The name of the Apostle Andrew the First-Called is inextricably linked with the Baptism of Russia by those who profess the Orthodox faith.
However, in the first centuries of the adoption of Christianity by Russia, the image of the Apostle Andrew was not at all so popular. But during the reign of Ivan the Terrible, this not the most famous apostle was elevated to the rank of the Baptist of Russia, and a century later, even to the rank of the heavenly patron of the Russian state. Why, of all the Gospel apostles, it was Andrew who received such an honor?
The Gospels pay tribute to the Apostle Andrew, but give very little information about his life.
Brother's shadow
It is known that Andrew was one of the disciples of John the Baptist, who announced the coming of the Messiah. Andrew shared John's teaching that the Savior would bring redemption to people through his own martyrdom on the cross.
And when Jesus came to Lake Galilee, he saw fishermen there - the brothers Andrew and Simon. It was Andrew who recognized in the stranger the Son of God.
Jesus told the brothers: "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." The brothers joined Jesus because Andrew perfectly remembered the words of John the Baptist. He immediately responded to the call of Jesus with all his heart, believed him, that's why Christians call him the First-Called.
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In the first days of his wanderings with Jesus, Andrew tried to help Jesus in every possible way, even pointed out the moments when it was possible to perform miracles.
The well-known parable of the preparation of food for hundreds of listeners from two fish and five loaves is connected with Andrew: he found this in the crowd of a boy with fish and bread. Andrew's exploits in the field of missionary work are also known: he successfully preached God's Word to the Greeks. But, apart from this, nothing more is told about Andrei. It is only known that the brothers Andrew and Simon were from Bethsaida, from where they came to the town of Capernaum on Lake Galilee. And if a lot is known about Simon, who became the Apostle Peter, then Andrew is always mentioned only as his brother.
"Not holy" addition
Basically, the fate of Andrei is told in hagiographic Christian literature, which, by and large, is a collection of myths and legends of Christianity.
It is she who reports that Andrew was present at the crucifixion and ascension of Jesus Christ, and on the day of Pentecost he was fulfilled, like the rest of the apostles, of the Holy Spirit.
On this day, the apostles divided the earthly world and spheres of influence among themselves. Andrei got the lands around the Black Sea - in the south, east and north.
All these lands were inhabited by pagans, many of whom were still in the wild. And Andrew the First-Called made four journeys, converting the pagan peoples to the Christian faith. In his travels, he visited the lands of the Black Sea region, where there were several Greek cities. The pagans did not receive the Christian preacher well. He was constantly beaten with stones, driven out, even put in prison. And in the town of Sinop, Andrei was even tortured. But he survived, passing through the lands of Alans, Abasks, Zig, visited Abkhazia, Georgia and the Bosporan kingdom, reached the city of Byzantium, where he founded a church and ordained one of the bishops. According to the Lives, he performed miracles everywhere and even raised the dead, and more than once.
Once he went to preach to the country of anthropophages, that is, cannibals, where the Apostle Matthew was sitting in prison. He freed Matthew, and converted the cannibals to Christianity. In general, it was very difficult to find mutual understanding with the barbarians, they had to constantly work miracles - either growing a crop in a few hours, then courageously removing an absolutely naked woman from the road, without succumbing to temptation.
The legendary wanderings of the Apostle Andrew took him far to the east. Although in reality the apostle did not go further than the Black Sea coast. He died within the region allocated to him - in the town of Patras, where the inhabitants were not happy with the new faith. The head of the city, the Roman governor Egeat, openly accused the apostle of destroying ancient temples. As a result of a dispute about faith, Egeat ordered to crucify Andrew on an oblique cross. Thus ended the earthly life of the Apostle Andrew, and he went to his Teacher in heaven.
Scythian travel
In his third journey, the Apostle Andrew visited Scythia, that is, the lands north of the Black Sea coast.
In the Northern Black Sea region, since the beginning of Greek colonization, there were several civilized cities - Panticapaeum, Theodosia, Chersonesos, whose population was either Greek or mixed.
And in the original hagiographic texts, the apostle Andrew did not climb north. But as time went on, more and more pagan peoples adopted Christianity. As the boundaries of the Christian world expanded, the boundaries of the wanderings of the Apostle Andrew began to expand.
When Russia received its Orthodoxy from Byzantium, the chroniclers still remembered that "the apostles did not go to Russia." But in 1116, Vladimir Monomakh ordered the following text to be added to the Tale of Bygone Years: “When Andrey taught in Sinop and arrived in Korsun, he learned that not far from Korsun was the mouth of the Dnieper, and went to the Dnieper estuary and from there went up the Dnieper. And it happened so that he came and stopped under the mountains on the shore.
And in the morning he got up and said to the disciples who were with him: “Do you see these mountains? The grace of God will shine on these mountains, there will be a great city and God will erect many churches.”And he climbed these mountains, blessed them, and set up a cross, and prayed to God, and came down from this mountain, where Kiev subsequently arose.
And then he came to the Slovenes, where Novgorod now stands, and went further to the land of the Varangians. So, by the will of the Kiev prince, the Apostle Andrew blessed the land itself for the erection of the capital city of Kiev! Further more. There is a very long distance between Kiev and Novgorod. Therefore, it became necessary to fill the apostle's journey through the wild lands of the East European Plain of the 1st century with easily recognizable details. This solution turned out to be literally ingenious.
So, in the Novgorod lands, the apostle saw a Russian bath and naked, steamed people, sipping from the shore into water bodies! The apostle was very surprised by the enthusiasm with which the barbarians whip themselves with young green branches and pour themselves over with kvass. However, reaching Novgorod, the apostle also visited the holy island of Valaam on Ladoga, which he also overshadowed in advance with crosses, and not simple wooden ones, but stone ones!
The apostle allegedly destroyed the temples of Veles and Perun, and instantly converted the pagan priests to the true faith. Domestic myth-makers from a short mention of Andrey's Scythian journey have tailored a whole novel with a mention of the most significant cities and monasteries in the future. In later legends, the apostle even designated the places of future churches: in the 16th century, a legend appeared about the construction of St. Andrew's Church in the village of Gruzino, planned by the apostle. Allegedly, when he left Veliky Novgorod and went down the Volkhov, he plunged his rod into the ground, and since then this place has been called Gruzino. It was there that the St. Andrew's Church was erected, and this miraculous rod of an unknown tree was kept in it.
But if the myths and legends are not believed, then it becomes clear that the Apostle Andrei, as a historical person, could not visit the lands that lay so far north of the Black Sea. Firstly, even such an ascetic would not have been able to do this! Secondly, in the 1st century it simply did not make the slightest sense - to the north of this sea tribes lived so wild that even the legendary anthropophages with their dungeons would seem to the apostle the most civilized Latins. The only consolation is that we were not the only ones who decided to involve the apostle in Russian history.