Andrew is translated beautiful, or responsive, or again manly, from the word andros, that is, man. Or Andrew comes from anthropos, man, which comes from ana, above, and tropos, turning: one who turns to God above and raises his eyes to his Creator. He was beautiful in his life, responsive in his wise teaching, virile in suffering, and esteemed by all for his manly virtues.

His martyrdom had been related by the priests and deacons of Achaea, or Asia, who saw it with their own eyes.

Andrew and several other disciples were called by Our Lord three times. The first time, He called them to know Him. That was the day when Andrew, with another disciple of John his master, heard the words 'Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world.' And immediately Andrew followed Jesus, and stayed with Him a whole day. Then on the morrow he returned to his calling, which was fishing. But some time later Jesus called him to His friendship. Coming with a great crowd to the shore of the Lake of Genesareth, which is also called the Sea of Galilee, He went into the ship that belonged to Simon and Andrew, and bade them take a huge catch of fish. Then Andrew called James and John, who were in another ship, and they followed the Lord, after which they again returned to their work. But soon the Lord called them a third time, this time to be His disciples. Walking one day beside the same lake, He signalled them to throw aside their nets, and said to them, 'Follow Me, I will make you fishers of men.' And they followed Him, and never again returned to their profession of fishing. Still a fourth time, moreover, the Lord called Andrew; this time it was to be His apostle, as Saint Mark the Evangelist has set forth in his third chapter. He called those whom He had chosen for Himself and they came to Him, and He saw to it that they were twelve in number.

After Our Lord's Ascension into Heaven, the apostles separated, and Andrew went into the land of Scythia, while Matthew went to Murgundia, also called Ethiopia. But the Ethiopians, refusing to heed Matthew's preaching, put out his eyes, bound him with chains, and threw him into prison, intending to put him to death within a few days. In the meantime, the Angel of the Lord appeared to Andrew and commanded him to go to Ethiopia to be with Saint Matthew. Andrew answered that he did not know the way; whereupon the angel ordered him to go to the seacoast, and there to board the first vessel that he encountered. This Andrew made haste to do; and the ship, aided by a favourable wind, was not slow in carrying him to the town where Saint Matthew was. Then, with the angel to guide him, he made his way into the evangelist's prison, which he found open; and seeing Saint Matthew, he wept much and prayed. And the Lord, at his request restored to Matthew the blessing of sight, which the cruelty of the unbelievers had taken from him. Matthew then left his prison and returned to Antioch. But Andrew stayed in Ethiopia where the inhabitants, furious at his friend's escape, seized him and ragged him from place to place with his hands bound. His blood flowed freely; yet he prayed to God unceasingly for his tormentors, with the result that in the end he converted them. And it was after this that he set out toward Greece. This, at any rate, is the common story; but I for one find it very hard to believe, for the fact of the deliverance and cure of Matthew by Andrew would imlpy-and this is very unlikely-that the great evangelist and apostle was unable to obtain for himself what his brother secured for him so easily.

A young man of noble family had been converted by Saint Andrew and joined his company against the will of his parents; whereupon the latter set fire to the house where he lived with the apostle. When the flames were already making headway, the young man poured a small glass of water on them, and the fire died out. Then the parents said, 'Our son has become a sorcerer.' And bringing up a ladder, they tried to climb up and carry off their son; but God struck them blind, so that they could no longer see the rungs of the ladder. A man who was passing shouted to them, 'Why waste yourselves in a vain effort? Do you not see that God is fighting for them? Make haste to yield for fear that the wrath of God fall upon you!' Many, seeing this, believed in the Lord. As for the young man's parents, they died after fifty days, both at the same hour.

A certain woman, who had married an assassin, was brought to bed, but could not bring forth her child. Then she said to her sister: 'Go and pray to our mistress Diana for me!' But instead of Diana, the Devil answered. 'It is useless to invoke me, for I can do nothing for thee. Go instead and find Andrew the Apostle; he can help thy sister!' She went therefore and sought out Saint Andrew, and brought him to the bedside of her sick sister. And the apostle said to her: 'Thou deservest thy sufferings, for thou hast married ill, conceived ill, and to crown all this thou hast called upon the Devil. But repent, believe in Christ, and thou shalt be delivered.' And in fact the woman made an act of faith, and brought forth a still-born child; and her pangs ceased.

