Saints
“Andrew the Commander”
Roman commander in Syria · Martyr with 2,593 soldiers
A Roman officer in Syria under Maximian who, sent against a much larger Persian force with a small command, told his men that the gods of the empire were nothing and that they should call on Christ, and won. He and the soldiers who had called on Christ with him were baptized, dismissed the service, and were hunted down and killed in the Cilician mountains.
His life
Andrew held the rank of tribune in the Roman army in Syria in the reign of Maximian and was already a Christian in conviction, though not yet baptized. When a large Persian force crossed the frontier he was given a small command and sent against it.
Before the engagement he told his soldiers that the gods whose names they were about to invoke did not exist, and that the God who made heaven and earth would help them if they called on Him. They did, and they broke the Persian force, and the victory was reported at once to the imperial court along with the manner of it.
The governor Antiochus had him brought and questioned. Andrew would not sacrifice, nor would the soldiers with him. Rather than execute a decorated commander and a body of victorious troops openly, which the accounts say was thought too dangerous, they were released and then pursued.
Andrew and the men with him went into the mountains of Cilicia, where they were baptized by the bishop of Tarsus, and were caught in a defile in the Taurus and killed to a man, the tradition numbering them two thousand five hundred and ninety three. A spring is said to have opened at the place. The Church keeps them on the nineteenth of August.
Holy St. Andrew Stratelates, pray to God for us.