aeternus

I do not know why today I am interested in St. Andrew, maybe it is because of his devotion to the Cross and his ability to help transform this symbol of criminality and punishment into the sign of love, union and redemption that it has become. Imagine how hard it must have been to convert the contemporary cultural mindset of the time! What a struggle it was for these early apostles and disciples to teach “Christian” apologetics and spiritual truth. We should note that our struggles certainly must be a little easier now (however difficult they may seem to us!)

Here is a short summary of the life of Saint Andrew from Jacobus de Voragine’s Golden Legend. Andrew’s prayer of the Good Cross is below.

There was a man named AEgeas who was provost and judge of Achaia. He heard of Andrew after Andrew had “replenished all the country with churches and converted the people to the faith of Jesus Christ” and then proceeded to baptize the wife of AEgeas in the faith! You can imagine, AEgeas was none to happy about this!

Andrew tried to speak with AEgeas, but was met with bully tactics. When he was threatened with Crucifixion, Andrew quietly acknowledged that the mystery of the cross was great.

“Andrew said to him: If I doubted the gibbet [Gibbet is sometimes used to describe a gallows, a structure used in the execution of criminals by hanging.] of the cross I would not preach the glory thereof. I will that thou hear the mystery, and if thou knew and believedst on it thou shouldst be saved. Then he showed to him the mystery of the cross, and assigned five reasons. The first is this: Forasmuch as the first man that deserved death was because of the tree, in breaking the commandment of God, then is it thing convenable that the second man should put away that death, in suffering the same on the tree. The second was that, he that was made of earth not corrupted, and was breaker of the commandment, then was it thing convenable that he that should repel this default, should be born of a virgin. The third; for so much as Adam had stretched his hand disordinately to the fruit forbidden, it was thing convenable that the new Adam should stretch his hands on the cross. The fourth; for so much as Adam had tasted sweetly the fruit forbidden, it is therefore reason that it be put away by thing contrary; so that Jesu Christ was fed with bitter gall. The fifth; for as much as Jesu Christ gave to us his immortality, it is thing reasonable, that he take our mortality. For if Jesu Christ had not been dead, man had never been made immortal.”

AEgeas response was: “If thou obey not to me, I shall do hang thee on the cross, for so much as thou hast praised it.”

“Then commanded AEgeas that he should be beaten of twenty-one men, and that he should be so beaten, bounden by the feet and hands unto the cross, to the end that his pain should endure the longer. And when he was led unto the cross, there ran much people to it. And when he saw the cross from far he saluted it, and said:

O BONA CRUX, quae decorem ex membris Domini suscepisti, diu desiderata, sollicite amata, sine intermissione quaesita, et aliquando cupienti animo praeparata: accipe me ab hominibus, et redde me magistro meo: ut per te me recipiat, qui per te me redemit. Amen.
O GOOD CROSS, made beautiful by the body of the Lord, long have I desired thee, ardently have I loved thee, unceasingly have I sought thee, and now thou art ready for my eager soul. Receive me from among men and restore me to my Master, so that He, who redeemed me through thee, shalt receive me through thee. Amen.”

And then they hung him on the cross, like as to them was commanded. Andrew was held on the cross by ropes rather than nails, to prolong his suffering. But Andrew took advantage of his slow death to preach from the cross for two days, and twenty thousand men were there to hear his words. The people there then threatened violence unless Andrew was taken down. By this time Andrew had preached enough and, to die quickly, prayed that his limbs would be paralysed so that he could not be cut down. As a great light shines, he dies.

What a beautiful story. What faith! May we see the crosses in our own lives and not shun them. May we embrace these opportunities to unite our struggles with our Lord’s ultimate redemptive act and give our acceptance of these personal sufferings to Him with joy and love.

Life of St. Andrew: by Jacobus de Voragine

Above Image:

The Crucifixion of St Andrew c. 1607 (b. 1571, Caravaggio, d. 1610, Porto Ercole)
Oil on canvas, 202,5 x 152,7 cm
Museum of Art, Cleveland