as the apostle who was called first and who kept leading others to Christ.

Saint Andrew the Apostle, pray for us.