Our Holy Father, the Martyr Andrew.

Commemorated October 17 in the Orthodox Christian Menaion

From the Prologue

He was a Cretan by birth, and a Christian priest. At the time of the iconoclast persecution, he showed himself a great fighter for their veneration and went to Constantinople to denounce the wicked Emperor Copronymos for his iconoclasm. The Emperor was one day in the Church of the Holy Martyr Mamas. Andrew went into the church, stood before the Emperor and began to rebuke him openly, before all who were present: 'You would do better, 0 King, to look to the work of the army and the governing of the people, than to the persecuting of Christ and His servants.' For this he was harshly flogged and tortured, and dragged through the streets, where a heretic attacked him with an axe and killed him. Thus Andrew gave his holy soul into God's hands, in the year 767. His relics had healing power.

From The Prologue From Ochrid by Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich
©1985 Lazarica Press, Birmingham UK