We Have Found the Messiah!

As one of the Apostles, St. Andrew was not only an eyewitness to Jesus' life but one of the first to go out to spread the good news.

"The next day John was there again with two of his disciples,

and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said, "Behold, the Lamb of God."

The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus.

Jesus turned and saw them following him and said to them, "What are you looking for?" They said to him, "Rabbi, where are you staying?"

He said to them,"Come, and you will see." So they went and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day. It was about four in the afternoon.

Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two who heard John and followed Jesus.

He first found his own brother Simon and told him, "We have found the Messiah".

Then he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, "You are Simon the son of John; you will be called Cephas". ~John 1:35-42

Thus, after meeting Jesus, his first action was to bring his brother to Jesus as well. We might say this was his first act of evangelization.

Andrew is only mentioned a few more times in the Bible. He is, of course, named in the different listings of the Apostles (e.g. Matthew 10:2). He is also mentioned as one of the questioners in Mark 13:3; as the one who found the boy with the loaves and fish before Jesus fed the five thousand; and as the one to whom Philip goes after being approached by certain Greeks who want to see Jesus.

We can also assume that as one of the Apostles, he was at the Last Supper, witnessed Jesus after the Resurrection, saw Jesus ascend to heaven, and was present and received the Spirit at Pentecost. But what happened to him after this?

It is thought that he preached the gospel in places such as Cappadocia, Galatia, Bithynia, Thrace, and Macedonia. In Byzantium he appointed Stachys as that cities first bishop. However it was in Patrae, Achaia that he was martyred. Tradition holds that he was crucified on a cross placed on an angle or in the form of an "X". Crosses in this form are still referred to as St. Andrew's crosses today.

The date of his martydom was November 30, 60 A.D., as such his feast day is celebrated on this day. St. Andrew's relics were kept in Patras, Greece until around 357 when they were moved to Constantinople. They stayed in Constantinople until 1206 when, after the Sack of Constantinople, they were moved to Amalfi, Italy and placed in the town's cathedral.  The cathedral contains a tomb in its crypt that still holds a portion of the relics of the apostle.

Amalfi Cathedral

The head of Andrew was given to Pope Pius II in 1461 and was enshrined in one of the pillars of St. Peters Basilica.  In September 1964, Pope Paul VI, as a gesture of good will toward the Greek Orthodox Church, ordered that all of the relics of St Andrew that were in Vatican City be sent back to Patras. The relics, which consist of the small finger, part of the top of the cranium of Andrew, and small portions of the cross on which he was martyred, have since that time been kept in the Church of St Andrew at Patras in a special shrine.

Sources Here, Here, Here, Here