Andrew, Saint

(died AD 60/70, Patras, Achaia; feast day November 30) One of the Twelve Apostles, brother of St. Peter, and patron saint of Scotland and Russia. According to the Gospels, he was a fisherman and a disciple of John the Baptist. Early Byzantine tradition calls Andrew protokletos, “first called.” He and Peter were called from their fishing by Jesus, who promised to make them fishers of men. Early church legends tell of Andrew's missionary work around the Black Sea. A 4th-century tradition says he was crucified; 13th-century tradition states that the cross was X-shaped. His relics were moved several times after his death; his head was kept in St. Peter's in Rome from the 15th century until 1964, when the pope returned it to Greece as a gesture of goodwill.