Attend Mass for St. Andrew
The feast of St. Andrew is celebrated on the same day in both the old and new liturgical calendars. If you’d like to attend a Traditional Latin Mass, you can find one near you here. During Mass, ask for St. Andrew’s intercession to draw closer to Christ during Advent, just as he immediately followed Jesus when called. St. Andrew, who brought others to Christ, especially his brother St. Peter, is an inspiring saint for evangelization and Advent preparation.
Make Scotch Broth
Scotch Broth, a traditional Scottish soup, is a hearty dish often served on St. Andrew’s Day, reflecting his role as the patron saint of Scotland. This filling soup is made with root vegetables, barley, and lamb or beef, perfect for warming up on a cold winter day.
Ingredients
- 1 lb lamb or beef, diced (optional for a vegetarian version)
- 1 cup pearl barley, rinsed
- 1 large onion, diced
- 2 carrots, diced
- 2 celery stalks, diced
- 1 leek, diced (white and light green parts only)
- 1 small turnip, diced
- 8 cups beef or vegetable broth
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Fresh parsley, chopped (for garnish)
Instructions
- Sauté the Meat and Vegetables: In a large pot, brown the lamb or beef if using. Add the onions, carrots, celery, and leek, and sauté until softened.
- Add Barley and Broth: Add the pearl barley, turnip, and broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for about 1.5 to 2 hours, until the barley and vegetables are tender.
- Season and Serve: Add salt and pepper to taste, and garnish with fresh parsley. Enjoy a bowl of this hearty broth, reflecting on St. Andrew’s legacy in Scotland and beyond.
Try St. Andrew’s Eve Traditions Related to Marriage
St. Andrew’s Eve (the night of November 29) is associated with fun folk traditions, especially in parts of Europe, where young people would perform little rituals to learn about their future spouse. In some cultures, single people would place a piece of mistletoe under their pillow, hoping to dream of their future spouse, or drop molten wax into cold water to “divine” symbols of their future.
Another tradition involves placing a ring in a bowl of water and watching it freeze overnight; if it freezes in the shape of a heart or other meaningful symbol, it’s thought to reveal insights about future love. These customs can be a lighthearted way to honor St. Andrew’s Eve, whether or not marriage is in your future!
Begin St. Andrew’s Christmas Novena
The St. Andrew Christmas Novena, or the St. Andrew Christmas Prayer, is a beautiful and powerful tradition that begins on St. Andrew’s Day and continues through Christmas Eve. Unlike most novenas, this one is prayed 15 times each day, calling upon the Lord with fervor as you prepare for Christ’s birth. Here’s the prayer:
Hail and blessed be the hour and moment
In which the Son of God was born
Of the most pure Virgin Mary,
At midnight, in Bethlehem, in piercing cold.
In that hour, vouchsafe, I beseech Thee, O my God,
To hear my prayer and grant my desires,
Through the merits of Our Savior Jesus Christ,
And of His Blessed Mother. Amen.
Find a quiet time each day to recite this prayer, repeating it slowly and prayerfully. Many people carry a small card with this prayer or set aside a specific time each day, creating a special Advent routine.
Read a Hagiography of St. Andrew
Andrew and some other disciples were called three times of our Lord. He called them first in the knowledging of him, as when St. Andrew was with John the Baptist, his master, and another disciple; he heard that John said: Lo! here the Lamb of God; and then he went anon with another disciple, and came to Jesu Christ and abode with him all that day. And then St. Andrew found Simon, his brother, and brought him to Jesu Christ, and the next day following they went to their craft of fishing. And after this he called them the second time by the stagne of Gennesereth, which is named the sea of Galilee. He entered into the ship of Simon and of Andrew, and there was taken great multitude of fish, and he called James and John, which were in another ship, and they followed him, and after went into their proper places.
After this he called them from their fishing, and said: Come, follow me, I shall make you fishers of men.
Then they left their ships and nets, and followed him, and after this they abode with him, and went no more to their own houses. And howbeit he called Andrew and some other to be apostles, of which calling, Matthew saith in the third chapter: He called to him them that he would.1
St. Andrew’s Mission to Ethiopia
And after the ascension of our Lord, the apostles were departed, and Andrew preached in Scythia and Matthew in Murgondy. And the men of this country refused utterly the preaching of St. Matthew, and drew out his eyes, and cast him in prison fast bounden.
