The Feast of St. Andrew, Apostle & Martyr

The Feast of St. Andrew, Apostle & Martyr – is celebrated each year on this day, the 30th of November.  It is the Feast of St. Andrew that determines the first day of the liturgical year, God’s year of grace, as the Sunday closest to St. Andrew is the First Sunday of Advent.

“We have found the Messiah!” is the excited proclamation of St. Andrew, son of Jonah, brother of Simon Peter (John 1:40-41).  It is Andrew that brings Peter to Jesus, who tells them that they will be “fishers of men” (Matthew 4:18-19).  Their response showed forth their faith – they left all and followed Him.  Following the order of John 1:40-41, Andrew is held to have been the first Apostle called by the Lord.

A Galilean by birth, born in Bethsaida, Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptizer, who heard him announce Jesus as “the Lamb of God.” (John 1:36)  He left John to follow Jesus, and then brought his brother to Him.  Mark 1:29 later places Andrew’s home in Capernaum.

Andrew appears in all four of the Apostolic Lists in Scripture, finding a place of prominence among the first four names.  It was Andrew that brought the young boy with five barley loaves and two fish to Jesus, which Jesus miraculously multiplied to feed the five thousand (John 6:8-13).  When approached by two Greek men asking to see Jesus, Philip told Andrew, and both Apostles took the men to see the Lord (John 12:20-22). 

After being named in the Apostolic List in Acts 1:13, Scripture is silent on Andrew.  The tradition of the Church is that after the Resurrection Andrew preached in Asia minor, then in Sythia, Byzantium, and finally in Greece.  Church history records his death by crucifixion on a saltire (“crux decussata” or “X” shaped) cross on November 30, the Year of our Lord 60, during the Neronian persecution of the Church.  He is counted as the Patron Saint of Scotland, which features a saltire cross on their national flag.

Image: From Les Images De Tous Les Saincts et Saintes de L'Année, by Jacques Callot.  French, A.+ D. 1636.  In the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.  Public Domain.