Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 5.djvu/258

 230 THE GRANITE MONTHLY.

Other countries than Scotland have their tutelar Saints. England honors St. George, who is represented on horseback, clad in full armor with a vanquished dragon at his feet. Ireland patronises St. Patrick ; while the guardian saint of Spain is St. James ; of France, St. Denis ; of Italy, St. Anthony ; and of Wales, St. David. The patron Saints of Genoa, are St. George, St. Lawrence and St. John the Baptist. On the piazzetta at Venice, their are two granite columns, one bearing the " Winged Lion of St. Mark," the emblem of the tutelary Saint of Venice ; the other, St. Theodore on a crocodile, the patron of the ancient Republic. St. Michael is regarded as the patron or guardian angel of the Jews.

But this is a degression. I will not test your patience by reference to other celebrities, but proceed at once to present the historical and legendary account of our own revered patron Saint, who is also the patron of Russia, Hungary and Burgundy. In this effort to throw some new light upon the history of St. Andrew, and to illustrate his character, I shall necessarily blend to a very large extent, the authentic record of Scripture with statements which rest alone on tradition.

Without elaborately quoting authorities, or citing passages of Scripture which refer to St. Andrew or his ministry, I have to say that his name signifies manly, and is of Greek origin : ancr — aiieros, or andros — man. He was one of the twelve Apostles who were commissioned to preach the Gospel, and appears as one of the confidential disciples who accompanied the Saviour in his earthly mission. He was born in Bethsaida, a town in Cralilee, situated on the shore of Lake Tiberias, in Palestine, and near the head at its northern extremity. The country adjacent abounded in deer, and the sea in fish, and therefore hunting and fishing were both the pastime and occupation of many of its inhabi- tants. To this locality Jesus frequently resorted. Andrew was a younger brother of Simon Peter. Their father's name was Jonas, and the vocation of himself and sons was that of fishermen. Being a disciple of St. John the Baptist, who at the fords of the Jordan had expressly designated Jesus as the Lamb of God, Andrew was led to receive Him as the Messiah, and was dis- tinguished as the " First Called " of the disciples, and to the Master he brought his brother Simon, afterwards called Peter, and hence is named by some of the fathers as " The Rock before the Rock." Neither of them, however, became at that time the stated attendants on our Lord. Pursuing their humble occu- pation as fishermen, they were not called by Jesus to follow Him, until after the imi:irisonmcnt of John. This was about twelve months after Simon's introduc- tion to Christ. Then Andrew and Peter, together with James and John, were personally called by our Lord when passing through Galilee. Finding them fishing upon the sea of Tiberias, he gave them a miraculous draught of fishes, thereby demonstrating his divine power. They left their nets and followed Him. The employment of most of the twelve Aposdes, if not of all of them, with the exception of Matthew, a tax-gatherer, was probably the laborious occu- pation of fishermen. Paul was a tent-maker.

The principal incidents mentioned in the Gospels, in which St. Andrew's name occurs during the life of Christ, are the feeding of the five thousand. It was Andrew who said, " There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves and two small fishes." His introduction to our Lord at Jerusalem, during the Passover week, of certain Greeks who desired to see Him, which, together with his having brought his brother Peter to the Saviour after announcing to him " we have found the Messiah," caused him to be called the " Intro- ducer to Christ." Another incident was his asking with other disciples, Peter. John and James, for a further explanation of what our Lord had said in reference to the destruction of the Temple. Andrew was with St. John the

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