1793: Antoine Barnave, constitutional monarchist 1865: The Jacksonville Mutineers

November 30th, 2014 Headsman

Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. Now as he walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him. –Mark 1:14-18

“Walks on the Water” by the Russian band Nautilus Pompilius

Translation from friend of the blog Sonechka; alternate version here Apostle Andrew was fishing from a wharf.

While the Savior was walking on the water.

Andrew was pulling fishes from the sea,

While the Savior – fallen men. Andrew cried out: “I will leave the wharf,

If you reveal the secret to me.”

And the Savior answered: “Be calm, Andrew.

There is no secret here. “You see, yonder, on the mountain

Towers a cross,

Underneath are a dozen soldiers.

Hang on it for a while.

And when you get bored,

Return back here

To walk on the water with me.” “But, Master, the helmets are adorned with glistening horns,

A black raven circles the cross.

Explain to me now, take pity on the fool,

And leave the crucifixion for later.” The Messiah gasped and with ire

Stamped his foot on the smoothness of water.

“You are indeed a fool.” — And Andrew in tears

Shuffled off home with his fishes.

November 30 is the feast date of St. Andrew the Apostle, Christ‘s very first disciple along with his brother St. Peter.

Andrew gets pretty short shrift in the New Testament compared to his brother, even though the Gospel of John actually credits our man with being the first of the two boys to cotton to the Nazarene’s preaching.

Despite playing such a minor role in the sacred texts, he has a cultural footprint far in excess of fellow apostolic extras like Saint Bartholomew.

After the master’s crucifixion, Andrew is supposed to have preached in Turkey and Greece. Romanian and Kievan Rus’ traditions posit that he wandered even further north to make the first Christian inroads among their pagan forebears; as a consequence, Romania, Russia, and Ukraine are all among the countries that count Andrew as a patron saint, along with the place of his martyrdom, Greece.

The most recognizable such patronage, of course, is Scotland.

The story has it that a legendary Roman monk in the fourth century brought three fingers, an arm bone, a kneecap, and a tooth formerly comprising the saint from Patras, where Andrew died, to a monastery on the coast of Fife. The subsequent settlement has been known as St Andrews for over 800 years, so if you like that might make Andrew the patron saint of golf, too.**

Scotland’s flag, the ☓-shaped heraldic saltire pictured above, evokes Saint Andrew’s distinctive execution device, the aptly-named (and kink-friendly) St. Andrew’s Cross.

Like his brother’s physiologically improbable upside-down execution, this is supposed to have represented the disciple’s own unworthiness to die the same death as the Savior, and Roman executioners’ surprising accommodation of such scruples.

St. Andrew’s Day is an official holiday in Scotland. In many other countries of central and Eastern Europe, the vigil preceding St. Andrew’s Day has long been associated with folk magic for divining the identity of an unmarried maid’s future husband.



Detail view (click for the full image) of Henryk Siemiradzki’s 1867 painting Siemiradzki Noc-Andrzeja .

Andre, Andrei, or Andreas are equivalents; it’s thanks to a November 30 christening that San Andreas Lake got its name, and in turn conferred same on the associated continental fault that keeps Californians employed making disaster movies about their own selves going the way of Atlantis.

* There is also an apocryphal Acts of Andrew, whose original text has been lost but is known in summation indirectly through other authors. It is thought to date to the third century.

** It was Archbishop James Hamilton — later executed — who gave the residents of St Andrews standing access to golf’s Holiest of Holies, the Old Course at St Andrews.

On this day..

Entry Filed under: Ancient,Arts and Literature,Crucifixion,Death Penalty,Disfavored Minorities,Execution,Famous,God,Greece,Gruesome Methods,History,Martyrs,Myths,Popular Culture,Public Executions,Religious Figures,Roman Empire,Uncertain Dates

Tags: apostle, flags, heraldry, james hamilton, jesus of nazareth, november 30, patras, saint, saint andrew, saint peter, saltire, san andreas fault, st. andrew

