St Andrew's Anglican Church, Lakemba

Who was St Andrew?

*Do you have a problem with sore throats or gout?

Many people associate Saint Andrew with relief from such conditions!

*Folk often associated with him are fishermen, fish dealers, maidens, singers, unmarried women, and women who wish to become mothers.

*Places claiming his patronage are widely scattered: Russia, Scotland, Greece, Amalfi in Italy, Achaia in Greece. A number of Universities also claim his name.

*His special day is November 30th and his chief symbol is a saltire-an X-shaped white cross on a blue background.

*Other symbols associated with Andrew are a fishing net, a fish, a man tied to a cross, a man preaching while tied to a cross and a preacher holding some fish.

*Andrew is a Greek name meaning 'manly' and 'strong'. There is no Hebrew equivalent for it but it was not unusual for Jews to have Greek names in those days.

*Andrew was a professional fisherman from Bethsaida [which means House of Fish]. In those days, there were about 330 fishing boats that worked the Lake of Galilee. It was a large industry.

*He also shared a house at Capernaum with his brother, Peter, and Peter's family. His father was Jonah [or John].

*We find Jesus' first encounter with Andrew is a question: What do you want? /or/ What are you looking for?

*What was Andrew's hope, his dream for the future?

He was already one of John the Baptist's disciples and John had pointed Jesus out to him, so we may imagine him saying something like:

  • "I want a renewed Israel, I want the Messiah to come, I want Israel to rule the world, I'm looking forward to the Day of the Lord & the judgement of the Gentiles."
  • *What did he say? Simply:

    *A favourite word in John's gospel is "to abide with"-meaning "to settle down and feel at home".

    *We are very familiar with the words "In my Father's house there are many mansions".

    The Greek can be read: "In my Father's house, there are many abiding places"- places where my friends can put their feet up and be comfortable.

    **One writer has put it, Andrew and his friend went to stay an evening with Jesus and felt so at home that they spent the rest of their lives in his company.

    *The other New Testament stories about Andrew include:

    *He brought his brother, Peter, to Jesus.

    *Jesus called him from fishing to be a disciple.

    *He discovered a young boy who had some bread and fish and brought him to Jesus so the hungry could be fed.

    *Andrew spoke with enquiring Greeks and brought them, too, into the presence of Jesus.

    *Andrew was with those whom Jesus took up "the mountain"

    He was among the twelve chosen by Jesus -

     

     

    Chosen [as Mark reports]

  • to be with Him/to be in his company/to abide with him
  • so that he might send them out to act as his heralds- the tellers of the Good News of God's great love, and have power to cast out demons, [that is to struggle against evil].

    *Andrew also sat on the Mount of Olives with Jesus and Peter, James and John, when the Cross was near, and the friends were anxious to know what would happen.

    *It was unusual for Andrew to be included with the Big Three. So many times he is spoken of as 'the brother of Simon'. One wonders if he might have had an identity crisis!

    Peter is referred to 26 times in the gospel of Mark alone, Andrew is mentioned just 12 times in the whole of the New Testament.

    *Andrew shows true humility, like that of the Master he followed.

    He was ready to take second place, even to live in his brother's shadow.

    He was not included in the inner circle despite being the first disciple to follow Jesus.

    *While Peter was the famous brother, he was often the disciple we wouldn't encourage others to imitate. [denying Jesus, encouraging Jesus to forget his mission, swearing; also, remember the other two in the inner circle, James and John, the fiery sons of thunder, who asked for the chief positions of power in the kingdom - not much humility there!].

    All the references to Andrew are positive.

    He is a wonderful example for future disciples.

    *So what happened to Andrew?

    *We have traditions but not certain knowledge.

    *There are books belonging to the New Testament apocrypha like the Acts of Andrew, the Acts of Peter and Andrew, which mainly have Andrew replicating the things Jesus did: healing, raising the dead, stilling a storm and dying bravely.

    Historians tell us that he travelled widely, sharing the gospel, places mentioned are Asia Minor, Greece, Russia and even Poland.

    Constantinople [today's Istanbul in Turkey] also claimed him as the one who appointed its early bishop, St Stachys [Starkis].

    (This was possibly wishful thinking & politically motivated-we just don't know.)

    *Eusebius writes that he preached and taught in Scythia-north of the Black Sea, in today's Ukraine.

    *He became the patron saint of Russia.

    He shares this honour with Nicholas [also known as Santa Claus].

    Tradition says that he reached the city of Kiev in the Ukraine, which became the centre of the conversion of Russia in the eleventh century.

    *Gregory of Nazianzen writes that he went to Epirus-in the North -west of Greece.

    *Jerome also says that he was in Greece, in Achaia, this was the isthmus of Corinth, in south-west Greece.

    *He is said to have died in Patras in Greece where it is reported that he was crucified tied (not nailed) to a cross, taking two or, even four days, to die, during which he preached to the crowds.

    The actual date of his death is not known, some place it as during the reign of Nero on November, 30th in the year 60, others think it may have been as late as the year 70.

    *The St Andrew's Cross, as we know it, cannot be traced further back than the 13th Century.

     

    *Legend connects Andrew with Scotland.

    It says that in the 4th century, the monk guarding his relics at Patras was told in a dream to take part of them to a place that would be shown to him.

    Rule, as he was called, was led to Fife in Scotland [now called St Andrews, think golf course!]: he built a church and preached to the heathen people. St Andrews became the religious capital and goal of many pilgrims until the Reformation when relics became a BAD THING and were destroyed.

    *St Andrew has been Scotland's patron saint since about the year 757 when King Angus of the Scots founded an order of chivalry to which Andrew has given his name: The "Order of St Andrew" perhaps better known as the "Most Ancient Order of the Thistle". It went into abeyance from time to time until it was re-established by James VII of Scotland in 1687. It is restricted to the King or Queen and 16 others. Sir Robert Menzies became a member in 1963. Its motto popularly translated is "Who dares meddle with me?"

    *When the age of martyrs came to an end, relics of saints became very precious. Heroes were still needed by the faithful!

    When Byzantium or Constantinople became the new Rome, it needed a hero. Of the other four patriarchates, Rome and Antioch claimed Peter and Paul; Alexandria claimed Mark and Jerusalem, all the apostles.

    *Byzantium was laughed at as a new-comer with political prestige but no apostles in its history. It solved the problem by claiming Andrew as its founder and first bishop. After all, Andrew had been the first of all the apostles to follow Jesus and he had brought his more famous brother to Jesus. The famous bishop of Constantinople, John Chrysostum, observed that Andrew was the "Peter before Peter", and truly the first of all the apostles! A worthy patron saint, indeed!

     

    *Some say that relics of Andrew were removed from Patras on the orders of the emperor, Constantius II, in 357 and taken to Constantinople to emphasise his connection with the city.

    *They were taken to Amalfi in Italy in 1208 when Constantinople was occupied by the French [who couldn't, of course, be trusted not to take them home with them].

    *Some relics were taken to St Peter's in Rome in the 15th Century and, as a gesture of goodwill to the Orthodox, Pope Paul VI took some relics home to Patras in 1964.

    *So, in death, as in life, Andrew was much travelled!

    *When John saw Jesus walking by, he said, "Here is the Lamb of God!" John's two followers heard him and followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following. "What are you looking for?" he said to them. "Teacher," they said to him, "Where are you staying?" He said to them, "Come and see."

    Jesus' invitation is for all of us-the invitation to be like Andrew and spend the rest of our lives in the company of Jesus:

    To be with him, to enjoy his love and acceptance; to share the good news of that love; and to fight against things that are wrong.

     

    Back to St Andrews Home Page