"The Apostle Andrew the First-Called"

The panagia with the image of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called is made in the form of a church banner, topped with an imperial crown with a four-pointed cross. This imaginative decision is connected with the great veneration of St. Andrew and the belief in his patronage of the Russian army. In the Life of St. Andrew the First-Called, it is mentioned that he and his brother Simon (Peter) were Galilean fishermen who were born in a city on the shores of Lake Gennesaret. In his youth, Andrew decided to devote himself to the service of God, turning to the Lord with all his soul. He was the first of the disciples to be called by Jesus Christ, and the first to confess Jesus as the Savior, bringing his elder brother to Christ, for which he was named Andrew the First-Called. The Holy Scriptures give us some information about the Apostle Andrew. The Gospel of John says that during the miracle of the multiplication of loaves, the apostle Andrew pointed to a boy who had "five loaves of barley and two fish" (John 6:8-9). He also showed the Savior to the Gentiles who had come to Jerusalem to worship the true God (John 12:20-22). According to the testimony of the evangelist Mark, Saint Andrew was one of the four disciples of Jesus to whom He revealed the destinies of the world on the Mount of Olives (Mark 13:3). With the preaching of the Word of God, the holy Apostle Andrew made many journeys, during which he returned to Jerusalem three times. He traveled through Asia Minor, Thrace, Macedonia, Scythia, and the Black Sea region. Moving further north, the Apostle Andrew reached the settlements of the Slavs on the site of the future Novgorod. In a small village in Byzantium, the future Constantinople, he founded a Christian Church, consecrating one of the seventy apostles of Christ, Stachy, as bishop. The last city to which the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called came, and where he died a martyr in 62, was the city of Patras. Several centuries later, under Emperor Constantine the Great, the relics of St. Andrew the Apostle were solemnly transferred to Constantinople and laid in the Church of the Holy Apostles next to the relics of St. Luke the Evangelist. On the panagia, St. Andrew the First-Called is depicted against the backdrop of the landscape of the city of Patras and an oblique cross, an instrument of execution. Having set an example of a true Christian, the apostle is revered as the intercessor of the righteous, the healer of the infirm, and the helper of the preachers. After the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles, he and the other apostles received the gift of foreign languages in order to preach Christianity to all nations, which is why Andrew the First-Called is considered the heavenly patron saint of translators and teachers of foreign languages. Under Emperor Peter I, who considered Andrew the First-Called his patron saint, the name "baptist of the Russian land" was given to the main order of the Russian Empire, and the St. Andrew's cross began to be depicted on the flags of the Russian Navy. On the back of the product is an oval plaque surrounded by an openwork royal flowery frame with the words of prayer offered to the holy Apostle: The First-called Apostle of Christ, the Gospel of the Holy Preacher, the Russian country of the divinely inspired enlightener, Andrew the Most Glorious, let us praise with songs, standing at the top of the hill, where we place his right hand on the Cross, and to him, as the supreme successor of the Church, Follow him who showed her the way to Christ, let us cry out in tenderness. Along the end of the product are the words of the troparion to the holy Apostle: "As the first-called and supreme brother of the Apostles, to the Master of all, Andrew, pray, grant peace to the universe and great mercy to our souls."