An old man named Nicholas came one day to Saint Andrew and said to him: 'Master, I am now seventy years old, and I have never broken my addiction to impurity. Yet I have read the Gospel, and prayed to God to grant me the gift of continence. But, hardened in sin, and led astray by evil desires, I returned to my vicious habits. And yesterday it happened that, burning with lust, I forgot that I was carrying the Gospel on my person, and went to a house of ill fame. But behold, the wanton, when she saw me, cried out: "Go from me, old man! Do not touch me and do not try to enter this house; for I see wondrous things about thee, which show me that thou art a messenger of God!" And I, astonished at these words, saw that I was carrying the Gospel. Now, holy apostle of God, I come to thee, that thy devout prayer may intercede with God, I and may win my salvation.' Hearing this, the blessed Andrew started to weep, and he remained in prayer from the third hour to the ninth; and when he arose, he refused to eat, saying, 'I will not eat until I know that the Lord has taken pity on this poor old man!' And after he had fasted for five days, a voice from on high said to him: 'Andrew, thou hast obtained grace for the old man. But just as thou hast mortified thyself by fasting for him, so likewise he must fast in his turn, in order to earn his salvation.' And the old man did so. For six months he fasted on bread and water; after which he fell asleep in peace, full of good works. And again Andrew heard the voice, which said to him, 'Thy prayer has restored to me Nicholas, whom I had lost!'

At the time when the apostle came to the city of Nicaea, the inhabitants told him that seven devils had gathered at the gates of the town, on the high road, and were killing the passersby. Then the apostle, before all the people, ordered the demons to come to him, and they came forthwith, in the form of dogs. The apostle commanded them to be off to some other place. Whereupon the demons fled. And those who witnessed this miracle accepted the faith of Christ. But it came about that when he arrived at the gates of another town, Andrew met the corpse of a Young man being carried away for burial. And he was told that seven dogs had come in the night, and killed the young man in his bed. The apostle, in tears, cried out: 'I know, Lord, that these were the seven devils whom I chased out of Nicaea! Then he said to the father: 'What wilt thou give me if I restore thy son to life?' 'I have nothing dearer than he,' answered the father, so I will give him to thee!' And when Andrew had prayed to the Lord, the young man rose and followed him.

Then men, to the number of forty, were on their way by sea to the apostle, to receive the word of faith from him, when the Devil raised a storm so violent that all were drowned. But their bodies were cast up on the shore by the waves, and the apostle straightway brought them back to life. And each one of them narrated the miracle which had befallen him. Whence it is that we read in a hymn of the Saint's office:

Quaterdenos juvenes,
Submersos maris fluctibus,
Vitae reddidit usibus.

