In the first kontakion, the akathist is glorified as “the first-called apostle of Christ, preacher of the Holy Gospel, God-inspired enlightener of the Russian country.” In numerous works of Ancient literature, irrefutable evidence of this has been preserved, according to which Rus' received holy baptism back in apostolic times.

The saint was born in the city of Bethsaida in Palestine in the 1st century AD, and was the first to be called by Jesus Christ to apostolic service, becoming His first-called disciple. For Christian preaching, he was sent to Bithynia, Thrace, Macedonia, Heraclia and Great Scythia. “Also, the Apostle visited with preaching the Bosphorus kingdom, the country of the Abasques (Abkhazia), the country of the Alans (North Caucasus), then he returned to the lower reaches of the Dnieper, and going up the river, he preached to the Slavs and Rus living here.”

On the Kyiv hills, the Apostle, addressing his disciples, said: “Believe me that the grace of God will shine on these mountains; a great city will be here, and the Lord will erect many churches there and enlighten the entire Russian land with holy baptism.”

The most ancient evidence of the preaching of the Apostle Andrew on Russian soil belongs to the holy Bishop Hippolytus of Portuena (Roman) (+ c. 222). Origen (200–258) in his work dedicated to the memory of the Apostles writes: “The apostles and disciples of our Lord and Savior, scattered throughout the universe, preached the Gospel, namely: Thomas, as the tradition has survived to us, received Parthia as an inheritance, Andrew - Scythia, John got Asia..."

St. Macarius, Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna (1816–1882), wrote about the importance of the records of these two ancient church writers who preserved written evidence, since “Origen studied with Clement of Alexandria (150–215), who was himself a student of Panten (+203) , and spoke with other apostolic men." “Hippolytus calls himself a disciple of Saint Irenaeus (130–202), who for a long time enjoyed special closeness with Saint Polycarp and loved to question the direct disciples of the apostles about everything concerning their divine teachers. Consequently, Origen and Hippolytus could have learned about the place of preaching of the holy Apostle Andrew secondhand!”

It is important to note that the above information about the preaching of the Apostle Andrew on the land of Great Scythia-Rus applied only to the lands of the Slavs and Rus, since “the Roman and early Byzantine province of Lesser Scythia (the region of modern Dobrudja, Romania) appeared only at the end of the 3rd - beginning of the 4th century AD under the Emperor Diocletian."

“Dorotheus (about 307–322), Bishop of Tire, writes: “flowed through all of Bithynia, all of Thrace and Scythia...”. Saint Sophronius (+390) and Saint Epiphanius of Cyprus (+403) also provide in their works evidence of the preaching of the Apostle Andrew in Scythia. Eucherius of Lyons (+449) and Isidore of Spain (570–636) write in their works about the acts, preaching and teaching of the holy Apostle Andrew: “He received Scythia as an inheritance and together Achaia.” The latest church historian to describe the feat of the apostolic work of the Apostle in the land of the Scythians is Nikita Paphlagon (+873), who noted: “having embraced the gospel all northern countries and the entire coastal part of Pontus in the power of speech, wisdom and reason, in the power of signs and wonders, Having erected altars (temples), priests and hierarchs (bishops) everywhere for believers, he (Apostle Andrew)» .

The fact that even in ancient times the Slavs and Rus were baptized is evidenced by the Iranian writer Ibn al-Fatih al-Hamazani in the “Book of Countries” (“Kitab al-Buldan”, 903): “the Slavs have crosses, but praise be to Allah for Islam."

Nestor the Chronicler in “The Tale of Bygone Years” (hereinafter referred to as PVL) describes a visit to the Kyiv hills by his students. However, from the biography of the disciples of the Apostle Andrew Stachius, Amplius, Urvana, Narcissus, Apellius and Aristobulus, it is known that they were sent by him to preach the Gospel in other countries: Stachyius - to Byzantium, Amplius, Urvana, Amplius were left to govern the local Church in Diospolis in Palestine Narcissus preached in Athens and Greece, Apellius in Heraclius and Aristobulus in Britain. This means that they could not possibly be close to the Apostle Andrew on his missionary journey to Great Scythia-Rus, since they were left to manage their dioceses. What students is the chronicler talking about then? We firmly affirm: these are Russian disciples of the Apostle Andrew. Undoubtedly, many of them were ordained priests and bishops by him.

