St. Andrew became an Apostle when Jesus called him while he was fishing. According to the Gospel of John, he was the first Apostle that the Lord called to follow Him. We can read three separate accounts of this, in Matthew 4:18-20, Mark 1:16-17, and John 1:35-41. In the Gospel of Mark, he is mentioned along with the other eleven Apostles. 

Andrew introduced his brother Simon Peter to Jesus. In John 1:41-42 we read of Andrew’s first encounter with Jesus, and then his immediately going to share the news with his brother.

He first found his brother Simon, and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ). He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him, and said, “So you are Simon the son of John? You shall be called Cephas” (which means Peter). 

In Matthew 4:18-19 and Mark 1:16-17, Andrew and Simon Peter are shown as called by Christ at the same time, leaving out the intimate detail which John recalls in his Gospel about Andrew’s role in immediately bringing Peter to Jesus. 

After Jesus died, and persecution within Judea and Samaria impelled the Apostles to the mission to the Gentiles, tradition suggests that Andrew preached along the Black Sea as far as the Kievan Rus, in Greece and in Byzantium (Turkey). For this reason, the Orthodox Church centered in Constantinople considers Andrew its founder. Later, preaching in Greece, he would be martyred for his faith in Christ.

Tradition holds that St. Andrew died in Patras, Greece, in 60 or 62 A.D., crucified on an “X” shaped cross. He was killed in this manner because he said he was unworthy to be crucified like Our Lord. Later, sometime between 64 and 68 A.D., his brother Peter would be crucified upside down on Rome’s Vatican Hill for the same reason. 

Andrew is the patron saint of fishermen because of his profession before becoming an Apostle, and of Greece, Russia and Patras, where he was believed to have gone to evangelize after Jesus’ Ascension. He has also been adopted as patron by numerous places, including Scotland and Alabama, whose flags contain his x-shaped cross. 

In the early centuries of the Church, there was no formal process of canonization as there is today. Thus, neither St. Andrew, nor other early saints, were formally canonized. Rather, the evidence of Andrew’s close collaboration with Christ as witnessed in Gospels, his own holiness of life and mission, especially the manner of his death for Christ, was recognized by the Church’s bishops. This was done by memorializing him in the liturgy, entering his name into the “canon” (the Eucharistic Prayer) of the Mass, honoring him with a feast day. As an Apostle, he has the additional honor of being mentioned in every Mass, since the Apostles are all named in the Roman Canon, or First Eucharistic Prayer, used by the Latin Church.