Do You Know St. Andrew? : Advent Lesson from the Protokletos

The last day of November is the feast of St. Andrew.

So, what do you know about him? When you hear the name, St. Andrew, what comes up to your mind?

Perhaps, to many people, it can be golf, because St. Andrews in Scotland is known as the “home of golf”.  Does it mean that St. Andrew was a Scottish man or a saint who brought Christianity to Scotland? Does it mean that St. Andrew enjoyed playing golf, thus, became a patron saint of golf?

In fact, St. Andrew was a Jew from the Galilee region, then a province of the Roman Empire, during the first century. Rather than being rich enough to enjoy playing golf, he was too poor to enjoy such a rich men’s sport, as he was busy fishing tilapia in the Sea of Galilee just to get a daily bread. As for his connection to golf, as far as I know, there is none. Andrew is not a patron saint of golf, either.

So, how St. Andrew got involved in Scotland?

As a patron saint, though St. Andrew is synonymous to Scotland, as St. Patrick is so to Ireland, St. Andrew did not bring Christianity to Scotland. What St. Andrew to Scotland was not like what St. Patrick was to Ireland. Christianity was introduced to Scotland during the 6^th and 7^th centuries by missionaries from Ireland, such as St. Columba. Rather, St. Andrew’s missionary brought Christianity to the Black Sea area in the Asia Minor of the Roman Empire and further into Eastern Europe during the first century. This is according to the Acts of Andrew, which Eusebius considered as heretic, while Gregory of Tours found it as an important document. As the Acts of the Apostles has no description on exactly what kind of missionary and pastoral works St. Andrew did, the Acts of Andrew is the only source to learn about his apostolic works.

 St. Andrew’s connection to Scotland did not take place during his life time. Nevertheless, a legend has it that replicas of St. Andrew were brought to Scotland by St. Regulus of Patras, c.a. 345.  Probably, St. Andrew began to be revered by the Scottish not simply because of his relics’ placement but St. Andrew’s promise of victory to King Angus (Oengus) MacFergus II over invaders from East Anglia in 732 AD.  As St. Andrew’s promise to the king was delivered in defeating the invaders, followed by the saltire-shaped white clouds in the blue sky next morning, the Scottish celebrated their victory with the St. Andrew’s Cross.

In fact, St. Andrew is Scotland’s patron saint.  This is why the flag of Scotland bears the white St. Andrew’s cross – a slanted X-shaped cross – saltire against blue background.

As St. Patrick is Ireland’s patron saint. St. Andrew is Scotland’s patron saint.  Interestingly, Patrick was not Irish, and Andrew was not Scottish.  St. Patrick was born in Roman Britain in the fifth century, and St. Andrew is believed to have been born in Roman Galilee in early first century.  A patron saint does not have to be native of the nation, and this reminds us of the missionary character of Christianity.

The scripture readings for St. Andrew’s feast (Romans 10:9-18; Matthew 4:18-22), in fact, addresses the missionary in the discipleship, honoring St. Andrew as the protokletos, the first one to be called – as the first disciple of Christ, based on John 1:35-42.

Both Matthew 4:18-22 and John 1:35-42 remind us that St. Andrew was St. Peter’s brother, and both of them were fishermen in Galilee.  Matthew 4:18-22 and Mark 1:16-20 tell that Jesus came to Andrew and his brother, Peter, and call them to follow him when they were casting the nets to fish. However, John 1:35-42 indicate that it was Andrew, who first recognized that Jesus is the Messiah (John 1:41) and introduced Jesus to his brother, Peter to join in Jesus’ mission as he did.  Andrew was able to recognize and follow Jesus before anyone other disciples of Jesus, thus, making himself as the protokletos, because of his previous discipleship to St. John the Baptist, who first recognized Jesus as the Messiah, calling him as “the Lamb of God” (John 1:35), as St. Andrew was with him together with the other disciple of John, when Jesus walked by them, the day before he followed Jesus and introduced him to his brother Peter.  If we follow the narrative of John’s Gospel, St. Andrew is the very first disciple of Jesus, while both Matthew and Mark indicate that Jesus first recruited both St. Andrew and St. Peter, the two Galilean fishermen brothers together. Interestingly, according to Luke (5:1-11) , it was Peter, whom Jesus first recruited as his disciple to follow, while Andrew was not mentioned at all.

In order to honor St. Andrew as the pretokletos, the first one to be called, the first disciple of Jesus, for his feast, John 1:35-42 would seem more appropriate as the Gospel reading for his feast.  It is also only John’s Gospel that mentions Andrew’s harbinger aspect also in finding a boy with a small amount of  barley loaves and fish for Jesus to feed the hungry multitudes (John 6:9).  According to John’s Gospel, St. Andrew is the very first disciple to become Jesus’ disciple, as he is the first one to identify Jesus as the Messiah (John 1:41), and the one to find loaves and fish for Jesus to multiply for the multitudes (John 6:9).

Although St. Andrew is the pretokletos, he is not as well-known as his brother, Peter, and other disciples, such as John and James, another set of Galilean fishermen brothers.  Perhaps, it is because the way the Synoptic Gospels describe Andrew, making him somewhat a back-burner kind of disciple, compared to his older brother, Peter, and other disciples, though only John’s Gospel puts more special aspects to him. Or, maybe this reflects Andrew’s humility.  Because Andrew was so humble, he demanded to be crucified on an X-shaped cross, as he felt that he was not worthy to be put on a vertical cross, as Jesus was.  So, in remembering St. Andrew, we must honor not only his pretokletos aspect but also his exemplary humility. 

There is another interesting aspect on his feast.

As the feast of St. Andrew is celebrated during the early part of Advent,  we can juxtapose the his feast’s scripture theme of being called into the discipleship for Christ’s mission to the scripture theme for the First Sunday of Advent (Cycle C) (Isaiah 2:1-5; Romans 13:11-14; Matthew 24:37-44), readiness for the coming of Christ.  So, we can ask ourselves in parallel: Are we ready to be called into Christ’s discipleship and its mission? – Are we ready to the coming of Christ, the Nativity of the Lord (Christmas) in memory and the Second Coming of Christ (Parousia) at any time?