Then the blessed Andrew, having settled in Achaea, filled the whole region with churches, and led a great number of its inhabitants to the Christian faith. Among others, he converted the wife of the proconsul Aegeus, and baptized her. But the proconsul, as soon as he heard of it, came into the town of Patras, and commanded the Christians to sacrifice to the idols. Then Andrew came to meet him, and said: 'Thou who hast the merit to become a judge of earth, hast also the duty of acknowledging thy heavenly judge, and having recognized Him, and adored Him, to renounce the worship of false gods completely!' But Aegeus answered: 'I see that thou art that Andrew, who is preaching the noxious heresy which the princes of Rome recently ordered us to exterminate!' Said Andrew: 'That is because the princes of Rome do not yet know that the Son of God has come to earth, and has taught that your idols are demons, and their doctrine an offense to God. Wherefore, since God has abandoned them, the Devil seizes these men and deceives them as he lists, until the day when their souls leave their bodies and stand naked, wearing nothing but their sins.' Aegeus, in answer, said: 'Yes, and because your Jesus was teaching you this nonsense, they nailed him to a cross.' And Andrew replied: 'It was to give us salvation, and not to expiate His own wrongs, that He freely accepted the agony of the Cross.' Then said Aegeus: 'How canst thou say that he freely suffered death, when we know that he was handed over by one of his disciples, imprisoned by the Jews, and crucified by the soldiers?' Then Andrew set out to prove, by five arguments, that the Passion of Christ was voluntary: for Christ had foreseen His Passion and had foretold it to His disciples, saying, 'Behold we go up to Jerusalem'; He was indignant when Peter wished to deter Him; He had declared that He had the power to suffer and rise again; He had pointed out in advance the man who would betray Him, had broken bread with him, and had done nothing to escape; finally, He had gone straight to the place where He knew the traitor would come to arrest Him. And Andrew added that the mystery of the Cross was a great one. 'It is by no means a mystery, but a punishment,' replied Aegeus. 'And if thou refusest to obey me, I shall see to it that thou also shalt taste the same mystery!' 'If I were afraid of the pain of the Cross,' Andrew responded, I should not be preaching the glory of the Cross. But first let me teach thee the mystery of the Cross, that perhaps thou mayest consent to believe in it, and be saved!' Thereupon he set out to explain to him the mystery of Redemption, proving to him, by five arguments, how necessary and logical this mystery was: for since the first man had brought death into the world by means of a wooden object, namely the tree of good and evil, it was necessary that the Son of Man should banish death by dying on an object of wood; since the guilty man had been made of spotless earth, it was necessary that the Redeemer should be born of a spotless virgin; since Adam had stretched forth his greedy hands toward the forbidden fruit, it was necessary that the second Adam should stretch out His pure hands on the Cross; since Adam had tasted the sweetness of the apple, it was necessary that Jesus should taste the bitterness of gall on the Cross; since Jesus was giving His own immortality to man, it was necessary that He should take man's mortality in exchange. For if God had not become mortal, man could not have become immortal. Then said Aegeus: 'Very well, I shall have thee tortured until though hast proved to me that thou canst perform this miracle!' And, enraged, had had him imprisoned forthwith. The next morning, taking his place in the judgment seat, he again called upon Andrew to sacrifice to the idols, saying: 'If thou refusest to obey me, I shall have thee nailed to the cross of which thou boastest so loudly.' And he threatened him with other torments. But the apostle answered: 'Fear not to devise torture that seems most dreadful to thee: for the more I shall have borne patiently in the name of my Lord, the more pleasing I shall be in His sight!' Then Aegeus ordered twenty-one men to seize him, flog him, and thereafter bind him to the cross, a crowd gathered, saying: 'He is innocent, and his blood is about to be shed unjustly.' But the apostle asked them to do nothing to prevent his martyrdom. Then, seeing the cross in the distance, he greeted it, saying: 'Hail, O Cross that hast been sanctified by the body of Christ, and adorned with His limbs as with precious stones! Before the Lord was nailed to thee, thou didst inspire fear on earth; but now thou drawest heavenly love, and art desired as a boon. Thus I come to thee assured of Him Who hung upon thee: for I have always loved thee, and yearned for thy embrace. O good Cross, ennobled and beautified by the limbs of the Lord, long desired, constantly loved, ceaselessly sought, take me away from men and return me to my Master, in order that He, having redeemed me by thee, may receive me from thee!' Saying these words, he divested himself and handed his garments to his executioners, who fixed him to the cross as they had been commanded. For two days Andrew hung there alive, and preached to twenty thousand people. On the third day the crowd began to threaten the proconsul Aegeus with death, saying that it was an abominable thing to inflict such suffering on an old man full of gentleness and piety. Aegeus, alarmed, came to have him taken from the cross. But Andrew, seeing him, said: 'Art thou here, Aegeus? If thou art come to seek forgiveness, thou shalt have thy pardon; but if thou art come to take me down from the Cross, know that I am not to come down alive! And already I see my King awaiting me in Heaven!' The soldiers sought to unbind him, but they could not touch him, for instantly their arms fell back powerless. And Andrew, seeing that the crowd wished to take him down from the Cross, uttered this prayer, which Saint Augustine has quoted in his book On Penance: 'Lord, suffer not that I come down alive from this cross; for it is time for Thee to give, my body back to the earth. I have borne it so long, I have aged and toiled so much, that now I would ask to be freed from this charge, and relieved of this heavy burden. As long as I was able, merciful Father I have resisted the attacks of the body, and with Thy help I have conquered it. But now I ask of Thee, in reward, no longer to command this struggle, and to take back that which Thou hast committed to me. Entrust it now to the earth, which may keep it, and restore it to me on the day of the resurrection of the body, in order that it too may receive the reward which it has earned! And permit that I may no longer have need to watch, and that my body hinder me no longer from going freely toward Thee, Source of eternal life and eternal joy!' When he had said these words, a dazzling light came down from Heaven and enveloped him for the space of a half hour, hiding him from sight; and when the light vanished, he breathed forth his soul. Maximilla, Aegeus' wife, took away his body and buried it with honour. But Aegeus, before he reached his house, was seized upon by a demon, and expired in the street, in the presence of all.

It is also said that manna in the form of flour and a scented oil used to issue from the tomb of Saint Andrew, and that by these signs the people of the environs could foretell the fruitfulness of the coming year: for if the oil flowed abundantly, it was a sign that the earth would be very fruitful. That, of course, may have happened in the past; but today it is generally admitted that the saint's body is no longer at Patras, but was transferred to Constantinople.

