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The STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI issue article summary
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Abstract: The relics of St. Apostle Andrew and their veneration at Patras, Constantinople, Amalfi and Rome. The paper’s purpose is to emphasize a common patrimony of faith of the Western and Eastern Churches, centred on the St. Apostle Andrew. The birth place of the cult of the Apostle’s relics is that of his interment, at Patras. With the relocation of the relics to Constantinople, in the middle of the 4th century, the “new Rome” placed herself also under the protection of the Apostle Andrew. His cult in the capital of the Byzantine Empire emerged later, with the purpose of consolidating – based on the apostolic principle – the authority of the patriarchs in their confrontations with the papacy and with the growing authority of the Byzantine emperors. Once the fundaments established, the cult of Andrew was gradually built out, becoming in the 19th century the main feast of the Constantinopolitan Patriarchate. Andrew’s relics did not, however, stay in Constantinople during this entire period. After the fourth crusade the conquerors took them west, where they were deposed at Amalfi, in Campania. As was to be expected, at the new location a new relic cult of the first called of the Apostles soon arised. Amalfi was however not the only place in the West connected with these relics. The head of the Apostle, which had remained at Patras, was donated by the Despot of Morea, Thomas Palaiologos, to Pope Pius II in 1461, after the fall of Byzantium under Ottoman rule. Arrived in Rome, the relic was added to the extant patrimony, giving birth to a Roman cult of the Apostle Andrew. After all these peregrinations, the relics of St. Andrew were returned to Patras in 1964, on the initiative of Pope Paul VI. This was not only a gesture of approach between the Western and Eastern Churches – acclaimed by Patriarch Athenagoras – but also marked the completion of a cycle. After dwelling in different locations in East and West, the relics returned home, but not before uniting, in a common cult, the eastern and western Christians. |
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