Andrew (apostle)

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Greek icon of the apostle Andrew
Andreas (right) - Detail from the mural The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci

Like his brother Simon Peter, Andrew was an apostle of Jesus Christ .

Life

According to the Bible, Andreas and Simon came from Bethsaida on Lake Gennesaret ( Jn 1,44  EU ), owned a house in Capernaum ( Mk 1,29  EU ) and were fishermen . The Gospel of John reports that Andrew was first a disciple of John the Baptist , who then referred him to Jesus, whereupon he also led his brother Simon to Jesus with the message We have found the Messiah ( Jn 1,35-42  EU ). His traditional nickname "the first called" (Πρωτόκλητος) refers to this. In the apostellists ( Mt 10.2  EU , Mk 3.18  EU , Lk 6.14  EU , Acts 1.13  EU ), Andreas always appears among the first four apostles. However, he does not appear among the three - his brother Simon Peter and the brothers James and John - whom Jesus is the only one who allows Jesus to come with him in some situations ( Mk 5.37  EU ; Mk 9.2  EU ; Mk 14.33  EU ) , only in the eschatological speech, the so-called “synoptic apocalypse”, only both pairs of brothers (with Andrew) are present ( Mk 13.3  EU ; the “side speakers” Mt and Lk represent it differently).

Depiction at the parish church of St. Andreas in Neuss -Norf

In Luke's Acts of the Apostles , detailed information about Andrew is missing; he only appears in the listing of the apostles who, after the ascension of Jesus, remain in prayer with Mary and other women ( Acts 1.13  EU ). According to reports from church fathers ( Eusebius of Caesarea , Gregory of Nazianz , Hieronymus ), however, he preached in Epirus , Cappadocia , Scythia (today's Dobruja ), Thrace , Macedonia and Achaia . He is even said to have preached in what is now eastern Anatolia and western Georgia . Much later tradition (understandable from the 9th century) places it first in the succession of the bishops and patriarchs of Constantinople .

Hans Bornemann : Punishment of the governor Aegeas, who is said to have gone mad when he returned from the execution of Andreas, Nicolaikirche (Lüneburg)

Coincidentally, it is reported that he currently Nero from the governor Aegeas or Aegeates in Patras , the seat of the governor in the Greek prefecture of Achaia, crucified was. According to legend, he is said to have healed Maximilla, the governor's wife, converted and encouraged her to abstain from marriage, whereupon Aegeas ordered the punishment with rods and the cross-binding. On the way to the place of execution, Andreas prayed the hymn of the cross and preached down from the cross for two more days.

The crucifixion was done according to legend, on a cross with sloping beams, the so-called St. Andrew's Cross , whose relic in the St. Andreas church dedicated to Agios Andreas in Patras, Greece, is located. November 30th is passed down as the anniversary of the saint's death , which is celebrated as a festival in both the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches .

Andrew is considered the apostle of Asia Minor , Constantinople, the Russians, and the Romanians, and he is the national saint of Russia , Scotland (the flag of Scotland shows a white St. Andrew's cross on a blue background) and Romania . His importance for the Orthodox Church is comparable - if not quite as outstanding - with that of his brother Peter for the Roman Catholic Church. Bartholomäus I , today's Archbishop of Constantinople and Ecumenical Patriarch, is considered the 270th successor of the Apostle Andrew.

Adoration

Memorial days

  • Roman Catholic, Orthodox November 30th (St. Andrea's Day)
  • Evangelical: November 30th (Day of the Apostle Andrew. Gospel of the day: Joh 1,35-42  EU . The liturgical festival color is red.)
  • Georgian Orthodox: May 12 (St. Andrew's Day, a public holiday )

Relics

Due to an imperial decree, the relics of the apostle Andrew were transferred in a great triumphal procession from Patras to Constantinople, which reached the new Roman capital on March 3, 357, where they found their resting place in the Apostle Church of Constantinople . At the time of the fourth crusade in 1203/1204, they were stolen on the grounds of wanting to protect them from the Turks and brought by Petrus Capuanus to the important Maritime Republic of Amalfi on the Gulf of Salerno . Since May 8, 1208, they have been resting there in the crypt of the Cathedral of Sant'Andrea, consecrated to St. Andrew. A small part of these relics was given back to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I on October 21, 2007 on the sidelines of the inter-religious peace meeting in Naples at a ceremony in the Cathedral of Amalfi. An arm relic came from Amalfi via the collegiate church of Rees on the Lower Rhine in 1257 to the church of St. Andreas in Cologne , where it finally found its place in the apostles' shrine in the church's choir in 1997.

