The First Called

Andrew, son of Jonah, fisherman of Bethsaida in Galilee. Follower of John the Baptist. The first apostle called by Christ, who told him and his brother, Simon, to “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men”.

After the resurrection, Andrew preached along the coasts of the Black Sea, both north and south, founding churches that included one in the little town of Byzantium. His missionary journeys possibly ranged as far as Dacia to the west and Georgia to the east. He apparently undertook at least one journey up the Dnieper and Volga rivers as far as Kiev and possibly even Novgorod.

Today we celebrate his life on the day of his death by crucifixion, traditionally on the Crux decussata (an x-shaped cross), in the city of Patras in Greece.

In the traditional liturgical books of the Catholic Church, Andrew’s feast is the first feast day in the Proper of Saints, as befitting the first apostle.

He has somehow become the patron saint of Scotland, Ukraine, Russia, Sicily, Greece, Cyprus, Romania, Patras (naturally), Manila, Amalfi, Prussia, and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, as well as among fishermen, fishmongers, and rope-makers. Today he is celebrated in all of these places (and presumably by the fishermen, fishmongers, and rope-makers as well). In Scotland, it’s a bank holiday.

I for one would welcome some bank holidays in my country.

Despite being the first called of the apostles, Andrew doesn’t seem to have been in the “inner circle”, consisting of John and James (the sons of Zebedee) and Andrew’s own brother Simon-Peter. Why that is, I suppose we’ll find out in heaven.

Given the wobbly time for the start of Advent, Andrew’s feast is either the first or last of the liturgical year. There’s some poetry there, I suppose. The last will be first, and the first will be last.