V.N. Tatishchev (1686–1750) rightly notes that “...they (the Apostles) preached not to mountains or forests, but people and baptized people who accepted the faith." “Nestor’s mistake is that he called the city of the Mountains, not knowing that the Sarmatian word Kiwi means the same thing, he called them empty mountains. And as all the ancient writers before Christ and soon after Christ, Herodotus, Strabo, Pliny and Ptolemy put many cities along the Dnieper, it is clear that Kyiv or the city of Gory was inhabited before Christ, just like Ptolemy in the eastern country the city of Azagorium, or Zagoria , near Kyiv indicates, and this one is named because he became behind the city of the Mountain... and the Greeks and Latins, not knowing the Slavic language and not understanding the unskillful legends, mountains missed the hail."

The First-Called Apostle walked with his disciples up the Dnieper, came to the Kyiv mountains, then reached Lake Ilmen, rose to Lake Ladoga, sailed along the Varangian (Baltic) Sea to the southern coast of Vagria, where he preached to the Western Slavs, finally came to Rome, and “ confession, teach well and see well..." . How important is this remarkable line: it is said briefly, but surprisingly succinctly, about the great labors endured by him and his Russian students!

The first Russian holy martyrs Inna, Pinna and Rimma (1st century) were disciples of the holy Apostle Andrew, although in official church history the first Russian saints are considered to be the martyrs Theodore and John, who were killed under Prince Vladimir, who later became the Great Baptist of Rus', who established Orthodoxy as the state religion .

During the reign of the Slavic-Russian (Antian) Tsar Bozh (+375), the Goths, led by their prince Vitimir, began a war against the Slavs. In one of the battles, King Bozh was captured and crucified with his sons and seventy elders (maybe priests?) on crosses! . The Goths, being pagans, could only deal with Christians, since it is well known that death for the common enemy of all Goths, Varangians and Vikings is due to the sword in view of the ancient pagan belief that idolizes the sword as a totem of the god Odin. And death on the cross for the Slavic-Russian tsar, his relatives and associates was for the Goths revenge on the Slavic-Russians who had retreated from paganism and accepted the Orthodox faith.

How deeply the people accepted the Christian faith in those days can be seen from the history of Ecumenical Orthodoxy. Many historians do not pay due attention to the significance of the Great Scythian Church, whose bishops participated in the conciliar sessions of the Ecumenical Councils! In the four-volume edition of the acts of the Holy Ecumenical Councils, in the lists of bishops who participated in the conciliar sessions of the Seven Ecumenical Councils, the present bishops of not only Lesser but also Great Scythia-Rus are indicated, and in the list of participants in the VII Council (787) there is even the Bishop of Porus!

Scythian monks took an active part in Acts IV (451) and V (553) of the Councils. Their activities were supported by the Orthodox bishops of the East, as well as Pope Hormizd (+523). Moreover, the zeal of the Scythian monks for the purity of Orthodoxy was so well known in those days that during their lifetime they were revered as confessors! A short confessional symbol: “The Only Begotten Son and Word of God is immortal...”, written by these monks, was kindly presented as a gift to Emperor Justinian the Great (483–565). Emperor Justinian was a Slav by origin, his real name was Upravda. The authorship of this symbol-hymn was subsequently attributed to Emperor Justinian, and with his name he entered the rite of the Divine Liturgy.

At the IV Ecumenical Council (451), the issue of granting the Chersonesos (Scythian) Church autocephalous governance was decided! In memory of this, “the Russian Orthodox Church reverently commemorates the acts of the holy fathers of the IV Ecumenical Council.” This event is commemorated on May 18. Famous Fathers of the Church, as well as Byzantine historians and chroniclers, in their works provide a lot of evidence, exceptional in its significance, which shows the great labors incurred by the Apostle Andrew to create an independent self-governing independent Russian Orthodox Church. Their authoritative word is irrefutable evidence that the founder of the Church on our land is Apostle Andrew the First-Called.

The memory of the preaching of the Holy Apostle Andrew was sacredly preserved in Rus'. In 1030, Vsevolod Yaroslavich, the youngest son of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, received the baptismal name Andrei and in 1086 founded the St. Andrew's (Yanchin) Monastery in Kyiv. In 1089, Metropolitan Ephraim of Pereyaslavl consecrated the stone cathedral he built in Pereyaslavl in the name of St. Andrew the First-Called. At the end of the 11th century, a temple was built in Novgorod in the name of St. Andrew the First-Called.

