A relic of St Andrew on procession outside the Cathedral of St Andrew, Amalfi. Image: Wikimedia Commons.
Name: St Andrew
Death: St Andrew was tied to an X shaped cross, surviving for three days, in Patras, Achaia. Mid to late 1st century AD.
Feast Day: November 30
Patronage: Scotland, Greece, Russia, Sicily, Ukraine, Georgia, Barbados, fishermen, singers, rope-makers, butchers, pregnant women, protection against fever, whooping cough and sore throats.
Customs: St Andrew’s Night is the Romanian version of Halloween.
Shrine: Basilica of Saint Andrew, Amalfi, Italy.
The relics were in Patras, then the Basilica of the Twelve Holy Apostles, Constantinople. After the 1204AD Sack of Constantinople, the relics were brought to Amalfi in 1210AD.
Exterior of the Cathedral of St Andrew, Amalfi. Image: Wikimedia Commons.
Life Story and Scripture:
St Andrew was the brother of St Peter, also a fisherman. They were disciples of St John the Baptist and both lived in the same house in Capharnaum.
St Andrew and St Philip spoke Greek and could therefore communicate with Greek speaking Jews gathered at the feeding of the ten thousand.
Church Fathers:
St Andrew travelled to and preached to the Scythians, in Asia Minor and Thrace and to Greeks in Archaia, according to St Jerome, Nicephorus and Eusebius.
Interior of the Cathedral of St Andrew, Amalfi. Image: Wikimedia Commons
With thanks to Rev Dr Paul Stenhouse MSC, Whatever happened to the twelve apostles? (2006, Chevalier Press)
