Saint Andrew of Crete

Andrew of Crete (Greek: Ἀνδρέας Κρήτης, c. 650 – July 4, 712 or 726 or 740), also known as Andrew of Jerusalem, was an 8th-century bishop, theologian, homilist, and hymnographer. He is venerated as a saint in both the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church. Born in Damascus c. 650, to Christian parents, Andrew was mute until the age of seven. According to his hagiographers, he was miraculously cured after receiving Holy Communion. He began his ecclesiastical career at fourteen in the Lavra of Saint Sabbas the Sanctified, near Jerusalem, where he quickly gained the notice of his superiors. Theodore, the locum tenens of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem (745–770) made him his Archdeacon, and sent him to the imperial capital of Constantinople as his official representative at the Sixth Ecumenical Council (680–681), which had been called by Emperor Constantine IV to counter the heresy of Monothelitism. Shortly after the Council, he was summoned back to Constantinople from Jerusalem and appointed Archdeacon at the "Great Church" of Hagia Sophia. Eventually, Andrew was appointed to the metropolitan see of Gortyna, in Crete. Although he had been an opponent of Monothelitism, he nevertheless attended the conciliabulum of 712, in which the decrees of the Ecumenical Council were abolished. In the following year, he repented and returned to orthodoxy and thereafter occupied himself with preaching, composing hymns, etc. As a preacher, his discourses are known for their dignified and harmonious phraseology, for which he is considered to be one of the foremost ecclesiastical orators of the Byzantine Era. Church historians have no consensus as to the date of his death. What is known is that he died on the island of Lesbos, while returning to Crete from Constantinople, where he had been on church business. His relics were later translated to Constantinople.