Hymn to St. Andrew the Apostle
70.
1.
A one time hunter of fish,
Already now a fisher of men,
Andrew with your net
Seize us with the waves of the world.
2.
Full brother of Peter by the body
Not disimilar in the kind of death;
Whom she brought forth of one flesh,
The cross elevated the brothers in heaven.
3.
O truly noble offspring,
O equal crown of glory!
Pious fathers of the church
The sons are equally of the cross.
4.
Brothers leading the way to market,
And witness of the active life,
Be also to us wretched ones
Leader of the way to blessings.
5.
Let there by praise to the unborn…
71.
1.
The festival is cultivated for Andrew,
His bright light stirs up the pious ones,
Through which they have left the shadows,
They return to the the true light.
2.
The Aegean people gansh their teeth at the apostle with a menacing spirit,
Through whom the Greek people
Vote to go after the Lord.
3.
He does not know to become afraid of menaces,
He is unable to yield to tortures;
The blaze of burning faith
Does not feel the force of torture.
4.
Having been overcome by the yoke of the cross
The happy man hung for two days;
Placed in the same death
The eloquence of life flows out.
5.
By the light having fallen from heaven
He is suddenly surrounded;
He who thus deserves to die (meet),
Sought the author of the light.
6.
Let there be praise to the unbegotten father …
Andrew the Apostle, also called Saint Andrew. He was a fisherman and one of the Twelve Apostles chosen by Jesus. The title First-Called stems from the Gospel of John, where Andrew, initially a disciple of John the Baptist, follows Jesus and, recognizing him as the Messiah, introduces his brother Simon Peter to him.
Andrew is said to have been martyred by crucifixion at the city of Patras (Patræ) in Achaea, in AD 60. Early texts, such as the Acts of Andrew known to Gregory of Tours (6th century), describe Andrew as bound, not nailed, to a Latin cross of the kind on which Jesus is said to have been crucified; yet a tradition developed that Andrew had been crucified on a cross of the form called crux decussata (X-shaped cross, or "saltire"), now commonly known as a "Saint Andrew's Cross" — supposedly at his own request, as he deemed himself unworthy to be crucified on the same type of cross as Jesus had been. The iconography of the martyrdom of Andrew — showing him bound to an X-shaped cross — does not appear to have been standardized until the later Middle Ages.