Commemoration of the Return of the Cross of the Holy Apostle Andrew to Patras

On January 19, 1980, the entire Holy Clergy and the people of Patras, under the leadership of the late Metropolitan Nikodemos of Patras, welcomed the grace-bearing X-shaped Cross of the Apostle Andrew the First-Called. The Cross, which had been in Marseille, France, since 1205, had been stolen from Patras and sent there by the Latin Bishop of Patras, Adelmos, who had at that time seized the episcopal throne, expelling the Orthodox hierarch.

 

According to the archives of the Duchy of Burgundy, the Cross was initially placed in the Abbey of Weaume in Marseille, and later transferred to the Abbey of Saint Victor in the same city. During the French Revolution there was an attempt to steal the Cross, which ultimately failed. Its pieces were preserved and placed in a reliquary in the shape of a regular Cross. 

 

In 1979, the then Archepiscopal Vicar of the Holy Metropolis of France, the late Father Panagiotis Simigiatos, located the Cross at the Monastery of Saint Victor in Marseille. 

 

On October 9, 1979, the then Metropolitan of Patras, Nikodemos, met in Marseille with the then president of the French hierarchy and of the entire Roman Catholic hierarchy of Western Europe, Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, to discuss the matter of the return of the Cross to Patras.

 

After consultations between Roman Catholics and Orthodox, the Cardinal said to the Metropolitan of Patras: “Since the Cross was brought here from Patras, it belongs to Patras.”

 

Soon contacts and discussions between the two sides began regarding the return of the Cross to Patras. The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece were informed of the matter.

 

On January 18, 1980, an aircraft of the Hellenic Air Force, carrying the delegation of the Holy Metropolis of Patras, departed for France for the reception and transfer of the Cross to Patras.

 

After their arrival in Marseille, the Cross was handed over to the Greek delegation through an “informal” ceremony.

 

The following day, January 19, the aircraft carrying the Cross and the two delegations—Orthodox and Roman Catholic—arrived at Araxos Airport, and the official reception then took place.

 

The Cross, transported in a wooden case, was initially placed in an iron case and embedded in the wall of the Church of the Apostle Andrew, behind the proskynitarion where the Honorable Head of the First-Called Apostle is kept and venerated.

Later, under the current Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Patras, the Cross was placed in a wooden case and covered with silver-gold plating, adorned with scenes from the life of the Apostle Andrew, and was placed in the northern aisle of the church, which was dedicated to the Cross of the Apostle Andrew and was decorated, like the rest of the church, with scenes from his life, miracles, and martyrdom. 

Since the return of the Cross to Patras on January 19, 1980, every year on this same date the anniversary of the return is celebrated by the Metropolitan of Patras in the Metropolitan Church of the Holy Apostle Andrew. 

 

The Wood of an Olive Tree

As for the type of wood of the Cross, there are differing accounts. Hippolytus of Rome mentions olive wood; Epiphanios speaks of a cross without specifying the wood; Arsenios of Kerkyra refers to a plant without identifying it; while the historian Stephanos Thomopoulos also speaks of an olive tree.

In studies that have been conducted, however, it has been proven that it is indeed olive wood and that it dates to the first century.

There are also differing views regarding the shape of the Cross. Frescoes and portable icons in churches depict the Apostle Andrew on the Cross with its two beams vertical, while others depict him on the Cross with his head downward.

Nevertheless, the prevailing view is that the Cross was in the shape of an “X.” This view is so widespread that crosses in the shape of an “X” are now commonly referred to as the “Cross of the Apostle Andrew.”

During its transfer to Patras in 1980, it was placed in a reliquary in the shape of a regular Cross, but this was later replaced by a larger and more imposing reliquary, this time in the shape of an X. Characteristic of the symbolic power of the Cross of Saint Andrew is the fact that the X, by its shape, is the symbol of the Russian Navy, which has the Apostle Andrew as its patron.

