By Bishop Gregorios of Mesaoria
Our Church today honours the memory of St. Andrew the General (Stratelates) and of his 2,593 Christian soldiers who martyred with him.
The apostle Paul spoke of a cloud of martyrs in his day, and, certainly, there were many more after that, since only the number of those who were sacrificed for Christ’s love in the first three centuries AD is estimated at eleven millions. Therefore, it is not surprising that in our diaries we often find memories of tens, hundreds and thousands of martyrs.
Saint Andrew lived around the end of the 3rd century and served as a military commander in the Roman army under the command of governor Antiochus. Head of a small army corps, after a warm prayer, he succeeded in defeating the numerous Persian army, and he was praised by Antiochus.
However, the latter’s attitude became hostile when he was informed that Andrew had converted his soldiers under his command to his Christian faith. Antiochus then tried to force them to return to the faith of the idols, but to no avail. Unable to withstand this development, he then ordered the arrest and killing of both the saint and the multitude of his soldiers.
The holy people of the Orthodox Faith are the spiritual refreshment of the presence of the true Triune God in this vain life with the varied challenges, tribulations, and trials that unexpectedly tend to mislead man. They are the people who, hidden, live the proof that the Kingdom of God is within man and is revealed as a miracle in the world.
Source: Church of Cyprus
