The Holy Apostle Andrew the First-called (1st c.)

The Lord Jesus Christ called Saint Andrew, the brother of the Apostle Peter, first, and that is why he was named the First-called. Saint Andrew loved the Lord from his youth, and when the voice of Saint John the Baptist rang out in Israel like thunder, the blessed apostle became his closest disciple. When the Saviour appeared, Saint John said to Andrew and John the Theologian: “Behold the Lamb of God.” At these words both of them followed Jesus. Then Andrew went to his brother Peter, told him that he had found the Messiah, brought him too to Jesus and made him His disciple. Having become disciples of Christ, the brothers went on with their usual work and made their living by fishing. Once, as the Saviour walked by the shore of the Sea of Galilee, He called them: “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” After this they were constantly with the Son of God and became witnesses of His wonders, His death and His resurrection from the dead.

After the Saviour’s Ascension, “when the apostles cast lots” for their preaching, it fell to the Theotokos to convert Iveria; but since the time of her death was drawing near, the Son of God commanded her to stay in Jerusalem and to send Andrew the First-called to Georgia with her icon not made by hands. The All-holy Virgin called the saint and told him the will of God; then she asked for a board, “washed her face and laid it upon her face”. The image of the Theotokos with the Child Jesus appeared on the board. This holy thing the Queen of Heaven gave to Andrew, and blessed him as he set out on his great labour. Saint Andrew passed through Greece and Asia Minor, then made for the Black Sea coast and “entered the land of Kartli which is called Didachara”.

In the village of Didachara the ruins of a church are preserved to this day, which, according to tradition, Saint Andrew the First-called built himself.

Many trials befell the blessed one at the hands of unbelievers, but through the help of God and of the precious icon he bore everything with thanksgiving, “until he had converted them all and brought them to the faith”. At the place where the apostle set down the icon of the Theotokos a “very beautiful and great” spring gushed forth. This wonder enlightened the minds of many pagans, and they accepted the saving teaching of Christ. The apostle appointed priests and deacons for the newly converted, “laid down for them the order and bounds of the faith”, and built a church of the All-holy Theotokos, in which he placed the copy that had passed miraculously onto a board from the icon given by the Queen of Heaven. After this the chosen one of the Lord crossed the Persati mountain and raised a cross there (for this reason the mountain came to be called “the Iron Cross”). The apostle then came to the village of Atskuri, which had formerly been called Sosangeti. The ruler of this region at the time was a widow, Samdzivari, who had an only son. At that very time her son had died. The widow was told that there was a man there who prayed to an unknown God. This news planted hope in her heart, and she summoned the apostle to her. Saint Andrew raised the widow’s only son from the dead. The overjoyed woman believed in the Lord Jesus Christ with thanksgiving, was baptised together with her son, and wrote a letter to the rulers of Samtskhe, telling them of this and summoning them all to her. “When the Meskhians heard this wondrous news, they gathered at once from every side, and a very great multitude of people came together.” The servants of the idol-temple came too. The people were divided in two: some cried out, “It is right to worship Him who has worked such a wonder,” while others remained faithful to the false gods. To settle the dispute they decided to carry the icon of the Theotokos into the temple of idols and then to lock the doors. Those who hoped in the Saviour were to pray to Christ, and the idol-worshippers to their deity. Guards were set at the locked temple. In the morning, when the doors were opened, everyone saw “the idols cast down on the ground and crushed like dust, and the icon of the All-holy Theotokos shining like the sun in glory and honour”. Saint Andrew established a church in Atskuri and placed the icon of the Theotokos not made by hands in a small side-chapel; then he parted from his newly converted flock and continued on his way: he was in Klarjeti, in Artaan-Kola, in Parthia, in Armenia, and then went to Jerusalem.

From Jerusalem Andrew returned to Georgia again with Simon the Canaanite and Matthias. They entered Kartli, strengthened Christianity, and “went westward and passed through the land of Tao as far as the Chorokhi”; they were in Samegrelo and Svaneti. Simon and Andrew went to Abkhazia: “and the great Andrew with Simon… entered the land of Abkhazia and preached the word of the knowledge of God, and many received that preaching with joy; and there the blessed Andrew left Simon the Canaanite with other disciples, and went up himself into the land of Jiketi.” The native people of Jiketi not only refused to accept his preaching but even resolved to kill the apostle. Seeing their stubbornness and coarse minds, the apostle left them and went away. The holy Apostle Andrew was also in the land of the Scythians, in present-day Russia. He went up the river Dnieper as far as the place where the city of Kiev now stands.

The last city in which the apostle preached was Patras (Greece); through the saint’s prayer a great many people in this city turned to the law of Christ, but the city’s governor, Aegeates, remained faithful to his false deity. The godless ruler ordered that the Lord’s chosen one be crucified. The saint met the sentence with joy and went up onto the cross of his own accord. To prolong his sufferings Aegeates ordered that the blessed one should not be nailed to the wood but tied to it. For two days the holy apostle preached to those gathered around. At last the people, stirred by the saint’s grace-filled words, demanded that he be taken down from the cross. The godless Aegeates gave orders to set the saint free, but Andrew fervently besought the Lord to count him worthy to die on the cross. The soldiers tried for a long time, in vain, to take him down. The saint, “hanging on the cross, lifted up his eyes to heaven, gave thanks to the Lord and blessed the faithful”. And so, giving thanks to God, the saint reposed. The wife of the city’s ruler took the apostle’s body down from the cross and buried it with honour. Several centuries later, under Constantine the Great, the incorrupt relics of the holy apostle were solemnly brought to Constantinople and placed in the Church of the Holy Apostles beside the relics of Luke the Evangelist and the Apostle Timothy.

Often, through the misfortunes of our history, the apostolic origin of our Church has been called into question. A witness to this is an episode described in the life of Saint George the Athonite, in which Saint George defended the independence of the Georgian Church before the Patriarch of Antioch with the following words: “Holy master, you say, ‘I sit on the throne of Peter, the head of the apostles.’ But we are the portion and the flock of the First-called, his brother who called him, and by him we were converted and enlightened. And one of the holy twelve apostles — I mean Simon the Canaanite — is buried in our land, in Abkhazia, at the place called Nicopsia. By these holy apostles we have been enlightened. And since we have come to know the one God, we have never denied Him. Nor has our nation ever inclined to heresy, and we anathematise and curse all apostates and heretics. On this foundation of Orthodoxy, and on the commandments and preaching of these holy apostles, we stand firm.”

Let us pray to our helper and protector, Saint Andrew:

O holy Apostle Andrew, first-called of the apostles, pray to God for us, that He grant peace to the world and to our souls great mercy!