Embroidered epigonation with Saint Apostle Andrew.<\/p>\n
This was from the town of Bethsaida, the son of a certain Jonah the Jew, the brother of Peter, the first of Christ\u2019s disciples. He was first a disciple of John the Forerunner and Baptist. Then, when he heard his teacher pointing and saying, \u201cBehold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,\u201d he left him and followed Christ. And saying to Peter, \u201cWe have found Jesus of Nazareth,\u201d he drew him to the love of Christ. Many other things about him are recorded in the Holy Scriptures.
After following Christ, when the Ascension had taken place and the apostles cast lots and went to various regions, this first-called apostle received as his lot Bithynia, the Black Sea coasts, the regions of the Propontis, Chalcedon, Byzantium, Thrace, Macedonia, and the areas extending to the Danube, Thessaly, Greece, and Achaia, as well as Amisos, Trebizond, Heraclea, and Amastris. Yet he traveled not lightly, but endured many hardships and adversities in each region, overcoming all through the guidance and help of Christ.
In particular, when he went to Sinope to preach the word of God, he suffered many trials and tortures from the inhabitants. Those savage men threw him down, seized his hands and feet, dragged him on a harrow, shook him with their teeth, beat him with wood and stones, and cast him far from the city. Yet he reappeared completely unharmed and healthy from his wounds, by the grace of his Teacher and Savior. <\/p>\n
Thus, rising from there, he traveled through many cities and towns, including Neocaesarea, Samosata, among the Alans, the Abasgi, the Zichi, the Bosphorians, and the Chersonites. Then he returned to Byzantium, where he ordained Stachys as bishop, and, journeying through other regions, he came to the renowned island of the Peloponnese and to Paleaptra. There, he was hosted by a man named Sosias, who was gravely ill; the apostle healed him, and immediately the entire city of Patrae came to Christ.
Maximilla, the wife of the proconsul, was also healed from a severe illness and quickly believed in Christ, along with the wise Stratocles, brother of the proconsul Egeas, and many others who were cured of various ailments through the laying on of the apostle\u2019s hands.
Angered by this, Egeas seized the apostle of the Lord and crucified him upside down, taking him from this life. Yet even he, the unjust one, received righteous retribution from God, for he fell into a deep chasm and perished.
Later, after a long time, the apostle\u2019s relics were transferred to Constantinople during the reign of Emperor Constantius, son of the Great Constantine, by his order, through the martyr Artemius. They were placed together with the relics of the Evangelist Luke and of Saint Timothy in the illustrious Church of the Holy Apostles. <\/p>\n