The memory was included in all types of Russian calendars. Since the 12th century, the tradition of legends about the Apostle has developed in the Russian Prologue, etc. Since the 16th century, Novgorod legends about the preaching of the Apostle Andrew in the Russian land, supplementing the Tale of Bygone Years, have become known. Such legends are contained in the “State Book” (1560–1563), where in a new adaptation the “Sermon on the Visit to Rus' of Andrew the First-Called” is recorded, placed in a brief form in the life of St. Olga and in length - in the life of St. Vladimir. The legend from the “Book of Degrees” says that, having come to the land of Slovenia, the apostle preached the word of God, planted and left his staff in the “weight called Georgian,” where a church was later built in the name of the Apostle Andrew. From here, along the Volkhov River, Lake Ladoga and Neva, he went to the “Varyags”, then to Rome and Constantinople. The Book of Degrees also reports that in Chersonesus the footprints of the Apostle Andrew were preserved on stone: the rain or sea water that filled them became healing.

In the second half of the 16th century, a “Tale briefly about the creation of the most venerable monastery of the divine Transfiguration of the Lord God our Savior Jesus Christ on Valam and partly a story about the venerable saints, the father of the same monastery, the head of Sergius and Herman, and about the bringing of their holy relics” was compiled, which talks about the visit Apostle of the island of Valaam.

The theme of apostolic succession of the Russian Church sounded relevant throughout the development of the Russian state. Under Emperor Peter I, who considered St. Andrew the First-Called his patron, the first order of the Russian Empire received the name “Baptist of the Russian Land,” and the St. Andrew’s Cross began to be depicted on the flags of the Russian Navy. In 1998, the Order of St. Andrew was restored as the highest award of the Russian Federation.

At all turning points in Russian history, Apostle Andrew the First-Called, patron of the Russian Land, provided special intercession to the land where his gospel of Christ the Savior was accepted.

Publications in the Literature section

"Apostle" - the first dated printed book in Rus'

In March 1564, the first printed, dated book, “The Apostle,” was published. The history of book printing in Russia began with it. We recall interesting facts about the Apostle and its publishers.

Books "By Hand"

Ivan III Vasilievich. Portrait from the Tsar's Title Book. 17th century

Title page of the manuscript “Stoglava” from the Main Collection of the Library of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.

First printer Ivan Fedorov. Ivan Tomashevich. 1904

Printing in Russia was preceded by the era of handwritten books. They were copied in monasteries, and at the same time they did not do without the “human factor”. To prevent errors and deviations from church norms from appearing in books, the rules for the work of “copyists” of sacred texts were published in Stoglav in 1551. The collection also contained church rules and instructions, ancient Russian norms of law and morality.

“The blessed Tsar and Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich of All Rus' ordered holy books to be bought at auction and invested in holy churches. But among them there were few suitable ones - they all turned out to be spoiled by scribes who were ignorant and ignorant of the sciences. Then he began to think about how to organize the printing of books, so that from now on the holy books would be published in a corrected form.”

Ivan Fedorov, afterword to “The Apostle”

The first printing house in Rus'

Progress helped us begin to solve the problem nationwide. A century earlier, the printing press was invented, and later it appeared in Russia. In the middle of the 16th century, several “anonymous” - without indicating the publisher - books of religious content were published in Rus'. These were three Gospels, two Psalms and the Triodion. In 1553, Tsar Ivan the Terrible ordered the construction of a Printing House using funds from the royal treasury - not far from the Kremlin, on Nikolskaya Street. Of the buildings of the first printing house, the oldest one has survived - the “correction room” or proofreading room.

By order of the sovereign to “find the mastery of printed books,” the deacon of the Kremlin Church of St. Nicholas Gostunsky, Ivan Fedorov, took up the task. Fedorov was widely educated: he knew Greek and Latin, knew how to bind books and was engaged in foundry.

