St. Andrew of Crete

Archbishop of Gortyna in Crete and the hymnographer who gave the Church the canon as a form. His Great Canon, two hundred and fifty troparia walking through the whole of Scripture and turning every figure in it back on the singer, is read in four parts in the first week of Great Lent and entire on the Thursday of the fifth week. He was born mute by tradition and spoke first at the age of seven after receiving communion, which the Church has never tired of pointing out about the man who then wrote more hymns than almost anyone. Feast: July 4.