'''St. Saint Andrew , Archbishop of Crete''' (c. 660-740) , was born around 660 AD in the city of Damascus and eventually entered [[monastic]] life at Mar Sabainto a pious Christian family. He later served at the [[Church Up until seven years of age the Holy Sepulchre]] in [[Jerusalem]], and boy was [[ordain]]ed a [[deacon]] at the great [[cathedral]] of Constantinople mute and mother Church of Eastern Christendom, [[Hagia_Sophia_%28Constantinople%29|Hagia Sophia]], around 685did not talk. Always exhibiting great pastoral solicitude for orphans, widowsHowever, and after communing the aged, Saint Andrew spent his last days as [[ArchbishopHoly Mysteries]] of Gortyna on Crete, a position to which Christ he was elevated in 692. Attrbuted by many with found the invention gift of speech and began to speak. And from that time the lad began earnestly to study [[canonHoly Scripture]] as a style of religious writing, his works display not only great rhetorical skill, but an incomparable depth of theological understanding. He is considered one of the great spiritual writers on the theme of repentance, and his [[Great Canon]], prayed during [[Lent]] in the Eastern Orthodox Churches, stands as a great testimony to man's repentant cry to God, our merciful Father. Saint Andrew discipline of Crete is numbered among those great Christian writers known as the Early [[Church Fathers]]. His feast is on [[July 4]]theology.

At fourteen years of age he went off to [[Jerusalem]] and there he accepted monastic tonsure at the monastery of [[Save the Sanctified|St. Sava the Sanctified]]. St Andrew led a strict and chaste life, he was meek and abstinent, such that all were amazed at his virtue and reasoning of mind. As a man of talent and known for his virtuous life, over the passage of time he came to be numbered among the Jerusalem clergy and was appointed a secretary for the Patriarchate - a writing clerk. In the year 680 the locum tenens of the Jerusalem Patriarchate, Theodore, included [[archdeacon]] Andrew among the representatives of the Holy City sent to the [[Sixth Ecumenical Council]], and here the saint contended against [[heresy|heretical teachings]], relying upon his profound knowledge of Orthodox doctrine. Shortly after the Council he was summoned back to Constantinople from Jerusalem and he was appointed archdeacon at the church of [[Hagia_Sophia_%28Constantinople%29|Hagia Sophia]], the Wisdom of God. During the reign of the emperor Justinian II (685-695) St. Andrew was ordained [[bishop]] of the city of Gortineia on the island of Crete. In his new position he shone forth as a true luminary of the Church, a great hierarch - a theologian, teacher and [[hymnographer]].  St. Andrew wrote many liturgical [[hymn]]s. He was the originator of a new liturgical form - the [[canon]]. Of the canons composed by him the best known is the [[Great Canon|Great Penitential Canon]], including within its 9 odes the 250 [[troparion|troparia]] recited during the [[Great Lent]]. In the First Week of Lent at the service of [[Compline]] it is read in portions (thus called "methymony", and again on Thursday of the Fifth Week at the [[All-night Vigil]] during [[Matins]].  St. Andrew of Crete gained renown with his many praises of the [[Theotokos|All-Pure Virgin Mary]]. To him are likewise ascribed: the Canon for the feast of the Nativity of Christ, three odes for the Compline of [[Palm Sunday]] and also in the first four days of Holy Passion Week, as well as verses for the feast of the Meeting of the Lord, and many another church-song. His hynographic tradition was continued by the churchly great melodists of following ages: Saints [[John of Damascus]], [[Cosmas the Hymnographer|Cosmas of Maium]], [[Joseph the Hymnographer|Joseph the Melodist]], [[Theophanes the Confessor|Theophanes the Branded]]. There have also been preserved edifying Sermons of St. Andrew for certain of the Church feasts.  Church historians are not of the same opinion as to the date of death of the saint. One suggests the year 712, while others - the year 726. He died on the island of Mytilene, while returning to Crete from Constantinople, where he had been on churchly business. His [[relics]] were transferred to Constantinople. In the year 1350 the pious Russian pilgrim Stefan Novgorodets saw the relics at the Constantinople monastery named for St. Andrew of Crete. His feast is on [[July 4]]. ==ReferencesSources==*[http://www.monachosoca.netorg/monasticism/andrew_of_crete/indexFSlives.asp www.shtml Monachosoca.net org - Kontakion and Troparion to StLives of Saints, July 4. Andrew of Crete with life]