In the meanwhile an angel, sent from our Lord, and commanded him to go to St. Matthew into Murgondy, and he answered that he knew not the way. And then the angel commanded him that he should go unto the seaside, and that he should enter into the first ship that he should find, and so he did gladly, in accomplishing the commandment, and went into the city by the leading of the angel, and had wind propitious. And when he was come he found the prison open, where St. Matthew was in; and when he saw him he wept sore and worshipped him; and then our Lord rendered and gave again to St. Matthew his two eyes and his sight.
And then St. Matthew departed from thence and came into Antioch, and St. Andrew abode in Murgondy, and they of the country were wroth that St. Matthew was so escaped. Then took they St. Andrew and drew him through the places, his hands bounden in such wise that the blood ran out. He prayed for them to Jesu Christ, and converted them by his prayer; and from thence he came to Antioch.
This that is said of the blinding of St. Matthew, I suppose that it is not true, nor that the evangelist was not so infirm, but that he might get for his sight that St. Andrew gat for him so lightly.
The Quenching of the Fire
It was so that a young man came and followed St. Andrew, against the will of all his parents and on a time his parents set fire on the house where he was with the apostle, and when the flame surmounted right high, the child took a brush full of water and sprinkled withal the fire, and anon the fire quenched. And then his friends and parents said: Our son is made an enchanter.
And as they would have gone up by the ladders, they were suddenly made blind, that they saw not the ladders, and then one of them recried and said: Wherefore enforce ye you against them? God fighteth for them and ye see it not. Cease ye and leave off, lest the ire of our Lord fall on you.
Then many of them that saw this believed in our Lord, and the parents died within forty days after, and were put in one sepulchre.
The Pregnant Woman Who Prayed to Diana
There was a woman with child, joined in wedlock with a homicide, who was troubled greatly upon her deliverance; and at the time of childing she might not be delivered. She bade her sister to “go to Diana and pray to her that she help me.” She went and prayed, and Diana said to her, which was the devil in an idol: Wherefore prayest thou to me? I may not help ne profit thee, but go unto Andrew the apostle which may help thee and thy sister.
And she went to him, and brought him to her sister, which travailed in great pain, and began to perish. And the apostle said to her: By good right thou sufferest this pain; thou conceivedst in treachery and sin, and thou counselledst with the devil. Repent thee, and believe in Jesu Christ, and thou shalt be anon delivered of thy child.
And when she believed and was repentant, she was delivered of her child, and the pain and sorrow passed and ceased.
Nicholas the Old Man Always in Lechery
An old man called Nicholas by name, went unto the apostle and said to him: Sir, I have lived fifty years, and always in lechery. And I took on a time a gospel, in praying God that he would give me from then forthon continence. But I am accustomed in this sin, and full of evil delectation, in such wise that I shall return to this sin accustomed.
On a time that I was inflamed by luxury, I went to the bordel, and forgat the gospel upon me, and anon the foul woman said: ‘Go hence thou old man, for thou art an angel of God, touch me not, nor come not near me, for I see marvel upon thee.’ And I was abashed of the word of the woman, and I remembered that I had the gospel upon me, wherefore I beseech thee to pray God for me and for my health.
And when St. Andrew heard this he began to weep, and prayed from tierce unto nones. And when he arose he would not eat, and said: I shall eat no meat till I know whether our Lord shall have pity of this old man.
And when he had fasted five days, a voice came to St. Andrew and said to him: Andrew, thy request is granted for the old man, for like as thou hast fasted and made thyself lean, so shall he fast and make himself lean by fastings for to be saved.
And so he did, for he fasted six months to bread and water; and after that he rested in peace and good works. Then came a voice that said: I have gotten Nicholas by thy prayers whom I had lost.
A Christian Youth Accused of Incestuous Desires
A young Christian man said to St. Andrew: My mother saw that I was fair, and required me for to have to do sin with her; and when I would not consent to her in no manner, she went to the judge, and would return and lay to me the sin of so great a felony. Pray for me that I die not so untruly; for when I shall be accused I shall hold my peace and speak not one word, and have liefer to die than to defame and slander my mother so foully.
Thus came he to judgment, and his mother accused him, saying that he would have defouled her. And it was asked of him oft if it was so as she said, and he answered nothing. Then said St. Andrew to her: Thou art most cruel of all women, which for the accomplishment of thy lechery wilt make thy son to die.
Then said this woman to the provost: Sir, sith that my son came, and accompanied with this man, he would have done his will with me, but I withstood him that he might not.
And anon the provost and judge commanded that the son should be put in a sack anointed with glue, and thrown into the river, and St. Andrew to be put in prison till he had advised him how he might torment him. But St. Andrew made his prayer to God, and anon came an horrible thunder, which feared them all, and made the earth to tremble strongly and the woman was smitten with the thunder unto the death. And the other prayed the apostle that they might not perish, and he prayed for them, and the tempest ceased. Thus then the provost believed in God, and all his meiny.