Why "Apostle"

Monument to Ivan Fedorov, Moscow. Photo: artpoisk.info

"The Apostle", 1564. Book cover. Photo: mefodiya.ru

The site of the former printing yard, Moscow. Photo: mefodiya.ru

To print the first edition, they took the “Acts and Epistles of the Apostles,” written by the Evangelist Luke, part of the New Testament. The book was used in divine services, in the training of priests, and for teaching literacy in parochial schools.

Printing such a serious book required careful preparation. For a new endeavor, Ivan Fedorov needed assistants - among them was Pyotr Mstislavets, who is also considered one of the first book printers in Rus'. At first, everyone learned to type text and print it. Fedorov and his assistants made forms for each letter, cast more and more lead letters of different fonts, and cut out wooden ornaments to decorate the chapters. The preparation process was personally supervised by the sovereign.

Ivan Fedorov and Metropolitan Macarius were especially diligent in selecting the primary source - versions of the handwritten “Apostles” were sent from monasteries. At the Printing Yard, a “reference room” was opened, where a sample was prepared for printing. The text of the book itself required elaboration.

“It must be said that Ivan Fedorov “lightened” the book by eliminating from it many official materials that were not part of the canonical text, but were traditionally placed in the handwritten Apostles. These are all kinds of prefaces, interpretations, etc.”

Evgeniy Nemirovsky, book scholar, Doctor of Historical Sciences

Almost ten years passed from the royal command to start the printing press to the actual printing. Only in April 1563 did the craftsmen begin to make the book itself.

Working on a book

Fragment of the book "Apostle". 1564

Fragment of the book "Apostle". 1564

It took almost a year to print the first book. As a result, the font sample was taken from the “handwritten semi-chart” of the 16th century - medium-sized rounded letters with a slight slant to the right. Church books were usually copied in this style. To make the printed book more convenient to read, the craftsmen painstakingly aligned the lines and spaces between words. For printing we used glued French paper - thin and durable. Ivan Fedorov engraved the text himself and typed the text himself.

In 1564, the first Russian printed dated book was published. It had 534 pages, each with 25 lines. The circulation at that time was impressive - about two thousand copies. About 60 books have survived to this day in museums and libraries.

A work of printing art from the 16th century

Frontispiece and title page of "The Apostle". 1564. Copy from the State Public Scientific and Technical Library of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Fragment of the book "Apostle". 1564. Copy from the State Public Scientific and Technical Library of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

“Apostle” was decorated in the style of ancient Russian handwritten books. The wooden binding was covered with morocco with gold embossing and brass clasps. Inside, “The Apostle” was “with pictures”: the book was decorated with 48 drawings of intricately intertwined herbs with fruits and cones. The printer highlighted the beginning of the chapter with an ornament, and the initial letters and inserts were also highlighted with red - cinnabar. The paints turned out to be of such high quality that they did not fade even after centuries.

With such a traditional design, a new decorative element appeared in “Apostle”: an engraved frontispiece - a drawing placed on the same spread as the title page. It depicts the figure of the Evangelist Luke in an arch on two columns.

“Last year they introduced printing... and I myself saw with what dexterity books were already printed in Moscow.”, - noted the work of Moscow printers in 1564, the Italian aristocrat Raphael Barberini, who visited Russia in those years.

Years of preparation and meticulous work on the book paid off: the researchers did not find a single error or typo in the book.

The author of the afterword spoke about the great church construction “across all the cities” of Muscovite Rus', especially “in the newly enlightened place in the city of Kazan and within its borders,” and the need for printed church books, not distorted by scribes: “all corruption from the prescriptive unlearned and unskilled in mind."

Other books by Ivan Fedorov

A year after the release of “The Apostle,” Ivan Fedorov published a collection of prayers called “The Book of Hours.” The book was published in two “factories,” that is, publications. The pioneer printer spent about three months on the job, after which he left Moscow for Lvov.

“...It is not fitting for me to shorten the time of my life either by plowing or sowing seeds, because instead of a plow I master the art of hand tools, and instead of bread I must sow spiritual seeds in the Universe and distribute this spiritual food to everyone according to rank...”

Ivan Fedorov

Later, he published another version of “The Apostle” and the first Russian textbook, “The ABC,” following his life principle of “sowing spiritual seeds.” Ivan Fedorov published another book in the printing house of the city of Ostrog in 1581 - the Ostrog Bible.