There was a certain pious bishop who loved Saint Andrew above all other saints. He never did anything without saying, 'In God's and Saint Andrew's name.' This excited the Devil's envy, and craftily he sought to deceive the bishop. He took the form of a wondrously beautiful woman, and came to the bishop's palace, asking to be allowed to confess to him. The bishop remanded the woman to his penitencer, who had full powers to hear her confession. But the woman answered that she was oppressed with secrets which she could reveal to no one but the bishop; so that in the end he allowed her to be brought before him. Then she said: 'I pray you, my lord, have pity on me, for I am still young. I was tenderly nurtured, as you may well see, and am of royal blood. I am the daughter of a mighty king, who wished to marry me to a great prince; but I declared to him that I held the nuptial bed in horror, because I had vowed my virginity to Christ forever. Seeing myself doomed to the worst torments if I persisted in my refusal, and preferring to live in misery rather than break my vow to my heavenly Bridegroom, I resolved to flee; and I have come to thee in the garb of a pilgrim to seek refuge beneath the wings of thy holiness, in the hope of finding with thee a place where I might devote myself in peace to contemplation, escape the tumult of the world, and be free of the calamities of life.' The bishop, admiring such fervour and such eloquence in a person so noble and so fair, answered her kindly: 'My child, be without fear! He for Whose love thou hast made little of thyself and thy kin will grant thee the fulness of His grace in this life, and a superabundance of His glory in the life to come. And I, His servant, place myself at thy disposal with all that I have; and today I desire thee to eat at my table.' But she said: 'No, my father, do not ask this of me, lest there come of it some evil rumour which might cause thy good repute to suffer.' And the bishop made answer: 'We shall not be alone at table, for many of my people will be with me, so that no ill report can arise.' The time came when they were to go to the table; and the bishop and the woman were seated opposite each other, and the others at the sides. The bishop could not desist from studying her face and admiring her great beauty. And while his eyes were upon her, his heart was filled with desire, and the Evil One drove his arrow deep into him. From minute to minute the woman became more beautiful; and the bishop was about to ask her to do his will at the first opportunity, when of a sudden a pilgrim appeared at the door, and beat upon it mightily to obtain admittance. No one would let him in, but he began to knock and to shout more loudly. Finally the bishop asked the woman if she saw any reason why they should not admit the stranger. She replied: 'Let us propose to him a question that will be very difficult to answer. If he answers it, let him in. If not, he is not worthy of being admitted to your presence.' The plan pleased every one, and they began to look about to find one wise enough to propound the question. Then the bishop said to the woman: 'No one of us is so well able to devise the question as thou art, fair lady, who surpassest all of us in wisdom and eloquence.' Then said the woman: 'Ask him what is the most wonderful thing that God has ever done in a small compass.' The question was put to the stranger, who replied to the porter: 'It is the variety and excellence of human faces: for among the innumerable multitude of men created from the beginning to the end of the world, no two have the same features; and yet God has placed in each of these small spaces the seat of all the senses of the body.' Hearing this the company said: 'That is an excellent and true answer to the question.' Then the woman said: 'Let a second, more difficult question, be given to him, so that we may appreciate his wisdom the more. Ask him in what point the earth is higher than all the heavens.' The stranger replied to the porter: 'It is in the empyrean heaven, for there the body of Christ resides, which is higher than all the heavens; and yet it is of our flesh, but our flesh is made of earth; therefore in that point the earth is higher than heaven.' This second answer received a like approval from the company. But the woman spoke again: 'Now we shall truly sound the depth of his wisdom; for the third question is to be the hardest and the most hidden. If he discovers the sense of this question, then he is indeed worthy of being admitted to the bishop's table. Ask him what is the distance from heaven to earth!' To this the stranger replied to the porter: 'Go ask that of the one who sent thee here, and receive thy reply from him, for he knows it better than I; he measured it when he fell from Heaven into the depths. I have never fallen from Heaven, so I have never measured the distance. This being is not a woman, but a devil who has taken the form of a woman!' The porter took fright at these words and ran back to report them to the company. They were overwhelmed with fear and wonder, but the devil disappeared before their very eyes. Straightway the bishop, entering into himself, reproached himself bitterly; and he sent someone quickly to look for the pilgrim, but he too had disappeared. Then the bishop called the people together, confessed all, and asked them to begin fasts and prayers that God might deign to reveal the identity of the stranger who had saved him from so great a danger. And that very night God revealed to the bishop that it was Saint Andrew who, to save him had come dressed as a pilgrim. Thereafter the bishop honoured Saint Andrew more than ever.

The prefect of a certain city had taken possession of a field which belonged to a church of Saint Andrew. At the prayer of the bishop, the prefect was immediately stricken with fever, because of his great sin. He thereupon asked the bishop to pray for him to Saint Andrew, promising to return the field if he recovered his health. But when he had recovered, he again seized the field. Then the bishop, before resorting to prayer, put out all the lamps of the church, saying: 'Let this light shine no more until God be avenged upon His enemy, and the stolen property restored to the church. And on the instant the prefect was again seized with the fever. He again requested the bishop to pray for him, and promised to return the field and another of equal size; and when the bishop answered that he had already prayed, the prefect had himself carried to the bishop's house, and forced him to go with him to the church and pray anew for his intention. But hardly had the bishop entered the church when the prefect died; and the field was promptly given back to the church.

The dates assigned to the various Feast Days are taken from The Book of Saints, The Benedictine Monks of St. Augustine's Abbey, Ramsgate. London: A. and C. Black, 1931.