The Day of St. Andrew the First-Called
Description:
The feast of the Pitsunda Patriarchal Cathedral.
The son of Jonah, a fisherman from the Lake of Galilee, he, along with his brother Peter, was a disciple of John the Baptist. When a teacher once pointed them to Jesus Christ walking by, saying, “Behold, the Lamb of God, plant the sins of the world,” Andrew followed Him, the first to testify of Him as the Messiah. That's why they call him the First-Called.
Saint Andrew, together with other apostles, heeded the instructions of the Divine Teacher, saw His innumerable miracles, witnessed the suffering, death and Resurrection of the Savior. After the Ascension of Christ to heaven, having received the grace-filled gifts of the Holy Spirit who descended on the apostles, Andrew went to preach the Gospel, urging “to repent and be baptized.”
According to the lot, the Apostle Andrew went to the countries of the Black Sea and taught the Word of Life in Thrace, Scythia, delved into the edge of Novorossia, the Caucasus, returned to the “Great City of Sevastopol”, and finally, the Dnieper rose to the mountains of Kiev. He blessed them, raised a cross, and said to the disciples, “On these mountains the grace of God will shine, and there will be a great city, and many churches.” Then, continuing his journey, he reached Veliky Novgorod and the Varangians.
The Apostle Andrew was martyred in the Greek city of Patras (Patros) in 62. According to legend, the cross on which the apostle was crucified had a special form - in the form of the Latin numeral X (in iconography - St. Andrew's Cross).