In the first kontakion of the akathist, Apostle Andrew is glorified as “the first-called apostle of Christ, preacher of the Holy Gospel, God-inspired enlightener of the Russian country.” In numerous works of Ancient literature, irrefutable evidence of this has been preserved, according to which Rus' received holy baptism back in apostolic times.

On the Kyiv hills, the Apostle, addressing his disciples, said: “Believe me that the grace of God will shine on these mountains; a great city will be here, and the Lord will erect many churches there and enlighten the entire Russian land with holy baptism.”

The most ancient evidence of the preaching of the Apostle Andrew on Russian soil belongs to the holy Bishop Hippolytus of Portuena (Roman) (+ c. 222). Origen (200-258) in his work dedicated to the memory of the Apostles writes: “The apostles and disciples of our Lord and Savior, scattered throughout the universe, preached the Gospel, namely: Thomas, as the tradition has survived to us, received Parthia as an inheritance, Andrew - Scythia, John got Asia..."

St. Macarius, Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna (1816-1882), wrote about the importance of the records of these two ancient church writers who preserved written evidence, since “Origen studied with Clement of Alexandria (150-215), who was himself a student of Panten (+203) , and spoke with other apostolic men." “Hippolytus calls himself a disciple of Saint Irenaeus (130-202), who for a long time enjoyed special closeness with Saint Polycarp and loved to question the direct disciples of the apostles about everything relating to their divine teachers. Consequently, Origen and Hippolytus could have learned about the place of preaching of the holy Apostle Andrew secondhand!”

It is important to note that the above information about the preaching of the Apostle Andrew on the land of Great Scythia-Rus applied only to the lands of the Slavs and Rus, since “the Roman and early Byzantine province of Lesser Scythia (the region of modern Dobrudja, Romania) appeared only at the end of the 3rd - beginning of the 4th century AD under the Emperor Diocletian."

“Dorotheus (about 307-322), Bishop of Tire, writes: “Andrew, brother of Peter, flowed through all of Bithynia, all of Thrace and Scythia...”. Saint Sophronius (+390) and Saint Epiphanius of Cyprus (+403) also provide in their works evidence of the preaching of the Apostle Andrew in Scythia. Eucherius of Lyons (+449) and Isidore of Spain (570-636) write in their works about the acts, preaching and teaching of the holy Apostle Andrew: “He received Scythia as an inheritance and together Achaia.” The latest church historian to describe the feat of the apostolic work of the Apostle in the land of the Scythians is Nikita Paphlagon (+873), who noted: “having embraced the gospel all northern countries and the entire coastal part of Pontus in the power of speech, wisdom and reason, in the power of signs and wonders, Having erected altars (temples), priests and hierarchs (bishops) everywhere for believers, he (Apostle Andrew)» .

The fact that even in ancient times the Slavs and Rus were baptized is evidenced by the Iranian writer Ibn al-Fatih al-Hamazani in the “Book of Countries” (“Kitab al-Buldan”, 903): “the Slavs have crosses, but praise be to Allah for Islam."

V.N. Tatishchev (1686-1750) rightly notes that “...they (the Apostles) preached not to mountains or forests, but people and baptized people who accepted the faith." “Nestor’s mistake is that he called the city of the Mountains, not knowing that the Sarmatian word Kiwi means the same thing, he called them empty mountains. And as all the ancient writers before Christ and soon after Christ, Herodotus, Strabo, Pliny and Ptolemy put many cities along the Dnieper, it is clear that Kyiv or the city of Gory was inhabited before Christ, just like Ptolemy in the eastern country the city of Azagorium, or Zagoria , near Kyiv indicates, and this one is named because he became behind the city of the Mountain... and the Greeks and Latins, not knowing the Slavic language and not understanding the unskillful legends, mountains missed the hail."

The First-Called Apostle walked with his disciples up the Dnieper, came to the Kyiv mountains, then reached Lake Ilmen, rose to Lake Ladoga, sailed along the Varangian (Baltic) Sea to the southern coast of Vagria, where he preached to the Western Slavs, finally came to Rome, and “ confession, teach well and see well..." . How important is this remarkable line: it is said briefly, but surprisingly succinctly, about the great labors of the Apostle Andrew the First-Called, suffered by him and his Russian disciples!