It should also be mentioned that in the summer of 2013 the Cross of Saint Andrew traveled to Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, where the scenes that unfolded were striking, owing to the long lines of faithful that had formed. 

 

In 2025, in honor of the 45th anniversary of this celebration, Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Patras issued the followed encyclical:

To
the Christ-named Plenitude
of the Sacred and Apostolic Metropolis of Patras

My blessed children,

Our local Apostolic Church has the special blessing from God, as is known to all, to possess as a source of blessing and sanctification—apart from the Holy Head of the Holy Apostle Andrew—the Cross of his martyrdom as well, which in January 1980 was returned to Patras from the city of Marseille in France, where for hundreds of years it had been kept, by judgments known only to God.

From the day when the people of Patras as a whole, with the Church, political, and other authorities at their head, welcomed the Cross of the First-Called of the Apostles, forty-five years have passed. Throughout all these years we have felt abundantly the blessing and the gift of our Lord through the intercessions of the Holy Apostle Andrew.

We invite you, also this year, with paternal love, to the splendid celebration which will take place in the New Holy Church of the Holy Apostle Andrew, where the Cross of our Saint is kept.

The program of the celebration is as follows:

Saturday, 18 January 2025
6:00 p.m.
Great Hierarchical Vespers

Sunday, 19 January 2025
7:00–10:30 a.m.
Matins – Hierarchical Divine Liturgy

My brethren,

We cannot imagine Patras without the presence of the Holy Apostle Andrew. He is our teacher and our enlightener. He is our father. He is our guardian and protector. He is the unceasing intercessor on our behalf before the Lord.

Saint Andrew is our joy, our pride, our hope, and our consolation. To him we flee at all times, in season and out of season, and we bend the knee of soul and body before his holy Head and his Cross. His holy icon is found in all our homes, and his most venerable figure holds a central place in our hearts.

Despite our sins—which often grieve God and distress our Saint—he does not abandon us, but holds us in his holy hands as his beloved children. His most beloved and most sacred name we give at baptism to many of our children. His Church is the emblem of our city. The place where he was martyred is our pilgrimage site, and there we lead all who visit our city—or who arrive there on their own—for the destination of most is the Churches of our Saint, the Old and the New, where his tomb is found and where his holy Head and his most venerable Cross are preserved.

Do not neglect, therefore, my brethren, on this occasion as well, to come to his Church in order to honor our Saint.

Do not forget or be negligent in directing your steps to his sacred Apostoleion during the two-day celebration, so that you may venerate the Cross on which he was martyred for the most sweet Name of the Lord who called him, and for our own salvation.

We await you at the Church of the Holy Apostle Andrew on Saturday and Sunday, 18 and 19 January, so that we may celebrate together, glorifying the Name of our Lord and honoring our protector, the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called.

I embrace you with paternal love,
praying for every blessing from the Lord upon you all,
through the intercessions of the Holy Apostle Andrew.

The Metropolitan
† of Patras Chrysostomos

 

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.

 

 

Encomium to Saint Andrew the Apostle (St. Athanasios the Great)

 

Encomium to Saint Andrew the Apostle 

By St. Athanasios the Great, Archbishop of Alexandria

A. Seeing this radiant flock of the Spirit, this apostolic net cast into a truly calm and untroubled sea, I am reminded of the Master’s voice crying, “Come follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” O voice full of power! O words made known by deeds! O promise that is true and grows day by day! For whose is this great catch of human beings? Who has gathered together this illustrious festival, if not the illustrious Andrew, the foremost of the apostles? He it was who cast out the nets of his tongue and memory, so that — filling this sacred ship with the oars of apostleship — he might steer the vessel straight toward heaven.

And what are the first fruits of this catch? What are the choice offerings of these labors? Those who brighten the enclosure of the priesthood with their virtues; those who first spread wide these apostolic arms and drew into salvation those wandering outside. Indeed, the great Andrew has given the occasion for our present festival; yet the whole chorus of the apostles is honored together. For those whom grace has joined, no place can part.

