The Feast of St. Andrew, the First Called
“Immediately, they left their nets and followed Jesus.”
A modern and highly geometrical depiction of the calling of Peter and Andrew, this painting also departs from the classical iconography by preferencing a cool color palette of earthy browns and watery blues over the heavenly warmth of gold and ochre. The artist, Jorge Coco Santangelo, is an Argentinian Mormon, and this image was featured in 2015 at the LDS Church History Museum’s 10th Annual International Art Competition, Tell Me the Stories of Jesus.
A “classic” representation of the call of Peter and Andrew, this is an early 14th C depiction in tempura by Duccio di Buoninsegna, stewarded by the National Gallery of Art.
Lancaster-based artist Fred Roger may have had Buoninsegna’s template in mind when crafting this playful modern interpretation.
Like the Santangelo, China-born artist He Qi’s Calling of the Disciples is highly geometrical, although Qi takes more liberties with his subject, and the whole episode is significantly more abstract and symbolic. This is typical of Qi’s style. Interestingly, although Qi clearly is not using the classical images of the calling as a porotype, he chose a warm color scheme for the scene. This is not a foregone conclusion, as other of his paintings do major in the cooler blues and greens.
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”
— The Prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 52:7)
Texts for the Feast
Prayer
Almighty God, you gave such grace to your apostle Andrew that he readily obeyed the call of your Son Jesus Christ, and brought his brother with him: Give us, who are called by your holy Word, grace to follow him without delay, and to bring those near to us into his gracious presence; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Andrew’s reputation as the “First Called” depends, of course, on giving priority to the Johannine tradition, as Matthew’s account in our readings for today describes Andrew and Peter as being simultaneously called. In John’s Gospel, Andrew is called first, and then he goes and finds his brother peter, before a parallel case is narrated about the calling of Phillip, who goes to find his brother Nathaniel (John 1:35-51)
St. Andrew detail from the Triumphal Arch mosaic at San Vitale, Ravenna
See the full arch
This 6th C depiction is “classic Andrew:” perhaps because his name means “manly,” he is often depicted with wild hair in the earliest renderings. Another explanation is prhaps Andrew became especially associated with Jesus’s saying that, “Not a hair on your head shall perish.” (Luke 21:18).
Isaac Iniguez makes fun, cartooned versions of saints wearing hoodies — which, of course, can be a little more “on the nose” in their symbolism than their traditional counterparts.
Canadian artist Harrison Prozenko applies a Coptic iconographical style in a contemporary, confessional Lutheran context. Incorporating the saltire St Andrew’s Cross in blue, he alludes to the strong currents of devotion to Andrew in Scotland, whose flag consists of a white saltire on a blue field.
A hymn celebrating St Andrew sung beautifully by Georgina Woods in Holy Family Catholic Church, Mossend (Bellshill, Scotland). As noted above, Andrew is most famously the patron saint of Scotland, but Greece and Russia and several other smaller countries claim him as well.
The tradition that St. Andrew was martyred on a saltire cross appears to be late, although it is now fairly pervasive; probably having its origins in the parallelism with Peter, who, feeling himself unworthy to be crucified in like manner as our Lord, is said to have been crucified upside-down (See the Acts of Peter 37, Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, III.1).
That said, St Andrew is remembered to have a poignant connection to the Cross. The apocryphal Acts of Andrew (3rd C?) puts this beautiful speech on his lips before he is crucified himself:
Hail, O cross! Be glad indeed! I know well that you shall soon be at rest, after being wearied a long time for having been set up and waiting for me.
I come to you, knowing you belong to me. I come to you, knowing how you have yearned for me.
I know your mystery, for the which you are set up. You have been planted in the world to establish the things that are unstable. One part of you stretches up toward heaven to signify the heavenly word. Another part of you is spread out to the right hand and the left to put to flight the envious and adverse power of the evil one, and gather into one the things that are scattered abroad. Another part of you is planted in the earth, securely set in the depth, that you may join the things that are in the earth and that are under the earth unto the heavenly things.
O cross, device of the salvation of the Most High! O cross, trophy of the victory of Christ over enemies! O cross, planted upon the earth but having your fruit in the heavens! O name of the Cross, you are a name encompassing and filling all things.
Well done, O cross! You have given stability to a shifting world. Well done, O shape of understanding! You have shaped the shapeless earth. Well done, O unseen chastisement! You sorely chastise the false knowledge of polytheism, and drive out from among mankind the evil one, who devised it! Well done, O Ccoss! You clothed yourself with the Lord, and bore the thief as a fruit, and called the apostle to repentance, and did not refuse to accept us!
Bartolome Esteban Murillo’s The Martyrdom of St. Andrew (c 1675). Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain.