The front half of the head was given to Pope Pius II ; On Pentecost Sunday in 1462 they were brought to Rome for a glamorous festival in St. Peter's Basilica . There are different traditions about how this relic got to Rome. One says that it was created in 356 and remained in Patras. After the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453, it was owned by the brother of the fallen emperor Constantine XI. , Thomas Palaiologos, was saved from the attack of the Turks in Patras on the way to Rome and given to Pius II as a gift, in memory of the fact that Peter and Andrew were brothers. According to another tradition, the relic was first created in Amalfi and was brought to Rome by Pius II so that it would not be lost if Amalfi was sacked by the Turks.

The crucifixion of St. Andrew. Painting by Mattia Preti in the apse of the Basilica of Sant'Andrea della Valle in Rome

Pope Paul VI In 1964 the original Byzantine head reliquary with the head of the apostle was transferred back to Patras as an act of ecumenical relations between the sister church during the third session of the Second Vatican Council . Augustine Cardinal Bea presented the relic to the Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Constantine of Patras on September 26, 1964 .

In the 8th century, Bishop Acca of Hexham is said to have brought some of the saint's relics to Scotland, another tradition says that this happened around 300 through the holy monk Regulus. These relics were venerated in the now destroyed St Andrews Cathedral , their whereabouts are unknown. It is believed that they were destroyed in a church pillage during the Scottish Reformation. Andrew's relics were donated from Amalfi to the re-blossoming Roman Catholic Church of Scotland in 1879 and 1969, and they are in St. Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh .

iconography

Figure of Andreas in the Munich Peterskirche
Monumental figure of St. Andrew in St. Peter's Basilica , Rome

Attributes of the saint are the X-shaped cross (St. Andrew's cross ), fish and ropes.

Farmer rules and customs

For this day there are the farmer's rules "Andreas, bright and clear, promises a good year", "Andreas' snow hurts the seeds" and "Andreas snow - hurts grain and wheat", "André brings snow", "When it comes on Andreas snows, the snow stays there for a hundred days ”.

In Hungary , Poland and Switzerland you can see your future on St. Andrea's Day and also look into the future in other matters. November 30th was a date for the payment of interest and tithe into the 18th century.

In Thuringia, children wandered about the "Zettelandreas" while singing a verse. The name came from the fact that the children should write their Christmas wishes on a piece of paper on St.

literature

  • Christoph Schmitt:  Andreas. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 18, Bautz, Herzberg 2001, ISBN 3-88309-086-7 , Sp. 63-64.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  • Renate Pillinger: The Apostle Andreas. A saint from East and West in the image of the early church (iconographic-iconological study) . Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-7001-2147-4
  • Wilm Sanders (Ed.): Andreas. Apostle of the ecumenical movement between East and West , Wienand, Cologne 1985, ISBN 3-87909-130-7
  • F. Dvornik: The Idea of ​​Apostolicity and the Legend of the Apostle Andrew (Dumbarton Oaks Studies 4), Cambridge, Mass. 1958.
  • Ernst Christoph Suttner: The relics of St. Apostle Andrew and their veneration in Patras, Constantinople, Amalfi and Rome . In: Amalfi and Byzantium. Acts of the International Symposium on the Eighth Centenary of the Translation of the Relics of St Andrew the Apostle from Constantinople to Amalfi (1208-2008). Rome, 6th May 2008 . Ed. by Edward G. Farrugia. Roma: PIO 2010, 45-59. ISBN 978-88-7210-371-5
  • Kern, Susanne: German painting of the 15th and 16th centuries in the Landesmuseum Mainz. Selected works , Landesmuseum Mainz. 1999

Web links

Commons : Apostle Andreas  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

See also

Andrew's portrait ( Alexander Ivanov )

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Schweizerisches Idiotikon , Volume I, Column 313 f. ( Andrēs ) and Volume XII, Column 811 f. ( Andrea day ) .
personal data
SURNAME Andreas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Apostle of Jesus Christ
DATE OF BIRTH 1st century BC BC or 1st century
DATE OF DEATH 1st century