Saint Andrew
Andrew [first century] St Andrew was the first apostle to be called by Jesus. He belonged to Galilee and was the brother of Simon Peter. John’s Gospel tells us that Andrew was one of the two disciples of Saint John the Baptist who heard him say of Christ, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God’ and at once followed Jesus. His first act was to find his brother Simon and bring him to Jesus. He may also have been instrumental in bringing St Philip, who was of the same city. At the feeding of the five thousand, it was Andrew who told Jesus about the boy who had the loaves and the fishes. And John tells us that, when the Greeks wanted to see Jesus, they approached St Philip and St Andrew. According to tradition, Andrew was the first to preach the gospel in Russia, where he is greatly revered. Another tradition holds that he preached in Achaia, a province of ancient Greece, where he converted the wife of the Roman proconsul, who ordered that Andrew should be scourged and bound to a cross-not nailed, so that his death might be more lingering. Andrew is said to have preached from the cross to twenty thousand men and that he took two days to die. Many of those who heard him were converted. Andrew’s body was taken to Constantinople by the emperor Constantine. Andrew is associated with Scotland, of which he is patron saint. St Rule (or Regulus) was charged to take care of the relics of St Andrew. In a dream, he was warned by an angel to take them to a place yet to be named. Eventually he found his way to a spot that later came to be called St. Andres and there he deposited the relics. Andrew is the patron saint of Greece and Russia. His main emblem is the cross in the shape of an X, or saltire, but he is often depicted with a net containing fish, or a length of rope. His feast day is November 30. (Dictionary of Saints) Photo from the Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan, 2025.