When the latest St. Walburg Monastery blog schedule appeared,
my date was Nov. 30 and immediately I thought, “There’s my topic.” I’ll write
about St. Andrew.
When I
became a novice in June of 1945, we had the option of requesting a new name. My
mother’s name was Marie which would have been my choice, but all the sisters
were given Mary with their new name, so I chose to be surprised. And I was. I
became Sr. Andrea to my delight ad that of my family and friends. To my
knowledge there had never been a Sister Andrea or Andrew in our community which
dated back to 1859. When my sister, Mary Wright, had her second daughter, the
daughter became Andrea Wright and always delighted in her name. Our patron is
St. Andrew, apostle of Jesus, and today patron of Scotland and Russia.
The
Gospel tradition. particularly the
Gospel of John, consistently groups Andrew with his brother Peter and James and
John. He is the follower of John the Baptist, first herald of the Lamb of God,
the Messiah, and Andrew brings the good news about the coming Lamb of God to his brother Peter. Together
with Philip, who was the same town and seems to have been familiar with the Greeks,
Andrew tells Jesus about the boy with five loaves and two fish which fed the
huge multitude. Andrew was a consistent follower, but like most of the
apostles, only rarely mentioned by name.
According
to tradition there was a literary work, Acts of Andrew, of which only fragments
remain. References in other works refer to Andrew’s fidelity to Jesus and his
mission. Again according to tradition he was a missionary to the Greeks and was
crucified by being tied to an X shaped cross on which he died after preaching
for three days from that cross.
In the
13th century Crusaders stole Andrew’s relics and took them to Constantiinople
from which and arm was taken t o St. Andrew’s in Scotland which the translation
of the relic is celebrated on May 9. St. Andrew is also the patron of Russia. (see
http://novaonline.nvcc.edu/eli/evans/his241/Notes/Andrew.html
for more information.) May St. Andrew intercede for all whose patron he is!
Sr. Andrea Collopy, OSB
Dear Sister thank you for this good blog. The lives of the saints, their words and deeds, traditions and legends, are a such a gift from God to the Christian faith -- it is also a great bridge around the world, as we learn about the saints of the other churches, and there are also many who are not called Saints, but who were saints. The Russians celebrate the prophets as saints. There were many nineteenth century women who were saints in the USA and UK, I think that Florence Nightingale, for her inspired contribution, was a saint and there were others like her. Saint Andrew pray for us, amen.
ReplyDeleteDear Sr. Andrea,
ReplyDeleteYour blog entry warms my heart on this grey morning! St. Andrew has special significance for me since my grandfather was named Andrew and my nephew is also Andrew! God Bless You!