Two fishermen were mending nets by the Sea of Galilee when a stranger said, "Come and see." One of them did not wait for tomorrow. He went, he stayed the whole afternoon, and before the sun had set he was running to find his brother.
That fisherman was Andrew, and the brother he ran to find was Simon, whom Christ would name Peter. Before the Church had a single bishop, a single church building, or a single hymn, Andrew had already done the thing every Christian is called to do: he met Christ and could not keep quiet about it.
In the Gospel of John, Andrew is first a disciple of John the Baptist. When the Forerunner points to Jesus as the Lamb of God, Andrew follows. He spends time with the Lord, and then his first act is to bring Peter to Him. The Orthodox Church remembers this with a title found on his icons: Protoklitos, the First-Called.
There is a quiet beauty in the order of events. Andrew is not the loudest apostle, nor the one with the most speeches recorded. Peter speaks, John writes, Paul argues. Andrew simply introduces. In the Gospels, whenever he appears, he is bringing someone: his brother, a boy with five loaves and two fish, some Greeks who wanted to see Jesus. He is the patron saint of the person who says, "You should come and see this."
Church tradition remembers Andrew carrying the Gospel north and west: along the Black Sea coast, into the lands of the Scythians, and to the region of Byzantium, where the Church of Constantinople reveres him as its spiritual founder. That is why the Ecumenical Patriarch, the first among the Orthodox bishops, is often spoken of as the successor of the First-Called.
His journeys ended in the Greek city of Patras. According to tradition, Andrew was martyred there on a cross shaped like an X, which he is said to have asked for because he felt unworthy to die in the same manner as his Lord. That diagonal cross appears in many of his icons, and it is also the shape on the flag of Scotland, of which he is patron. Many nations honour him: Greece, Romania, Russia, and Georgia among them, where Andrew is remembered as an early preacher of the Gospel.
Icons are not portraits in the modern sense. Every detail carries meaning, and Saint Andrew's image is easy to read once you know the language:
Look into his face and you will notice the calm that runs through all Orthodox iconography. He is not performing. He is praying, and he invites you to join.
The icon we carry was made in Patra (Patras), Greece, in the same city where Saint Andrew gave his life for Christ and where his relics are venerated to this day. In a Byzantine icon of this kind, the image is prepared on wood and finished with a traditional palette, in the manner handed down by iconographers for centuries. Because each one is made individually, no two are exactly the same.
There is something fitting about holding an image of the apostle that was made within sight of the place where he finished his race.
You do not need a special rule. Many Orthodox families keep the icon in a simple prayer corner and begin with these steps:
Saint Andrew is also warmly invoked by people who feel stuck in the work of witnessing, those who want to speak about faith but do not know how. His example is gentle: not argument, only an invitation. "Come and see."
The Church celebrates the Apostle Andrew on November 30, right at the start of the Nativity Fast on the traditional calendar. The feast arrives like a small lantern at the beginning of a dark road, a reminder that the Christian life begins with a call and an answer. If you want a new icon in the house for the feast, ordering in good time is wise.
Saint Andrew is a lovely choice for a baptism or chrismation, a name day for anyone named Andrew (or Andreas, Andrei, Andro, Andria), a new home, or a clergyman or missionary at the start of a new season. It is a gift that quietly says, "I'm glad you answered the call."
If you would like to bring the First-Called into your home, here is the icon we have in stock now.
It is a lovely custom to bring a new icon to your priest for a short blessing, and many people do. If that is not possible right away, you may place it in your prayer corner and begin praying before it with reverence.
Choose a quiet wall, ideally facing east, at eye level or a little above. Keep it away from the television and clutter, and place a candle or lamp nearby if it is safe to do so.
Tradition says he was crucified in Patras on a cross of this shape, having asked not to be put to death on the same kind of cross as Christ. The diagonal cross has been linked to him ever since.
Andrew teaches the simplest lesson in the Church: find Christ, then bring someone with you. He did not need a pulpit. He needed a brother and a free afternoon. May his icon in your home remind you whom you are still hoping to bring. Bring Saint Andrew home – shop the icon →
