Holy Apostle Andrew
The First-Called
Selected passages from the Gospels
The first to follow
Editor's note
John the Baptist was standing with two of his disciples on the bank of the Jordan when Jesus passed by. He looked at him and said, 'Behold the Lamb of God.' Two of his disciples heard it. They turned and followed Jesus, and one of the two, the Fourth Gospel records, was Andrew the brother of Simon Peter. For this reason the Orthodox Church gives him the title Protokletos, the First-Called.
John 1:35-42 (KJV)
ScriptureVerbatim Scripture.
Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples;
And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!
And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.
Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, (which is to say, being interpreted, Master,) where dwellest thou?
He saith unto them, Come and see. They came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day: for it was about the tenth hour.
One of the two which heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.
He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ.
And he brought him to Jesus.
The mission to the nations of the East
Editor's note
Of the Twelve, Andrew is the one whose missionary travels the early tradition tracks most widely. He preached, the historians say, along the coasts of the Black Sea and through Scythia, in Cappadocia, Galatia, and Bithynia, and in Byzantium, where he ordained Stachys the first bishop of the see that would one day become the Ecumenical Patriarchate. For this reason the Patriarchate of Constantinople honors him as its founder and apostolic father.
He travelled through lands no Greek had thought worth converting, and offered the Gospel to peoples the empire did not name. Wherever he came, he opened the Scriptures, planted a community, ordained a bishop, and moved on.
Tradition relates that he ended his preaching at Patras in Achaia, in southern Greece, where the proconsul Aegeates condemned him to death. He was crucified, according to the oldest accounts, on a cross of the form that has borne his name ever since, the saltire or X-shaped cross. He prayed and preached from that cross for two days before he reposed.