MARTYR ANDREW OF CRETE

On October 30, the Church commemorates the holy martyr Andrew of Crete. This saint should be distinguished from another Andrew of Crete, a bishop, author of liturgical texts, and confessor of the faith, who is well known in Orthodox popular piety thanks to his Great Penitential Canon and other hymns. The saints are often mistakenly identified with each other. The reason for this is not only the similarity of their names, but also the fact that they were almost contemporaries.

1 According to his hagiographers, Saint Andrew was born in Crete, where he lived as a hermit monk. This is where the saint’s other nickname in the liturgical calendars comes from, “Andrew Kalivitis”. The Greek word “kaliva” means a tent or hut, where the ascetic lived in extreme poverty. During the iconoclastic persecution of Emperor Constantine Copronymus (741–775), whose reign was unusually long, politically successful, but harmful to the Church and bloody towards defenders of sacred images, Andrew went to Constantinople.

3 Then, in 767, Constantine held a trial of icon defenders in the palace of Saint Mammes, next to the monastery of the same name on the banks of the Golden Horn, where, centuries later, the greatest Orthodox mystic of all time Simeon the New Theologian (949-1022) was abbot. Like the future Russian holy fools, Andrew entered the palace and denounced the ruler. His hagiographers have preserved his confession of faith in the form of a denunciation: “You, Emperor, claim that we are idolaters. But we defend and honor images created in the image and likeness of God, who became man for our sake.”

4 Unlike other iconoclastic emperors, Constantine sought to refute icon veneration only by brute force, but also at the doctrinal level. Thus, in 754, he even convened an Ecumenical Council in Hieria, attended by 338 (!) bishops who condemned icons; subsequently, it was recognized as “robber,” that is, false. After listening to Andrew, the ruler tried to refute his claims. Having achieved nothing, he ordered the monk to be flogged and thrown into prison. The authorities and the episcopate, for reasons of conformism, generally supported the iconoclasts, while the monks defended the icons. It was difficult but strategically important to get an ascetic, especially an authoritative one, to recognize iconoclasm. This explains why Constantine brought Andrew back for questioning the next day, resorting simultaneously to threats and bribery.

5 Not getting what he wanted, the emperor handed the saint over to be torn apart by the crowd, ordering him to be dragged bound through the streets of Constantinople. Since ordinary people, along with monks, also defended the holy icons, this decision to destroy the saint by the hands of the common people was particularly malicious. He was subjected to particular cruelty near the so-called Bull Forum, or Forum of Theodosius, where, according to legend, Saint Antipas, mentioned in Revelation, was once placed in the Brazen bull and burned. Thus, a special succession of suffering was revealed between the saints, both new and ancient. The crowd continued to lead Andrew through the streets of the city, when suddenly a fisherman, again an apocalyptic symbol, cut off his leg, and he died from blood loss. As punishment for rebellion, the usual accusation levelled at icon defenders by iconoclasts, the saint’s body was buried in a mass grave in a special cemetery reserved for murderers and conscious idolaters.

6 Three months later, as if to remind us of the resurrection on the third day, the time when, according to the Bible, all human hope is dead and the Lord Himself begins to act, the martyr’s body was found by believers and laid to rest in the monastery of St. Andrew the Apostle in Krisei, located on the so-called seventh hill of Constantinople near the Sea of Marmara. After the Ottoman conquest of the city in 1453, the relics of St. Andrew disappeared, but the church building has survived to this day. Over more than a millennium and a half of its history, it has seen deposed emperors taking monastic vows within its walls, ancient Russian pilgrims, and later it even became a mosque. According to legend, another great mystic of byzantine history, saint Andrew the Fool for Christ loved to pray there. It was saved from complete destruction during the Ottoman era by dervishes. As if to remind us that the history of the world is not yet over, the name of the place is sometimes literally translated as “Monastery of Judgment.”