St. Andrew the Apostle

Their story

Andrew was a fisherman from Bethsaida on the Sea of Galilee and the brother of Simon Peter. He was first a disciple of John the Baptist. When John pointed to Jesus and called him the Lamb of God, Andrew followed Jesus and spent the day with him. Then he went straight to his brother and said, “We have found the Messiah,” and brought Peter to Jesus (John 1:41). For this reason the Eastern Church calls him the First-Called. Andrew appears in the Gospels as someone who brings others to Jesus. At the feeding of the five thousand, he found the boy with five barley loaves and two fish. Later, when some Greeks wanted to see Jesus, they came to Philip, who went with Andrew to tell Jesus. After Pentecost, tradition says Andrew preached in Greece and the lands around the Black Sea. He was martyred in Patras, Greece, crucified on an X-shaped cross, which is now called St. Andrew’s cross and appears on the flag of Scotland. His feast falls near the start of Advent, and many Catholics pray the traditional St. Andrew Christmas Novena from his feast day until Christmas.