Homily for the Commemoration of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called (Fr. Daniel Sysoev)

Homily for the Commemoration of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called

By Fr. Daniel Sysoev

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!

I congratulate you all on the feast of Saint Andrew the First-Called! He is the first Russian enlightener to bring us the gospel; for he was sent by Christ to the northern lands. He circumnavigated the entire Black Sea, preaching in Sinope, Adjara, Georgia, Abkhazia, and Crimea. He also visited Kuban, where he was nearly eaten by cannibals. According to legend, he ascended the Dnieper to what would become Kiev and erected a cross on Saint Andrew's Hill as a sign that the gospel would shine forth there. A church dedicated to Saint Andrew the First-Called now stands on this site. Tradition says that the Apostle Andrew also reached Valaam. He founded the Church in the city of Byzantium (the future Constantinople), from which the Russian Church traces its lineage. The line of all Russian bishops and priests descends from Saint Andrew the First-Called. He also preached in European countries. He ended his life in the city of Patara or Patras.

Homily Two on the Holy and All-Praiseworthy Apostle Andrew the First-Called (St. John of Kronstadt)

Homily Two on the Holy and All-Praiseworthy Apostle Andrew the First-Called 

By St. John of Kronstadt

"God has displayed us, the apostles, last of all, like men sentenced to death. For we are made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and men" (1 Cor. 4:9).

This time, on the glorious day of the commemoration of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called, we will explain the daily reading from the Apostle, for this reading briefly gives us an understanding of the entire activity of Christ's Apostles, and therefore also of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called: their ardent love for Christ and for people, their lofty and unwavering faith and hope of eternal life, their self-denial for the sake of God and the salvation of people, their complete disdain for everything that flatters the feelings of the old man here in this age. Here is the reading from the Apostle in Russian: 

"Brethren, God has displayed us, the apostles, last of all, like men sentenced to death. For we are made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in dishonor. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are ill-clad and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become, and are now, as the refuse of the world, the off-scouring of all things. I do not write this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me" (1 Cor. 4:9-16). 

Homily Two on Andrew, the Apostle of Christ (Archimandrite George Kapsanis)

Homily Two on Andrew, the Apostle of Christ 

By Archimandrite George Kapsanis,

Abbot of Gregoriou Monastery

On today's feast of the Apostle Andrew, we feel spiritual joy, because the Holy Apostle Andrew is the illuminator of the Greek Nation. For each Saint we celebrate, we feel spiritual joy, but we feel much more joy for those Saints who walked the soil of our homeland and enlightened our people and dyed this land porphyry with the fountains of their blood.

We are struck by the fact that the Holy Apostle Andrew from the beginning had followed the Lord with great desire, leaving his first teacher, Saint John the Forerunner. He obeyed and humbled himself before Christ and served Him together with the other Holy Apostles until the end and even shed his blood in a horrible death for the love of the Lord Christ.

November: Day 30: Teaching 2: Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called

November: Day 30: Teaching 2:
Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called
 
(The Call of Believers to Salvation and our Indifference to This Call)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. One day, during the first year of His public ministry to humanity, Jesus Christ was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee. He was then still little known to the world as a Preacher and was just gathering His first followers, His disciples, around Him. Seeing two young brothers, Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew — later known as the Apostle Andrew, the First-Called, whose memory is celebrated today — casting their nets into the sea, the Savior, as if in passing, said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." The brothers did not question their divine Master about who He was, by what power He commanded them, or where He would lead them, but immediately abandoned their nets and followed the Savior. Walking with them further, Jesus Christ saw two more brothers, James and John, sitting with their father Zebedee in a boat, mending their nets. The Son of God, who sees into the hearts and innermost thoughts of men, called these young men, and they immediately responded with complete readiness to the voice calling them: they left their father, the boat, and the nets and followed Jesus.

