He was the brother of the most important apostle for Rome – St. Peter (Simon) and along with him belonged to a group of Christ’s disciples which was called the earliest. Just as Simon, Andrew was a fisherman, a devout Jew waiting for the coming of the Messiah. He came from Bethesda on the Lake of Gennesaret.

Information about St. Andrew, can mainly be obtained from apocrypha, vividly recounting all, that is not in the Bible. They say, that after the death of Christ, Andrew began his missionary activity – according to some in the Caucasus and the Black Sea, according to others between the Danube and Don, in Asia Minor (Cappadocia), while according to still others in Greece.  It is there in the city of Patras, where in 65 or 70 A.D. he died a martyr’s death, and it is his suffering that was preserved in Christian iconography. Andrew bound to a cross in the shape of the letter X, prepared for death or buried by the faithful – these are the motifs which are most often called upon in painting and sculpture of the Catholic Church.

The way he was crucified is significant in itself – he was tied to the cross with ropes, so his suffering was supposed to be extensive and serve as a warning to others. Despite all that, in paintings St. Andrew’s face as well as his body are a picture of calmness, almost as if the vision of eternal life would provide this tranquility and give him consolation. Thanks to Christ’s intercession, his suffering did not last very long, although while at the cross he was still preaching, as the apocrypha say. At some point he was enveloped in light, which was unequivocal with ascension. Apocrypha mention the joy with which the martyr accepted the shape of the cross – since the letter X corresponds to the first letter of the Greek word Christos.

Saint Andrew enjoyed particular popularity in the Eastern Church, which was contributed to by the place of his martyrdom – the aforementioned city of Patras. The saint’s relics were placed in Constantinople by 357 A.D. The patriarchs of the city believed themselves to be his continuators and successors and believed the city of Constantinople to be an apostolic city.  At times of the Fourth Crusade Andrew’s remains were stolen by the crusaders and taken to Amalfi near Naples. However, by the XV century the apostle’s head, as a relic of particular worship, was transferred to Rome, where it was placed in  the Vatican Basilica (San Pietro in Vaticano), in a pier supporting the dome. The magnificent, monumental figure of the saint which decorates the interior of the basilica was sculpted in 1633 by François Duqesnoy. A similarly monumental statue was completed in the same century in the Basilica of St. John in Lateran (San Giovanni in Laterano) by another outstanding artist Camillo Rusconi.

So in this way Rome, through the location of relics, in saint Andrew obtained another important, after Peter, apostle, and besides that in its rivalry with the Eastern Church, later the Orthodox Church, could boast having his remains, which was a treasure of great value indeed. His increased popularity can be noticed in the XVII century, when in the face of Reformation, the Catholic Church intensified the propaganda of his cult – not only his of course, but also that of many early Christian martyrs (cult of the martyrs). The more Reformation ridiculed the belief in miracles and the apocryphal character of stories about saints, the more Catholics underlined their importance. Art co-created this vision of unconditional faith, while apostle Andrew was a perfect fit in this trend of Roman, but also European art.

The oldest, no longer existing church devoted to this saint – Sant’Andrea Catabarbara – was erected in Rome as early as the V century thanks to pope Simplicius. It slowly came to ruin, so that by the XV century there was virtually nothing left, apart from imposing marble slabs kept in museums (Museo Nazionale Romano – Palazzo Massimo and Musei Capitolini). However, two centuries later, Andrew became the patron saint of one of the largest and greatest Roman churches – Sant’Andrea della Valle. Further important churches in the city include the Church of Sant’Andrea della Fratte completed in the XVII century and finally the smallest, but from an artistic point of view the most elaborate – commemorating the Pamphilj family and Pope Innocent X the Church of Sant’Andrea al Quirinale.

It is also essential to see the small Oratory of Sant’Andrea found on the Caelian Hill, by the Church of San Gregorio Magno. In its intimate interior we can find scenes of St. Andrew’s martyrdom, painted by two noteworthy and competing Baroque painters – Domenichino and Guido Reni.

An interesting fact is that in 1964 the Catholic Church returned St Andrew’s relics to the Orthodox Church – they were returned to Patras, the place of his martyrdom, in this way ending the posthumous wandering of the saint with a centuries-old stopover in Rome.