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Andrew

ANDREW

Gr. "Andreas" (manly)

A native of the city of Bethsaida in Galilee and brother of Simon Peter. Became one of the 12 apostles.

TRADITIONS. The traditions about him are various. Eusebius makes him preach in Scythia; Jerome and Theodoret in Achaia (Greece); Nicephorus in Asia Minor and Thrace. It is supposed that he founded a church in Constantinople and ordained Stachys, named by Paul (Rom. 16:9), as its first bishop.

At length, tradition states, he came to Patrae, a city of Achaia, where Aegeas, the proconsul, enraged that he persisted in preaching, commanded him to join in sacrificing to the heathen gods, and upon the apostle's refusal ordered him to be severely scourged and then crucified. To make his death more lingering, he was fastened to the cross, not with nails, but with cords. Having hung two days, praising God, and exhorting the spectators to embrace, or adhere to, the faith, he is said to have expired on November 30, but in what year is uncertain.

The cross is stated to have been of the form called Crux decussata, and commonly known as "St. Andrew's cross, X." Some ancient writers speak of an apocryphal Acts of Andrew.