November: Day 30: Teaching 1: Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called

November: Day 30: Teaching 1:
Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called
 
(On the Means to Maintain Spiritual Joy in Oneself)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Saint Andrew the First-Called, whose memory is celebrated today, one of the Twelve Apostles, was a fisherman from the city of Bethsaida. He was the first to follow Jesus Christ, which is why he is called the "First-Called" and brought his brother Simon Peter to Him. After the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles, Saint Andrew preached the faith of Christ along the shores of the Black Sea, passed through Pontus, Bithynia, Iberia and transferred his preaching to Scythia (present-day Novorossiya). According to tradition, he reached Kiev and predicted that the grace of God would shine on the mountains of Kiev and throughout that country. He founded the Church in Byzantium, for which he appointed Stachys as Bishop. Around the year 62, in the city of Patras, in Achaia, he died by crucifixion.

The Apostle Andrew Appeared to the Wife of a Priest in Cyprus

Father Gerasimos Fokas of Kefallonia told the following story about a priest and his wife from Cyprus:

Cyprus greatly venerates the Apostle Andrew. There is no house that does not have an Andrew or Androula. And exactly where the tip of Cyprus is, at the cape, it is written on the map as the Cape of the Apostle Andrew, and this is exactly there Saint Helen built, while traveling to Constantinople from Jerusalem, the Monastery of the Apostle Andrew.

In 1974, with the unfortunate occupation by the Turks, several thousand people were left trapped in the Karpasia region, where the Monastery is located. With the suffering, with the intimidation, the people left. 800 people remained in Karpasia, Christian people and teachers and priests also remained. Four priests remained with them. Unfortunately, the Turks continued their plan: they burned, imprisoned, intimidated, so the people were constantly leaving.

The Apostle Andrew as the Apostle of Russia

By Yuri Ruban, PhD in History, PhD in Theology

We consider Andrew, the brother of the Apostle Peter, to be the Apostle of Rus/Russia (and of the northern lands in general), a native of Bethsaida, a town on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. His memory is November 30/December 13 and June 30/July 13 - the feast of the Synaxis of the Twelve Apostles.

The Greek name of the apostle, Ἀνδρέας or Andréas (Hebrew, unknown origin), is translated as "courageous", "valiant". He was originally a fisherman, and then became a disciple of John the Baptist. In the list of the Twelve Apostles, Andrew is listed among the four closest disciples to Christ; moreover, his calling as one of the first (Matt. 4:18) or even the first (before his brother - John 1:35-42), ensured him the name "First-Called" (in Greek, Protokletos). The last mentions of Andrew the First-Called in the New Testament is in the story of the arrival of the Greeks in Jerusalem, who wanted to see Christ (John 12:20-34), and at the beginning of the Book of Acts of the Apostles. According to tradition (the apocryphal "Acts of Andrew" and others), he received the northern lands of the Roman Empire ("Scythia") as his apostolic inheritance and preached Christianity to the Balkan and Black Sea peoples. Returning to Greece, the Apostle Andrew was captured and crucified in Patras by order of the proconsul Aegeus. It is noted that the bars of his cross were not perpendicular to each other, but were knocked down diagonally, like the Latin letter X. This cross was therefore called the Saint Andrew's Cross.

Apostle Andrew the First-Called: Preacher to the Barbarians and Cannibals

 

By Andrey Zaitsev

The Apostle Andrew is one of the most famous and mysterious figures among the disciples of Christ. The tireless traveler and preacher, who was martyred in Patras on a cross in the shape of the letter X, became the hero of the "Acts of the Apostle Andrew", which sometimes reads like a fascinating novel. The Church celebrates his memory on November 30/December 13.

The apocryphal apostolic acts, which were not included in the New Testament, are an important genre in the history of Christianity. They reflect the struggle of ideas that took place between heretics and Orthodox Christians. In the Middle Ages, there was no concept of authorship, and the apostles were consciously attributed with the postulates shared by one or another sect. For example, the "Acts of Paul and Thecla" contain a sermon by the Apostle Paul which forbids entering into carnal relations with a husband and creating a family, which contradicts the traditional Christian teaching on marriage and the messages of the Foremost Apostle.

