Saint Andrew, Archbishop of Crete, was born in the city of Damascus
into a pious Christian family. Up until seven years of age the boy was
mute and did not talk. However, after communing the Holy Mysteries of
Christ he found the gift of speech and began to speak. And from that
time the lad began earnestly to study Holy Scripture and the discipline
of theology.
At fourteen years of age he went off to Jerusalem
and there he accepted monastic tonsure at the monastery of St Sava the
Sanctified. St Andrew led a strict and chaste life, he was meek and
abstinent, such that all were amazed at his virtue and reasoning of
mind. As a man of talent and known for his virtuous life, over the
passage of time he came to be numbered among the Jerusalem clergy and
was appointed a secretary for the Patriarchate -- a writing clerk. In
the year 680 the locum tenens of the Jerusalem Patriarchate, Theodore,
included archdeacon Andrew among the representatives of the Holy City
sent to the Sixth Ecumenical Council, and here the saint contended
against heretical teachings, relying upon his profound knowledge of
Orthodox doctrine. Shortly after the Council he was summoned back to
Constantinople from Jerusalem and he was appointed archdeacon at the
church of Hagia Sophia, the Wisdom of God. During the reign of the
emperor Justinian II (685-695) St Andrew was ordained bishop of the city
of Gortineia on the island of Crete. In his new position he shone forth
as a true luminary of the Church, a great hierarch -- a theologian,
teacher and hymnographer.
St Andrew wrote many liturgical hymns.
He was the originator of a new liturgical form -- the canon. Of the
canons composed by him the best known is the Great Penitential Canon,
including within its 9 odes the 250 troparia recited during the Great
Lent. In the First Week of Lent at the service of Compline it is read in
portions (thus called “methymony” [trans. note: from the useage in the
service of Compline of the “God is with us”, in Slavonic the “S’nami
Bog”, or in Greek “Meth’ Humon ho Theos”, from which derives
“methymony”], and again on Thursday of the Fifth Week at the All-night
Vigil during Matins.
St Andrew of Crete gained renown with his
many praises of the All-Pure Virgin Mary. To him are likewise ascribed:
the Canon for the feast of the Nativity of Christ, three odes for the
Compline of Palm Sunday and also in the first four days of Holy Passion
Week, as well as verses for the feast of the Meeting of the Lord, and
many another church-song. His hynographic tradition was continued by the
churchly great melodists of following ages: Saints John of Damascus,
Cosma of Maium, Joseph the Melodist, Theophan the Written-upon. There
have also been preserved edifying Sermons of St Andrew for certain of
the Church feasts.
Church historians are not of the same opinion
as to the date of death of the saint. One suggests the year 712, while
others -- the year 726. He died on the island of Mytilene, while
returning to Crete from Constantinople, where he had been on churchly
business. His relics were transferred to Constantinople. In the year
1350 the pious Russian pilgrim Stephen Novgorodets saw the relics at the
Constantinople monastery named for St Andrew of Crete.
Troparion — Tone 5
Like the Prophet David / You sang a new song / In the assembly of the righteous. / As an initiate of the Holy Spirit / You thundered forth your hymns of grace / And the word of righteousness for our salvation, / O Andrew, glory of the fathers.Kontakion — Tone 2
You sounded forth divine melodies like a trumpet / And were a
bright lamp for the world. / You shone with the light of the Trinity, O
righteous Andrew. / Therefore we cry to you: Ever intercede for us all!
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