The Seven Devils of Nice
After this, as the apostle was in the city of Nice, the citizens said to him that there were seven devils without the city, by the highway, which slew all them that passed forthby. And the apostle Andrew commanded them to come to him, which came in the likeness of dogs, and sith he commanded them that they should go whereas they should not grieve ne do harm to any man; and anon they vanished away. And when the people saw this they received the faith of Jesu Christ.
The Strangled Youth
And when the apostle came to the gate of another city there was brought out a young man dead. The apostle demanded what was befallen him, and it was told him that seven dogs came and strangled him. Then the apostle wept and said: O Lord God, I know well that these were the devils that I put out of Nice; and after said to the father of him that was dead: What wilt thou give to me if I raise him?
And he said: I have nothing so dear as him, I shall give him to thee. And anon the apostle made his prayers unto almighty God, and raised him from death to life, and he went and followed him.
St. Andrew Resurrects 40 Drowned Men
On a time there were forty men by number, which were coming by the sea, sailing unto the apostle, for to receive of him the doctrine of the faith. And the devil raised and moved a great storm and so horrible a torment that all they were drowned together. And when their bodies were brought tofore the apostle, he raised them from death to life anon, and there they said all that was befallen to them. And therefore it is read in an hymn that he rendered the life to young men drowned in the sea.
St. Andrew is Martyred in Achaia
And the blessed St. Andrew, whilst he was in Achaia, he replenished all the country with churches and converted the people to the faith of Jesu Christ and informed the wife of Ægeas, which was provost and judge of the town, in the faith, and baptized her. And when Ægeas heard this he came into the city of Patras and constrained the Christians to sacrifice. And St. Andrew came unto him, and said: It behoveth thee which hast deserved to be a judge, to know thy judge which is in heaven, and he so known, to worship him, and so worshipping, withdraw thy courage from the false gods.
And Ægeas said: Thou art Andrew that preachest a false law, which the princes of Rome have commanded to be destroyed.
To whom Andrew said: The princes of Rome knew never how the son of God came and taught and informed them that the idols be devils, and he that teacheth such things angereth God, and he, so angered, departeth from them that he heareth them not, and therefore be they caitiffs of the devil and be so illused and deceived that they issue out of the body all naked, and bear nothing with them but sins.
And Ægeas said to him: These be the vanities that your Jesus preached, which was nailed on the gallows of the cross.
To whom Andrew said: He received with his agreement the gibbet of the cross, not for his culp and trespass, but for our redemption.
And Ægeas said: When he was delivered of his disciple, taken and holden with the Jews, and crucified by the knyghts, how sayst thou that it was by his agreement?
Then St. Andrew began to show by five reasons that Jesu Christ received death by his own agreement and will, forasmuch as he came tofore his passion, and said to his disciples that it should be, when he said: We shall go up to Jerusalem, and the son of the maid shall be betrayed. And also for that Peter would withdraw him, he reproved him, and said: Go after me, Sathanas. And also for that he showed that he had power to suffer death, and to rise again when he said: I have power to put away my soul and to take it again. And also for that he knew tofore him that betrayed him, when he gave him his supper, and showed him not. And also for that he chose the place where he should be taken, for he knew well that the traitor should come. And St. Andrew said that he had been at all these things, and yet he said more, that the mystery of the cross was great.
To whom Ægeas said: It may not be said mystery, but torment, and if thou wilt not grant to my sayings, truly I shall make thee prove this mystery.
And Andrew said to him: If I doubted the gibbet of the cross I would not preach the glory thereof. I will that thou hear the mystery, and if thou knew and believedst on it thou shouldst be saved.
Then he showed to him the mystery of the cross, and assigned five reasons. The first is this: Forasmuch as the first man that deserved death was because of the tree, in breaking the commandment of God, then is it thing convenable that the second man should put away that death, in suffering the same on the tree.
The second was that, he that was made of earth not corrupted, and was breaker of the commandment, then was it thing convenable that he that should repel this default, should be born of a virgin.
The third; for so much as Adam had stretched his hand disordinately to the fruit forbidden, it was thing convenable that the new Adam should stretch his hands on the cross.
The fourth; for so much as Adam had tasted sweetly the fruit forbidden, it is therefore reason that it be put away by thing contrary; so that Jesu Christ was fed with bitter gall.
