St. Andrew the First-Called

A fisherman of Bethsaida and a disciple of John the Baptist, who heard him point to Christ, followed, and was the first of the Twelve to be called; then he went and found his brother Simon Peter and brought him. Tradition sends him north and west to preach around the Black Sea, among the Scythians and in Greece, and has him crucified at Patras on a cross shaped like an X. The Church of Constantinople traces its beginning to him, which is why the Ecumenical Patriarch keeps his day with the see’s full solemnity; Rome keeps his brother Peter on 29 June, and each year the two sees send delegations to each other’s feast. He is the patron of Russia and of Romania, and his head was returned to Patras in 1964. Feast: November 30.