The
first-called Apostle
by Mike Oettle
PROTOKLETOS,[1] or first-called, is the byname given to the Apostle Andrew in the early Greek Church. This comes from the fact that in John’s Gospel he is the first disciple named. (John 1:40)
He and another (unnamed) disciple
of John the Baptist were present when, on the day after the Lord's baptism,
John saw Jesus walking past and said: “Look, the Lamb of God.”[2] The two then spent the day with Jesus.
Andrew’s first action was to call
his brother Simon, saying: “We have found the Messiah.”[3] Jesus, on seeing Simon, said: “You are Simon, son of John.[4] You shall be called Cephas.”[5]
This passage in John explains the
brothers’ meeting with Jesus on the shore of Galilee at Bethsaida, rather
baldly rendered in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark:
“ ‘Come, follow me, and I will
make you fishers of men.’ At once they left their nets and followed him.”
(Matthew 4:19,20; Mark 1:17,18)
Andrew (whose feast day is 30
November) seems to have been an approachable fellow: it was he who took the boy
with the five barley loaves and two fish to Jesus. And when a party of Greeks
wanted to see Jesus, Philip approached Andrew, who arranged things. Elfrida
Vipont, writing in Some Christian Festivals, says: “Because of his approachability, and because of his special gift for bringing people to Jesus, St Andrew has always been especially associated with missionary work.”
Indeed in later years Andrew is
associated with missionary work on the Black Sea shores, although it is in the
heart of Greece that he met his end. Tradition asserts that Andrew was
crucified at Patras (modern Patrai [PatraV, Patrai]), on the northern
shore of the Greek peninsula known as Morea or the Peloponnese. No date is
known; even the Encyclopædia Britannica refers to it as being around
60/70 (AD). Traditionally Andrew’s cross was X-shaped, and it is a convention
of ecclesiastical and heraldic art that he either appears with an X-shaped
cross, or saltire, [6] or is symbolised by one.
The Roman Emperor Constantius II
ordered Andrew’s remains removed to Constantinople in 357. According to
legend, “a Greek monk was warned by an angel of the emperor’s intent, and
instructed to take them to the ends of the Earth”.[7]
Some of Andrew’s relics are known
to have been taken to Scotland by the Bishop of Hexham[8] in 733 AD. They were placed in the care of a monastic settlement founded two
centuries earlier in Fife, called first Mucross, then Kilrymont. But after the
arrival of Andrew’s relics a new church was built there, dedicated to Andrew as
patron saint of Scotland, and the place became known St Andrews. A cathedral
was erected on the site in 1160 AD, and the saint’s relics were kept there
(notes Bartram) until the cathedral was destroyed during the Reformation.
And that is how the home of golf
came to bear the name of a Galilean fisherman.
Andrew became known as one of the
Seven Champions of Christendom, the others being: George,[9] of England; David, of Wales; Patrick,[10] of Ireland; Denis, of France; James (Santiago), of Spain; and Anthony of Padua, of Italy.
The saltire of St Andrew became
the badge of Scotland. Again legend has more to tell than proven historical
fact, since it tells of a battle in the 9th century (some say – others date it much earlier, to the Dark Age), on the eve of which the King of the Scots and Picts saw a cross in the sky. In one instance the king is named as Hungus, who on the eve of a battle against the Northumbrian leader Athelstan, prayed for deliverance and, in a dream that night, saw Andrew on his cross. The following morning he saw St Andrew’s cross in the sky.
A document dated to 1165 once reportedly told this story, but although 16th-century documents attest to the earlier document, it has since been lost.
What was seen in the sky (whether
this was actually seen by the king to whom the tale is attributed is uncertain)
was a white cross on blue – in other words, he and his troops saw a natural
phenomenon in which two bands of cloud, at greatly different heights, are seen
running in contrasting directions. This I have seen myself in the Karoo, years
ago, and I have also found a photograph in a book (the title of which I have
unfortunately forgotten).
The scene of the battle which followed Hungus’s vision is given very precisely as being a little more than a mile from Markle, now in the parish of Prestonkirk in East Lothian.
The white saltire on blue became
the flag of the Scottish king’s army – probably at about the same time (the
Crusades) that other Western European sovereigns’ armies adopted cross flags,
such as the white on red of England (later exchanged for red on white), the red
on white of France (later white on blue), and the green on white of Flanders.
Scottish armies were also
required to wear saltires on their clothing to identify them in battle. But
this was frequently not white on blue. Mediæval Scottish armies were merely
instructed to place contrasting bands of cloth on their surcoats, white if the
surcoat was dark. Read more about St Andrew’s cross here.
Today St Andrew’s cross not only
forms part of Britain’s Union Jack, but plays a role in resurgent Russian
nationalism, for Andrew is patron of Russia, too.
One tradition asserts that Peter
the Great[11] borrowed the Dutch flag and rearranged its colours for Russia’s ensign.[12] It’s also claimed that he took Scotland’s flag and reversed its colours for a naval jack flag, although Andrew had long been associated with Russia, too.
A third St Andrew’s cross is the
cross or saltire raguly (a rough wooden cross) in red on white which was a
badge of the dukes of Burgundy, and which (through inheritance) was an
important military symbol of the Habsburg kings of Spain.
The rest of Andrew’s remains were
transferred to Amalfi (40km from Naples), in 1208 and in the 15th century his
head went to Rome. In 1964 Pope Paul VI returned the head to Patrai as a
gesture of goodwill to the Greek Orthodox Church.
The name Andrew (in Greek,
Andreas [AndreaV]) means “manly”. Some say it
must have been a translation of a Hebrew or Aramaic name, but Galilee was a
very mixed region and Greek was used more freely there than in Judæa. The name
became popular in Scotland long before it was much used in England, but also
appears in Spain (Andres), France (André), the Netherlands (Andries), Germany
(Andreas), Scandinavia (Anders), Russia (Andrei), Poland (Andrzej, pronounced
Andjay) and Italy (Andrea). The Italian form is used as a girl’s name in
English, but since it means “manly” there seems little point.
Andrew is also associated with
earthquakes, through California’s San Andreas Fault – named for a Spanish mission
church.