Homily One on the Holy and All-Praiseworthy Apostle Andrew the First-Called (St. John of Kronstadt)

By St. John of Kronstadt

Then [Jesus Christ] said to them, “Follow Me,
and I will make you fishers of men.” They immediately
left their nets and followed Him (Matthew 4:19–20).

The Savior of men, our Lord Jesus Christ, after forty days of fasting and His temptation in the desert, having appeared to the world, came to the pagan country of Galilee, preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of God and saying that the time was fulfilled and the Kingdom of God was at hand: “'Repent and believe in the gospel.' Now as He walked by the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon Peter and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. And He said to them, 'Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.' And they immediately left their nets and followed Him” (Mark 1:15–18). Here is the amazing simplicity and complete trust in the divine Teacher of the Galilean fishermen. Here is quick, unquestioning obedience, without any doubts or hesitations! Truly wise are you, Apostles of Christ, brothers in the flesh and in the spirit, Andrew and Peter: for you suddenly cut off from your soul every passion, every attachment to earthly, corruptible things and followed the Savior of men. We worthily bless you: for by your evangelical labors you have rescued many human souls from the power of the devil and from the eternal fire, and as a rich spoil you have acquired eternal life for yourselves and for them. We magnify you, Apostle of Christ Andrew the First-Called, as the author of the present triumph, and we honor your tribulations and labors, with which you labored for the gospel of Christ, having reached even the Kiev mountains and erected the cross of the Lord on them with the prediction that here there would be a great Christian city with many churches of God.

Greek Folk Customs for the Feast of Saint Andrew

Any Cretan housewife who does not make pancakes today will have a hole in the pan, this is what the custom that accompanies the feast of Saint Andrew, also called Trypotigana, commands.

But how did this custom come about? First of all, we are going through a period of fasting but also the beginning of the olive harvest season and the production of the first oil of the year, so it was not difficult to combine the celebration, on the one hand, with a fasting meal and on the other hand with a sweet that would contain oil to honor the blessed product that entered every household.

In his book "Folk Rituals in Crete" the author and journalist Nikos Psilakis writes: "... At the end of the month, however, the first olives should have been ground and the new oil should have reached every household. Frying on Saint Andrew's feast day (or the eve) was to be done with oil from the new harvest. The use of the new olive oil incorporated a special ritual. They often poured the oil into the pan crosswise while saying a wish, such as 'good luck' or 'and next year'. It is probably an echo of its beginnings, the custom of sharing the first fruits of the harvest or offering them to the gods."

Encomium to Saint Andrew the Apostle (St. Proclus of Constantinople)

Homily 19

Encomium to Saint Andrew the Apostle

By St. Proclus, Archbishop of Constantinople

I.
The net of the apostolic fishing is strong.
The casting-net of commemorating Andrew is wonderful.
Unbroken is the net of the immortal dead.
For with time the snares, which not human skill, but grace has weaved, do not grow old.
(5) For even if the fishermen were to depart from life, yet the instruments
of eloquent fishermen do not grow old with time, as well as the net with/in
which they catch the world.
Those who draw (the nets) are not seen, but the nets have been filled.
They have not obtained a fishing rod, which time destroys.

A Copy of the Cross of Constantine the Great Containing the True Cross Has Been Gifted to the City of Patras from Vatopaidi Monastery

Every year in the city of Patras, the Sacred Metropolis celebrates in the month of November a series of festive events known as the "Protokleteia", which refers to the Apostle Andrew, who was the first-called (protokletos) disciple of the Lord. This is because the city of Patras is where the Apostle Andrew suffered martyrdom by crucifixion, and he remains the patron saint of the city. In Patras one can find his majestic temple, his tomb and sacred skull, which was returned to Patras from the Vatican on September 26, 1964. November is therefore the month of Saint Andrew in Patras, whose feast day is on November 30th.