Thursday, March 26

Byzantine · c. 660 – 740

St Andrew of Crete

Archbishop of Crete, author of the Great Canon

Born in Damascus, Andrew is said to have been mute until the age of seven, when he was healed after receiving Holy Communion. He entered monastic life at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, served the Church at the Sixth Ecumenical Council's aftermath as a delegate to Constantinople, was ordained deacon at Hagia Sophia with care of orphans, and was finally consecrated archbishop of Gortyna in Crete. He is remembered above all as a hymnographer: he developed the canon as a liturgical form, and his Great Canon of Repentance — hundreds of troparia sweeping through the whole of Scripture as a mirror for the repenting soul — is sung by Orthodox Christians every Great Lent. He also left homilies of great beauty on the feasts of the Theotokos. Returning from Constantinople to Crete, he fell ill and died on the island of Lesbos around 740.

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