November 30th
Everywhere he traveled, the churches sprang up around him.
It happened in Thrace, in Macedonia, in the Crimea, along the Danube River, and even in distant Russia, where he also brought many converts to Christ. Standing at the summit of a group of lofty hills (the great Russian city of Kiev would be built here one day), he raised his eyes to the shimmering horizon and declared: “See ye these hills? Upon these hills will shine forth the beneficence of God, and there will be here a great city, and God shalt raise up many churches!”
He was a great church-builder, but not from his own strength. For the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called, every accomplishment flowed from the wondrous and holy power of God. Hadn’t the Forerunner – the supremely blessed St. John the Baptist himself – made that same point, at the moment when he took Andrew by the arm on that wonderful afternoon in Galilee . . . and then pointed to Jesus while uttering a wild cry from the heart:
Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world. (John 1: 29-36)
Born in the Galilee town of Bethesda, St. Andrew was the son of Jonas and also the brother of the Great Apostle, St. Peter, whom he would help convert to the Holy Gospel of the Redeemer. Like his holy brother, who was destined to found Christianity in the great world capital of Rome (and also to be martyred for the sake of the Gospel there), the Apostle Andrew was a humble fisherman who daily plied his trade along the restless waters of ancient Palestine.TAKEN FROMIt was a simple life, but Andrew loved being a fisherman . . . until that dramatic moment when the Forerunner shouted into his ear in the Bethesda marketplace: “Behold!” Who could resist such a summons? Until that moment, St. Andrew had been the disciple of St. John. But then everything was changed. Within a heartbeat, the First-Called was drawn inexorably toward his destiny as a missionary father whose extraordinary career would take him through many different lands . . . until his final hour of agony, when he lay dying against the tree to which he had been tied in the distant city of Patras, Greece.
He would preach in Byzantium first: a driven, passionate figure who wore himself out in the struggle to tell the world about the Good News of Jesus Christ. While pausing in his labors to appoint St. Stachys as the first bishop of Byzantium – a crucially important anointing that established an unbroken line of more than 270 Holy Orthodox patriarchs down to the present day – St. Andrew would emphasize the great new hope that the Holy Redeemer had brought to earth: “I came to forgive sinners!”
From Byzantium he carried the news like a fiery sword to several countries around the Black Sea and then on to the Peloponnese and the Greek mainland, where he would convert multitudes along the way, while ordaining priests and appointing bishops and building new churches everywhere.
In the city of Patras, where he performed many miracles, this dedicated holy man achieved a remarkable success – when he welcomed into the faith both the brother (Stratokles) and the wife (Maximilla) of the Roman proconsul, Aegeatos. But this victory for the Holy Gospel would prove to be very costly . . . after the Roman ruler exploded in rage over the fact that such conversions were taking place within his own household!
Incensed and unrelenting, the proconsul first tortured the saint and then had him bound to a cross in the shape of an “X.” (Interestingly enough, “X” is also the first letter in the Greek word for “Christ.”)
After being tied to his cross upside down, and while suffering there for more than two days, the valorous Saint Andrew refused to despair. Instead, he continued to preach to those who stood nearby, while offering them peace and comfort. Then he paused for a few moments and prayed to the Almighty for his executioners . . . who were moments later thunderstruck to observe a brilliant light hovering above the dying martyr for more than half an hour.
Frightened and awestruck now, the bystanders urged St. Andrew to let them remove him from the cross, but he adamantly refused. Ignoring his wishes, a group of soldiers rushed forward to release him – and then fell back in astonishment when their hands were suddenly paralyzed! What could this possibly mean? Had they sentenced an innocent man to death?
After a few more minutes, the brilliant light slowly faded, and soon a pagan onlooker could be heard shouting: “He is gone; the Christian is dead!”
Grief-stricken and inconsolable, the proconsul’s wife Maximilla arranged for his burial.
St. Andrew the First-Called died for the Lord Jesus in 62, and most of his relics were many years later transported to Constantinople, although a few of them wound up in Rome and even in Moscow.
During his wide-ranging travels, the peripatetic St. Andrew had preached among Palestinians, Greeks, Turks, Byzantines, Russians and Slavs. Among the many churches he founded was the Church of Christ in the tiny village of Byzantium, which would one day be known as mighty Constantinople.
As the first of the Twelve Apostles to be called to join the Son of God in his sacred mission on earth, St. Andrew has always enjoyed a special place in the hearts of Christians everywhere. A simple fisherman who never married, this kind-hearted evangelist proved to be fully capable of performing a mighty challenge: converting thousands of pagans in a vast region that stretched from the Danube River in the west to the Slavic villages on the great plains of Russia.
The life of St. Andrew the First-Called shows us that “all things are possible with God,” provided that we never stop praying for the grace required to achieve the visionary tasks set for each of us by the Lord God of Hosts, Jesus Christ!
Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone
As the first-called of the Apostles, and brother of their leader, O Andrew, entreat the Master of all that peace be granted unto the world and great mercy to our souls.
Kontakion in the Second Tone
Let us acclaim the namesake of courage, that herald of things divine, the first-called of the Saviour’s disciples, and the kinsman of Peter; for as he formerly cried out to him, so doth he now to us: Come, we have found the Desire One.
