Andrew of Crete

ANDREW OF CRETE: Archbishop of Crete; b. at Damascus; d. not earlier than 726. He became a monk at Jerusalem (whence he is sometimes called Andrew of Jerusalem), and was sent by the Patriarch Theodore to the sixth general council (Constantinople, 680). Later he was made archbishop. He was inclined to Monothelitism, but was able to restore his reputation for orthodoxy by zeal for image-worship. He is commemorated as a saint in the Greek Church on July 7. Among Greek hymn-writers he occupies a prominent place as the inventor of the so-called canons (see Canon). His penitential canon (“the great canon”) of 250 strophes is especially famous. It is still sung on the Thursday before Palm Sunday and on some other days of Lent. Andrew was also the author of many homilies, some of them very long.

G. Krüger.

Bibliography: Andrew’s works are in MPG, xcvii.; Anthologia Græca, ed. W. Christ and M. Paranikas, 147-161, Leipsic, 1871; Πατμιακή βιβλιοθήκη, pp. 330-331, Athens, 1890; A. Papadopoulos-Kerameus, Άνάλεκτα κτλ, i. 1-14, St. Petersburg, 1891; A. Maltzew, Andachtsbuch der orthodox-katholischen Kirche des Morgenlandes, 176-277, Berlin, 1895. A few stanzas of the Great Canon, with two or three other hymns are translated in J. M. Neale’s Hymns of the Eastern Church, pp. 73-84, London, 1876, where a brief sketch of his life is given. Consult Fabricius-Harles, Bibliotheca Græca, xi. 62-64, 68-75, Hamburg, 1808; Analecta sacra, ed. J. B. Pitra, i. 626-627, Paris, 1876; A. Ehrhard, in Krumbacher’s Geschichte, p. 165; F. Diekamp, Hippolytos von Theben, p. 108, Münster. 1898.