Andrea: Name Day and Patron Saint

St Andrew was a fisherman of Bethsaida in Galilee, the son of Jonas and the brother of Simon Peter. He was first a disciple of St John the Baptist, and when John pointed to Jesus and said, “Behold the Lamb of God,” Andrew followed Him at once. So the Church calls him the First-Called. He then brought his brother Peter to Christ. After Pentecost he carried the Gospel to the lands of the East, through Asia Minor, Thrace and Macedonia, along the Black Sea and across Crimea, and up the Dnieper, where he set up a cross on the hills of Kiev and foretold that a great city with many churches would rise there. In the small town of Byzantium, the future Constantinople, he founded the Church of Christ. Though beaten and stoned, he kept preaching. His last city was Patras in Achaia, where his healings and preaching brought almost the whole city to the faith. The governor Aegeatos had him crucified, tied rather than nailed so that he would suffer longer, on a cross shaped like an X, the first letter of Christ’s name in Greek. From the cross he taught the people for two days before he gave up his spirit. His relics were later laid in the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople. The Church keeps his feast on 30 November (13 December on the Old Calendar), and in his hymn asks him to pray for peace for the world and great mercy for our souls.

What the faithful pray for

• to follow Christ without delay when He calls
• to bring family and friends to Christ
• brothers and sisters, and the love between them
• missionaries and all who carry the Gospel to far places
• peace for the world and mercy for our souls