🐟Saint Andrew, brother of Saint Peter and the first of the apostles to be called by Christ, was originally from Bethsaida in Galilee and initially a disciple of John the Baptist. After Pentecost, he dedicated his life to evangelization in regions such as Scythia, Thrace, and Greece, specifically in Achaia, fulfilling the divine mandate to spread the Good News to the ends of the earth. Tradition recounts that in Patras, he was condemned to martyrdom by the governor Aegeas, being crucified on an X-shaped cross (crux decussata), upon which he remained preaching for two days before expiring, demonstrating an ardent love for redemptive suffering. His mortal remains were transferred to Constantinople and later his body to Amalfi, Italy, while his head was venerated in Rome, in St. Peter's Basilica, until it was returned to the Greek Orthodox Church in the 20th century; his martyrdom occurred around the year 60 AD.
📜Epistle (Rom 10, 10-18)
Brethren: For with the heart, we believe unto justice; but with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture saith: Whosoever believeth in Him shall not be confounded. For there is no distinction of the Jew and the Greek: for the same is Lord over all, rich unto all that call upon Him. For whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? Or how shall they believe Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they be sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, of them that bring glad tidings of good things! But all do not obey the gospel. For Isaias saith: Lord, who hath believed our report? Faith then cometh by hearing; and hearing by the word of Christ. But I say: Have they not heard? Yes, verily, their sound hath gone forth into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the whole world.
✠Gospel (Mt 4, 18-22)
At that time, Jesus walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea (for they were fishers). And Jesus saith to them: Come ye after Me, and I will make you to be fishers of men. And they immediately left their nets and followed Him. And going on from thence, He saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets: and He called them. And they forthwith left their nets and father, and followed Him.
💭Reflections
📣The dynamic of faith expounded by the Apostle Paul in the Epistle to the Romans establishes an unbreakable causal chain between divine sending and human salvation: sending generates preaching, preaching generates hearing, hearing generates faith, and faith culminates in the invocation of the Name of the Lord. Saint Andrew, as one of the first "beautiful feet" who evangelized peace, embodies the absolute necessity of the apostolic ministry for the economy of salvation. Without the audible voice of the Church, which echoes the Word of the Logos, inner belief remains incomplete, for "with the heart we believe unto justice, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." Andrew's mission was not merely a geographic displacement, but the actualization of Christ's command that faith must be ex auditu (from hearing), transforming the listener into a believer and the believer into a confessor, a principle that Saint Augustine reiterates by stating that faith is the initial step, but public confession is the proof of its vitality and the guarantee of salvation (Saint Augustine, Commentary on the Gospel of John).
⚓The Gospel of Matthew narrates the radical readiness with which Andrew and Peter abandoned their nets, a gesture that transcends a mere change of profession and points to the total renunciation required by the Kingdom. Upon being constituted "fishers of men," the apostles do not merely change the object of their fishing, but their ontology: they cease capturing for death (taking the fish out of the water for consumption) and begin capturing for life (taking man out of the abyss of sin into the light of God). Saint Gregory the Great observes with depth that the value of renunciation lies not in the quantity of goods left behind, but in the detached affection; they left everything they had and everything they desired to have, demonstrating that following Christ requires the emptying of the "nets" that bind us to the complexities and entanglements of the age, so that the soul may navigate freely in the sea of the Divine Will (Saint Gregory the Great, Homily on the Gospels).
✝️The culmination of Saint Andrew's life reflects the perfect integration between "confession with the mouth" and the following of the Cross. Liturgical and patristic tradition has bequeathed to us the beautiful prayer of Andrew before the instrument of his torture: "O bona Crux" (O good Cross), in which he greets the cross not as a torment, but as a desired means of union with the Master. This attitude reveals that true apostolic faith understands suffering not as an obstacle, but as the consummation of love. By embracing the cross, Andrew validates his preaching with his own blood, becoming an irrefutable witness (martys) that He whom he announced is worth more than life itself. As Saint Thomas Aquinas teaches, martyrdom is the most perfect act of charity and fortitude, for in it the Christian fully conforms to Christ Crucified, transforming death, which was the wages of sin, into the gate of glory (Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 124).
🇺🇸See English version of the critical articles here.
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