Andrew of Crete

Saint Andrew of Crete
Russian icon depicting Saint Andrew of Crete (left) and Saint Mary of Egypt
Venerable Father
Born	c. 650 Damascus
Died	July 4, 712 or 726 or 740 Mytilene
Venerated in	Orthodox Church Roman Catholic Church
Feast	July 4
Attributes	Vested as a bishop, holding a Gospel Book or scroll, with his right hand raised in blessing. Iconographically, Saint Andrew is depicted with a full head of grey hair and a long, tapering grey beard.

For the martyr of 766 of the same name, see Andrew of Crete (martyr).

Saint Andrew of Crete (Greek: Ἀνδρέας Κρήτης, c. 650 – July 4, 712 or 726 or 740), also known as Andrew of Jerusalem, was an 8th-century bishop, theologian, homilist, and hymnographer. He is venerated as a saint by Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Christians.

Born in Damascus of Christian parents, Andrew was a mute from birth until the age of seven, when, according to his hagiographers, he was miraculously cured after receiving Holy Communion. He began his ecclesiastical career at fourteen in the Lavra of St. Sabbas the Sanctified, near Jerusalem, where he quickly gained the notice of his superiors. Theodore, the locum tenens of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem (745–770) made him his Archdeacon, and sent him to the imperial capital of Constantinople as his official representative at the Sixth Ecumenical Council (680–681), which had been called by the Emperor Constantine Pogonatus, to counter the heresy of Monothelitism.