Andrew the First-Called was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ and, by Christian tradition, the first of them to be called. He is venerated as a saint in the Orthodox, Catholic, and other Christian traditions.
Andrew was the brother of Simon Peter; both were fishermen living in Galilee, on the shores of the Lake of Gennesaret. According to the Gospel of John, it was Andrew who, first among the disciples of Jesus, found Peter and brought him to Christ.
The Gospels record how Jesus called Andrew and Peter to follow Him: "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men" (Matthew 4:19).
After the Resurrection of Jesus, Andrew preached widely, spreading Christianity. Tradition holds that his mission took him through Greece and Asia Minor and — according to some sources — to the site of present-day Kyiv.
Tradition has it that he was crucified at Patras, in what is now Greece, on an X-shaped cross — the "St. Andrew's cross" — which became the emblem of his martyrdom.
Andrew the First-Called is venerated as a saint throughout the Christian world; his feast falls on 30 November (New Style). He is the patron of a number of countries and cities, Russia and Ukraine among them.