Andrew the Apostle

Andrew was just like his brother Simon Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.

General

According to the Bible, Andrew and Simon came from Bethsaida on the Sea of ​​Galilee (Jn 1.44 EU), owned a house in Capernaum ( Mk 1,29 EU) and were fishermen. The Gospel of John reports, Andrew was first a disciple of John the Baptist was, who then told him to Jesus, which he also led his own brother Simon to Jesus with the message we have found the Messiah (John 1.35 to 42 EU). Hence comes its traditional epithet of the First-Called. In the apostle lists ( Mt 10.2 EU, Mk 3,18 EU, Lk 6,14 EU, EU Acts 1:13 ) Andreas always appears under the first four apostles. He does not appear among the three - his brother Simon Peter and the brothers James and John - who has Jesus in some situations are the only ones with them ( Mk 5,37 EU, Mk 9.2 EU, Mk 14,33 EU), only in the Olivet Discourse, the so-called " synoptic Apocalypse " are only two pairs of brothers present ( Andreas ) ( Mk 13.3 EU; otherwise it set the " page speakers " Matthew and Luke represent ).

In the Acts of the Apostles lack detailed information about Andrew, he only appears in the list of apostles who remain after the ascension of Jesus, together with Mary and other women in prayer ( Acts 1:13 EU). However, according to reports from the Church Fathers ( Eusebius of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus, Jerome) he preached in Epirus, Cappadocia, Scythia (now Dobruja ), Thrace, Macedonia, and Achaia. He is said to have preached even in today's Eastern Anatolia and Georgia. The later tradition places it in the first place in the succession of bishops and patriarchs of Byzantium (or Constantinople Opel ).

Coincidentally, it is reported that he was at the time of Nero by the governor AEGEAS or Aegeates in Patras, the seat of the governor in the Greek prefecture of Achaia, was crucified. This was done according to the legend on a cross with oblique beams, the so-called St. Andrew's Cross, whose relics are kept in the Κirche of St. Andrew in Patras. As death November 30 narrated, which is in both the Roman Catholic and in the Orthodox Church the feast day of Saint Andrew.

Andreas is considered the apostle of Asia Minor, Constantinople, the Russians and the Romanians, and is the patron saint of Russia, Scotland ( the flag of Scotland symbolizes the St. Andrew's Cross ) and Romania. Its importance for the Orthodox Church is comparable - if not quite so outstanding - with his brother Peter for the Roman Catholic Church. Bartholomew I, the current Archbishop of Constantinople and Ecumenical Patriarch Opel, is regarded as 270th successor to the Apostle Andrew.

Andreas relics

The bones of the Apostle Andrew were transferred due to an imperial decree in a large triumphal procession from Patras to Constantinople Opel, who reached the new Roman capital on March 3, 357. The relics found their resting place in the Apostle Church of Constantinople Opel. During the Fourth Crusade 1203/1204 they were stolen there, officially to protect them from the Turks, and brought by Cardinal Peter of Capua in the time of his major maritime republic of Amalfi on the Gulf of Salerno. Since May 8 1208 resting there in the crypt of the built in honor of St. Andrew Cathedral " Sant'Andrea ". Some of these relics was returned 21 October 2007 on the edge of interreligious peace meeting of Naples the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I. Opel at a ceremony in the Cathedral of Amalfi.

From Amalfi reached an arm relic of the Collegiate Church of Rees on the Lower Rhine in 1257 in the church of St. Andreas in Cologne, where they finally found their place in the 1997 Acts shrine in the church choir.

The front half of the head of the saint was also separated in order to transfer ownership Pope Pius II; on Pentecost Sunday of the year 1462, she was taken with a dazzling celebration in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Furthermore as the main Andreas reaches Rome, there are two different versions.

• One says that it was already 356 separated and remained in Patras. After the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453 it was from the brother of the fallen Emperor Constantine XI. , Thomas Palaiologos, rescued on the way to Rome in Patras before accessing the Turks and Pius II made ​​a gift, it remembered that Peter and Andrew were brothers.

• According to the other version, the head relic was only separated in Amalfi and brought to Rome by Pope Pius II, so that in case of an impending looting Amalfi by the Turks perish not the entire relic. Pope Paul VI. made in 1964 to honor this head reliquary during the third session of the Second Vatican Council as an act of conciliar ecumenism and the relations of the Church of Rome and the Church of Constantinople Opel as sister churches, transfer back to Patras. Augustin Cardinal Bea handed the Andreas Haupt on September 26, 1964 the Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Constantine of Patras.

In the 8th century by Bishop Acca of Hexham is a part of the Andreas relics had reached to Scotland, another legend has it that this had been done already by 300 by the holy monk Regulus. These relics were venerated in the now ruined cathedral of St. Andrews, her whereabouts are unknown. It is believed that they were destroyed during the Scottish Reformation at a Kirchenplünderung. From Amalfi wiedererblühenden the Roman Catholic Church of Scotland were paid in 1879 and 1969 Andreas relics that are located in St. Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh.

Attributes and external appearance

In late antiquity, the distinctive mark Andreas ' is the representation with wild unkempt hair (for example, in the bishop's chapel in Ravenna).

Attributes (from the Middle Ages): fish, knitting, X-shaped cross ( St Andrew's Cross )

Representation in the Gothic painting of the Ulm School and other South German painters: bearded, gray-haired and white -haired.

Commemoration

St. Andrew's Day

• Roman Catholic November 30 ( Andre Astag )
• Eastern Orthodox: November 30 ( As a part of the Orthodox and the Russian or Serbian Orthodox Church still uses the Julian calendar, the date in this room actually the 13th of December. )
• Evangelical: November 30 (day of the Apostle St. Andrew's Day Gospel: .. Jn 1.35 to 42 LUT The liturgical feast of color is red. )
• Georgian: May 12 ( St. Andrew's Day, a public holiday )

The Roman Catholic Andre Astag was chosen as the apostle said to have been crucified on that day. This is followed by some Protestant church; Hard liturgies, therefore also in Protestantism.

Weather rules and customs

For this day are in Germany the weather rules: " Andrew, bright and clear, promises to be a good year ", " Andreas ' snow hurts the seeds " and " Andreas snow - does corn and wheat hurt ", " Andre brings snow," "If it's snowing on Andrew, the snow lasts one hundred days. " In Poland, the future is predicted on Andre Astag.