The fifth; for as much as Jesu Christ gave to us his immortality, it is thing reasonable, that he take our mortality. For if Jesu Christ had not been dead, man had never been made immortal.
And then said Ægeas: Tell to thy disciples such vanities, and obey thou to me, and make sacrifice unto the gods almighty.
And then said St. Andrew: I offer every day unto God Almighty, a lamb without spot, and after that he is received of all the people, so liveth he and is all whole.
Then demanded Ægeas how that might be.
And Andrew said: Take the form for to be a disciple, and thou shalt know it well.
I shall demand thee, said Ægeas, by torments. Then he being all angry, commanded that he should be enclosed in prison, and on the morn he came to judgment, and the blessed St. Andrew unto the sacrifice of the idols. And Ægeas commanded to be said to him: If thou obey not to me, I shall do hang thee on the cross, for so much as thou hast praised it.
And thus as he menaced him of many torments St. Andrew said to him: Think what torment that is most grievous that thou mayst do to me, and the more I suffer, the more I shall be agreeable to my king, because I shall be most firm in the torments and pain.
Then commanded Ægeas that he should be beaten of twenty-one men, and that he should be so beaten, bounden by the feet and hands unto the cross, to the end that his pain should endure the longer. And when he was led unto the cross, there ran much people [shouting, “An innocent man is condemned to shed his blood without cause.” The apostle, however, begged them not to try to save him from martyrdom.]
And when he saw the cross from far he saluted it, and said: All hail cross which art dedicate in the body of Jesu Christ, and wert adorned with the members of him, as of precious stones. Tofore that our Lord ascended on thee, thou wert the power earthly, now thou art the love of heaven; thou shalt receive me by my desire. I come to thee surely and gladly so that thou receive me gladly as disciple of him that hung on thee. For I have alway worshipped thee and have desired thee to embrace. O thou cross which hast received beauty and noblesse of the members of our Lord, whom I have so long desired and curiously loved, and whom my courage hath so much desired and coveted, take me from hence, and yield me to my master, to the end that he may receive me by thee.
And in thus saying, he despoiled and unclad him, and gave his clothes unto the butchers. And then they hung him on the cross, like as to them was commanded. And there he lived two days, and preached to twenty thousand men that were there.
Then all the company swore the death of Ægeas, and said: The holy man and debonair ought not to suffer this.
Then came thither Ægeas for to take him down off the cross. And when Andrew saw him he said: Wherefore art thou come to me, Ægeas? If it be for penance thou shalt have it, and if it be for to take me down, know thou for certain thou shalt not take me hereof alive; for I see now my lord and king that abideth for me.
Therewith they would have unbound him, and they might in nowise touch him for their arms were bynomen and of no power. And when the holy St. Andrew saw that the world would have taken him down off the cross he made this orison hanging on the cross, as St. Austin saith in the book of penance: Sire, suffer me not to descend from this cross alive, for it is time that thou command my body to the earth, for I have born long the charge, and have so much watched upon that which was commanded to me, and have so long travailed, that I would now be delivered of this obedience, and be taken away from this agreeable charge. I remember that it is much grievous, in proud bearing, in doubting, unsteadfast in nourishing, and have gladly laboured in the refraining of them. Sire, thou knowest how oft the world hath entended to withdraw me from the purity of contemplation, how oft he hath entended to awake me from the sleep of my sweet rest, how much and how oft times he hath made me to sorrow, and as much as I have had might I have resisted it right debonairly in fighting against it, and have by thy work and aid surmounted it: and I require of thee just and debonair guerdon and reward, and that thou command that I go not again thereto, but I yield to thee that which thou hast delivered me. Command it to another and empesh me no more, but keep me in the resurrection, so that I may receive the merit of my labour. Command my body unto the earth, so that it behoveth no more to wake, but let it be stretched freely to thee, which art fountain of joy never failing.
And when he had said this, there came from heaven a right great shining light, which environed him by the space of half an hour, in such wise that no man might see him. And when this light departed he yielded and rendered therewith his spirit. And Maximilla, the wife of Ægeas, took away the body of the apostle, and buried it honourably. And ere that Ægeas was come again to his house, he was ravished with a devil by the way, and died tofore them all.
And it is said that out of the sepulchre of St. Andrew cometh manna like unto meal, and oil which hath a right sweet savour and odour. And by that is shewed to the people of the country when there shall be plenty of goods. For when ther cometh but little of manna, the earth shall bring forth but little fruit, and when it cometh abundantly, the earth bringeth forth fruit plenteously. And this might well happen of old time, for the body of him was transported into Constantinople.