The first Russian holy martyrs Inna, Pinna and Rimma (1st century) were disciples of the holy Apostle Andrew, although in official church history the first Russian saints are considered to be the martyrs Theodore and John, who were killed under Prince Vladimir, who later became the Great Baptist of Rus', who established Orthodoxy as the state religion .

During the reign of the Slavic-Russian (Antian) Tsar Bozh (+375), the Goths, led by their prince Vitimir, began a war against the Slavs. In one of the battles, King Bozh was captured and crucified with his sons and seventy elders (maybe priests?) on crosses! Christians. The Goths, being pagans, could only deal with

, since it is well known that death for the common enemy of all Goths, Varangians and Vikings is due to the sword in view of the ancient pagan belief that idolizes the sword as a totem of the god Odin. And death on the cross for the Slavic-Russian tsar, his relatives and associates was for the Goths revenge on the Slavic-Russians who had retreated from paganism and accepted the Orthodox faith.

How deeply the people accepted the Christian faith in those days can be seen from the history of Ecumenical Orthodoxy. Many historians do not pay due attention to the significance of the Great Scythian Church, whose bishops participated in the conciliar sessions of the Ecumenical Councils! In the four-volume edition of the acts of the Holy Ecumenical Councils, in the lists of bishops who participated in the conciliar sessions of the Seven Ecumenical Councils, the present bishops of not only Lesser but also Great Scythia-Rus are indicated, and in the list of participants in the VII Council (787) there is even the Bishop of Porus!

At the IV Ecumenical Council (451), the issue of granting the Chersonesos (Scythian) Church autocephalous governance was decided! In memory of this, “the Russian Orthodox Church reverently commemorates the acts of the holy fathers of the IV Ecumenical Council.” This event is commemorated on May 18. Famous Fathers of the Church, as well as Byzantine historians and chroniclers, in their works provide a lot of evidence, exceptional in its significance, which shows the great labors incurred by the Apostle Andrew to create an independent self-governing independent Russian Orthodox Church. Their authoritative word is irrefutable evidence that the founder of the Church on our land is Apostle Andrew the First-Called.

The memory of the Apostle Andrew was included in all types of Russian calendars. Since the 12th century, the tradition of legends about the Apostle has developed in the Russian Prologue, etc. Since the 16th century, Novgorod legends about the preaching of the Apostle Andrew in the Russian land, supplementing the Tale of Bygone Years, have become known. Such legends are contained in the “State Book” (1560-1563), where in a new adaptation the “Tale of the Visit to Rus' of Andrew the First-Called” is recorded, placed in a brief form in the life of St. Olga and in length - in the life of St. Vladimir. The legend from the “Book of Degrees” says that, having come to the land of Slovenia, the apostle preached the word of God, planted and left his staff in the “weight called Georgian,” where a church was later built in the name of the Apostle Andrew. From here, along the Volkhov River, Lake Ladoga and Neva, he went to the “Varyags”, then to Rome and Constantinople. The Book of Degrees also reports that in Chersonesus the footprints of the Apostle Andrew were preserved on stone: the rain or sea water that filled them became healing.

In the second half of the 16th century, a “Tale briefly about the creation of the most venerable monastery of the divine Transfiguration of the Lord God our Savior Jesus Christ on Valam and partly a story about the venerable saints, the father of the same monastery, the head of Sergius and Herman, and about the bringing of their holy relics” was compiled, which talks about the visit Apostle of the island of Valaam.

The theme of apostolic succession of the Russian Church sounded relevant throughout the development of the Russian state. Under Emperor Peter I, who considered St. Andrew the First-Called his patron, the first order of the Russian Empire received the name “Baptist of the Russian Land,” and the St. Andrew’s Cross began to be depicted on the flags of the Russian Navy. In 1998, the Order of St. Andrew was restored as the highest award of the Russian Federation.

At all turning points in Russian history, Apostle Andrew the First-Called, patron of the Russian Land, provided special intercession to the land where his gospel of Christ the Savior was accepted.

Fresco with the image of the Apostle Andrew the First-Called on the cross in the Cathedral of the Apostle Andrew the First-Called. Patras, Greece. Source: svavva.ru

OLGA BOGDANOVA

The Holy Apostle Andrew, having joined the ranks of the disciples of John the Baptist, eagerly awaited the coming of the Savior, and when Jesus appeared, he was the first to follow Him. Immediately after Pentecost St. Andrew went to Thrace and Scythia to preach the Word of God among the Iberians, Sarmatians, Tauri and Scythians.

