Andrew of Crete

Saint Andrew of Crete was archbishop of Crete, a preacher and hymnographer of the seventh and eighth centuries. He is the author of the Great Canon of repentance, which the Church reads every year during Great Lent.

Early life and service in Jerusalem

He was born in Damascus around the year 660 into a Christian family. According to tradition he was mute until the age of seven and began to speak after receiving Holy Communion. At fourteen he went to Jerusalem and joined the brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre, where he served as secretary to the patriarch.

In 685 he was sent to Constantinople with the letter by which the Church of Jerusalem accepted the decisions of the Sixth Ecumenical Council. He remained in the capital, was ordained deacon at Hagia Sophia, and took charge of an orphanage and a home for the elderly.

Archbishop of Crete

Around 711 he was chosen archbishop of Gortyna in Crete. In 712, under pressure from Emperor Philippicus, he signed a Monothelite decree, but he soon renounced it and remained steadfast in the true faith. He shepherded his flock with care, built churches, and defended the veneration of the holy icons.

He wrote many sermons for the feasts and numerous canons, being counted among the first composers of this kind of hymn. The Great Canon, with its nearly two hundred and fifty verses, passes through the whole of Holy Scripture, from Adam to Christ, and calls the soul to repentance.

Repose and veneration

He reposed around 740 on the island of Lesbos, on his way back from Constantinople. The Great Canon is read at Compline on the first four days of Great Lent and at Matins on Thursday of the fifth week. He is commemorated on 4 July.