Saint Andrew the Apostle

30 November  ·  Feast  ·  Red

Two fishermen lean from their boat over a net still in the water, and Christ on the shore has already called them. Andrew, the son of Jonah and the brother of Simon Peter, was born at Bethsaida in Galilee; he had been a disciple of John the Baptist, and it was he who first recognised Jesus as the Messias and brought his brother to Him. In every list of the Twelve he is among the first four. After Pentecost the early writers send him to Scythia, to Epirus, to Achaia; it is generally agreed that he was crucified at Patrae in Achaia, bound rather than nailed so that his suffering would be longer, and that he died on 30 November, which the Latin and Greek Churches alike keep as his feast. His relics went to Constantinople about the year 357 and in the thirteenth century to the cathedral of Amalfi, where most of them remain. Scotland and Russia honour him as their patron. His feast opens the Church's year: Advent begins on the Sunday nearest to it.

Joseph MacRory, “St. Andrew”, The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 1 (1907): newadvent.org

The Gospel of the feast

¹⁸And Jesus walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea (for they were fishers). ¹⁹And he saith to them: Come ye after me, and I will make you to be fishers of men. ²⁰And they immediately leaving their nets, followed him. ²¹And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets: and he called them. ²²And they forthwith left their nets and father, and followed him.

Matthew 4:18–22, Douay-Rheims (Challoner)

In painting

The feasts of the year  ·  The Rosary