Celebrated by Eastern Catholics of the Byzantine tradition on July 4,
Saint Andrew of Crete was a seventh-and eighth-century monk, bishop, and
hymn-writer.
Among Eastern Christians he is best known as the author of the “Great
Canon,” a lengthy prayer service traditionally offered as a penitential
practice during Lent.
He is also venerated as a saint in the Roman
Catholic Church, where he is better known for his writings on the
Blessed Virgin Mary.
He should not be confused with a different “Saint Andrew of Crete,”
celebrated on Oct. 17, who suffered martyrdom while defending the
veneration of icons during the eighth century.
The author of the “Great Canon” was born in the Syrian city of Damascus
in the mid-seventh century. He is said to have remained mute for the
first seven years of his life, gaining the power of speech at age seven
after the reception of Holy Communion.
Devoted to God from that time on, Andrew went to Jerusalem and entered
the Monastery of Saint Sava when he was 15 years old. He went on to
serve as a cleric of the Jerusalem Patriarchate, and was sent as a
representative to the Sixth Ecumenical Council in Constantinople
(680-681).
The council took up the monothelite controversy, a disagreement as to
whether Christ had both a divine and a human will (as the Church
teaches), or only a divine will. Though the question may seem abstract
to modern ears, it was an important point, bearing on the reality of
Jesus' full humanity.
In 685 Andrew returned to Constantinople, where he did charitable work
for orphans and the poor, and served as a deacon in the great Hagia
Sophia church. Around the year 700 he became archbishop of the city of
Gortyna, on the island of Crete.
In 712, during a resurgence of the monothelite heresy, Andrew was forced
to attend an illegitimate gathering in which the Byzantine emperor
Philippicus Bardanes tried to reverse the decisions of the Sixth
Council. Andrew's coerced attendance was questioned, but forgiven, by
the reigning Pope Constantine.
Little is known about the rest of the archbishop's life, which ended
peacefully, probably in 740. While his participation in the historic
Sixth Council is important, St. Andrew of Crete’s legacy has more to do
with his outstanding sermons and liturgical hymns, reflective of a deep
interior life of faith.
The Great Canon, his most ambitious known work, takes around three hours
to chant. It incorporates more than 200 full-body prostrations along
with its many litanies, odes, and refrains. Surveying the Old and New
Testaments, it stresses the urgency of repentance and conversion.
The service begins: “Where shall I begin to lament the deeds of my
wretched life? What first-fruit shall I offer, O Christ, for my present
lamentation? But in Thy compassion grant me release from my falls.”
“Come, wretched soul, with your flesh, confess to the Creator of all. In
future refrain from your former brutishness, and offer to God tears in
repentance.”
Interspersed throughout, is the Great Canon’s defining plea: “Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me!”