On December 13 (November 30, old style) the Russian Orthodox Church celebrates the memory of the holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called.

The Apostle Andrew was from Galilee. This is the northern part of the Holy Land; The Galileans easily got along with the Greeks who inhabited their country in large numbers; many spoke Greek and bore Greek names. The name Andrey is Greek and means “courageous.”

When John the Baptist began to preach on the banks of the Jordan, Andrew, together with John Zebedee (who came from the same city - Bethsaida), followed the prophet, hoping to find an answer to his spiritual questions in his teaching. Many began to think that maybe John the Baptist was the expected Messiah, but he explained to people that he was not the Messiah, but was sent only to prepare the way for Him.

At that time, the Lord Jesus Christ came to John the Baptist on the Jordan for baptism, and he, pointing to the Lord, said to his disciples: “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.” Hearing this, Andrew and John followed Jesus. The Lord, seeing them, asked: “What do you need?” They said: “Rabbi (Teacher), where do you live?” “Come and see,” Jesus answered, and from that time they became His disciples. On the same day, the Apostle Andrew went to his brother Simon Peter and told him: “We have found the Messiah.” So Peter joined the disciples of Christ.

However, the apostles did not immediately devote themselves entirely to the apostolic title. From the Gospel we know that the brothers Andrew and Simon Peter and the brothers John and James had to return to their families for a while and take up their usual work - fishing. A few months later, the Lord, passing by Lake Galilee and seeing them fishing, said: “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Then they left their boats and nets and from that day became constant disciples of Christ.

Andrew, who followed the Lord earlier than the other apostles, received the name First-Called. He remained with Christ throughout the entire period of His public ministry. After the Resurrection of the Savior, Apostle Andrew, together with other disciples, was honored with meetings with Him and was present on the Mount of Olives when the Lord, having blessed them, ascended to Heaven.

After the descent of the Holy Spirit, the apostles cast lots as to who should go to which country to preach the Gospel. Saint Andrew inherited the countries lying along the Black Sea coast, the northern part of the Balkan Peninsula and Scythia, i.e. the Land on which Russia was later formed.

The Venerable Nestor the Chronicler wrote in the Tale of Bygone Years: When Andrei taught in Sinop and arrived in Korsun, he learned that the mouth of the Dnieper was not far from Korsun, and... sailed to the mouth of the Dnieper, and from there he went up the Dnieper. And it so happened that he came and stood under the mountains on the shore. And in the morning he got up and said to the disciples who were with him: “Do you see these mountains? On these mountains the grace of God will shine, there will be a great city, and God will erect many churches.” And having ascended these mountains, he blessed them, and put up a cross, and prayed to God, and came down from this mountain, where Kyiv would later be, and went up the Dnieper. And he came to the Slovenes, where Novgorod now stands, and saw the people living there - what their custom was and how they washed and whipped themselves, and he was surprised at them. And he went to the country of the Varangians, and came to Rome, and told about how he taught and what he saw, and said: “I saw a marvel in the Slavic land on my way here. I saw wooden bathhouses, and they would heat them up, and they would undress and be naked, and they would douse themselves with leather kvass, and they would pick up young rods on themselves and beat themselves, and they would finish themselves off so much that they would barely get out, barely alive, and douse themselves with cold water, and This is the only way they will come to life. And they do this constantly, not being tormented by anyone, but torturing themselves, and then they perform ablution for themselves, and not torment.”. Those, hearing about this, were surprised; Andrei, having been in Rome, came to Sinop.

After returning to Greece, the Apostle Andrew stopped in the city of Patros (Patra), located near the Gulf of Corinth. Here, through the laying on of hands, he healed many people from illnesses, including the noble Maximilla, who believed in Christ with all her heart and became a disciple of the apostle. Since many residents of Patras believed in Christ, the local ruler Egeat was inflamed with hatred against the Apostle Andrew and sentenced Him to crucifixion. The apostle, not at all afraid of the verdict, in an inspired sermon revealed to those gathered the spiritual power and significance of the Savior’s suffering on the cross.

Cathedral of the Apostle Andrew the First-Called. Patras, Greece.