The Feast Day of St. Andrew the Apostle

Today is the Feast Day of St. Andrew the Apostle, which for this year, serves as the final feast day of the liturgical calendar. Tomorrow begins the new liturgical year during Advent. More on that tomorrow.

John’s gospel portrays Andrew as the first of the twelve to follow Christ. Andrew was a follower of John the Baptist who, upon seeing Jesus and hearing John the Baptist’s words “Behold, the Lamb of God!” (Jn. 1:36), believed he had encountered the Messiah. After hearing this testimony, Andrew went and found his brother Simon Peter and told him, “We have found the Messiah” (Jn. 1:41).

Andrew and Peter are one of the two pairs of fisherman brothers that our Lord Jesus called to be his disciples. Perhaps these four fisherman brothers, Andrew and Simon (who Jesus would rename Cephus, translated as Peter, which means “rock” in Aramaic), and James and John were in the fishing business together beforehand? We cannot say for sure, but certainly they joined forces to become fishers of men and founders of the Church. They were from the small fishing port village of Bethsaida, which was east of the Jordan River, near the point that the Jordan connected to the Sea of Galilee. Literally called the “house of fishing”, it is no coincidence that Bethsaida was the appointed place for Jesus’ miracle of the feeding of the five thousand with just five loaves and two fishes. The son of a fisherman and a fisherman by trade, Andrew first encountered Christ when he and his brother were out fishing on the Sea of Galilee. Mark and Matthew’s gospel puts it like this:

As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him. (Mark 1:16-18; Matthew 4:18-22).

We are well-acquainted with the fact that Peter is attributed to be the founder of much of the Western Church. Catholics consider him to be the first pope. But what Saint Peter accomplished in the west, tradition credits to his brother doing likewise in the east, establishing much of the Byzantium Church. His missionary journies led him to preach the gospel around the coast of the Black Sea, which is why many countries and regions claim him as their patron saint, some of which are Ukraine, Russia, Romania, and Patras (a city in Greece). Andrew was eventually sentenced to death in Patras by Aegeates, the governor of the region of Achaea, and was martyred upon an X-shaped cross because he deemed himself unworthy to die in the same manner as Christ. The legend claims it took him three days to die, and that he preached to those who passed by him.

Today the X-shaped cross is known as “St. Andrew’s Cross” and is on Scotland’s flag. Andrew became the Patron Saint of Scotland and an honorary Scotsman during the Wars of Independence in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, when the king and those in battle believed he interceded on their behalf and led them to victory. In addition to the other countries and regions named above, Andrew is the patron saint of fisherman and singers. Where the association with singers came from, that one I cannot be sure. But this week as I heard the third verse of the hymn “Holy God We Praise Thy Name”, my heart was warmed in thinking about Saint Andrew the Apostle, it says:

Lo! the apostolic train
Join thy sacred name to hallow!
Prophets swell the loud refrain,
And the white-robed martyrs follow,
And from morn to set of sun,
Through the Church the song goes on.

Surely through the apostolic train, the martyrdoms, and stories of great saints like that of Saint Andrew, the song of the Church goes on and will continue to until our Lord’s return.

Collect (Prayer) for the Feast Day of St. Andrew

Almighty God, you gave such grace to your apostle Andrew that he readily obeyed the call of your Son Jesus Christ, and brought his brother with him: Give us, who are called by your holy Word, grace to follow him without delay, and to bring those near to us into his gracious presence; who lives and reigns with
you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (taken from the ACNA Book of Common Prayer, 2019)

Bible Reading

John 1:35-42 (ESV)

The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ). He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John. You shall be called Cephas” (which means Peter).

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