St. Andrew of Crete: The Hymnographer’s Mystical Vision and the Great Canon of Repentance

Introduction

St. Andrew of Crete (c. 650-740 AD), one of the most celebrated liturgical poets and theologians in Christian history, stands as a towering figure bridging the late patristic period and the Byzantine Middle Ages. He was born around 650 AD in Damascus, Syria, shortly after the Muslims conquered that territory. Andrew was educated in a Christian community living under Islamic rule, so he experienced first-hand the struggles to maintain a Christian identity while supporting the life and teachings of Jesus Christ in a non-Christian culture. As a child of a wealthy family, he was afforded an education in the Greek rhetorical tradition, classical literature, and Christian theology, all tools used by educated Christians during this time.

After a time studying under some of the greatest influencers of Eastern Christianity in the illustrious monastery of Mar Saba in the Judean desert, St. Andrew began to write poetry that communicated his beliefs of faithfulness to God and love of Christ. The “Great Canon of Repentance,” an extensive penitential poem composed of 250 stanzas, is St. Andrew’s most significant work and continues to be one of the most profound literary expressions of Orthodox Christianity’s sorrow and hope .

From Damascus to Jerusalem: Formation in a Changing World

Andrew was born around 650 AD in Damascus, approximately a dozen years after the city’s fall to Muslim forces in 635. He grew up in a Christian community living under Islamic rule—a minority maintaining its faith and traditions while adapting to new political realities. This context shaped his consciousness, creating awareness of Christianity’s vulnerability, appreciation for traditions that preserved identity under pressure, and commitment to maintaining orthodox faith amid challenges.

His family, clearly of some prominence and means, provided excellent education. Andrew mastered Greek rhetoric, classical literature, and theology—the traditional Byzantine curriculum for educated Christians. His writings demonstrate comprehensive knowledge of Scripture, Church Fathers, classical philosophy, and the liturgical traditions that had developed over six centuries of Christian worship.

By the time Andrew was in his late teens or early twenties, he left the secular world to enter the monastic life at Mar Saba. This monastery, which was established by St. Sabas and gained prominence through the influence of great saints and theologians, became an important spiritual center for the growth and development of Eastern Christianity. Andrews’s experience at Mar Saba empowered him with the wisdom of the early Church Fathers and influenced him to see the interconnectedness between his knowledge of Scripture, the writings of the Church Fathers, and the prayers and liturgical practices developed over more than six centuries.

At Mar Saba, Andrew absorbed the psalms, which serve as the foundation for monasticism’s primary means of communication with God, and developed an internal connection with them. In his early years, he was immersed in the ecclesiastical life as a member of a monastic community. This monastic lifestyle provided him with an opportunity to develop familiarity with monastic prayer through participation in the Divine Office, which is the daily cycle of prayers, psalms, and hymns that frames the lives of Christians who participate in corporate worship.

Andrew lived in an environment in which he was continuously challenged to focus on God. Within this context, he participated in various forms of work that carved through the physical world, allowing him to continue the practice of cultivating a prayerful state of mind while performing manual labor. Also, Andrew was taught how to resist destructive thoughts (the logismoi) that attacked the contemplative mind and to approach purification and illumination as an act of cooperation with God. The experience of growing through his experience at Mar Saba, together with the ongoing trials and tribulations he faced on his journey to mystical union with God, require effort; transformation necessitates the total dependence and cooperation of man with God’s grace.

The Orphanotrophos: Service in Constantinople

Andrew traveled to Constantinople (approximately 678-685) to assume the office of orphanotrophos, a service position supervising the orphanages of Constantinople, the Byzantine Empire’s capital and the center of the Eastern Christian Church. His appointment to this post indicates his exceptional administrative skills and his reputation for compassion and integrity.

The contrast between the silence of the desert monastery and the constant noise of the imperial capital would have been radical, as would the differing levels of simplicity and sophistication of each location. Similarly, the desert and urban environments exhibited a divergent level of austerity vs. abundance. Yet, Andrew maintained his prayerful and contemplative insights within the very active life of Constantinople. Through his charitable endeavors, Andrew was able to practice the same contemplative virtues in the concrete world through the work of being a shepherd to the most vulnerable members of society—the orphan—i.e. the love of neighbor that a true contemplative has within himself. As a person in ministry, Andrew used the wisdom, patience, and discernment gained through his life of prayer to give insight into the needs of the people he met daily who experienced suffering and need.

Additionally, Andrew’s position in the Church allowed him to encounter and experience the full theological and liturgical milieu of the Empire of the Byzantine church at its most sophisticated level. He participated in great celebrations for church festivals, heard the finest preachers, and was introduced to the controversy of theology which was taking place in Eastern Church during that period of time. Andrew’s urban ecclesiastical community experience added to his monastic training and demonstrated how contemplative thinking can inform pastoral ministry and how depth in the mystical experience can add a new dimension to public worship .

While in Constantinople, Andrew wrote many hymns and homilies. His literary ability was the result of a classical education enhanced by a life of contemplation. Through his liturgical poetry, Andrew expressed theological accuracy with poetic beauty, and his texts served both as didactic and contemplative for the upliftment of the mind towards the mystery of God.

Andrew exhibited a profound understanding of the spiritual elements of liturgy and knew that true liturgical poetry not only had aesthetic appeal but also influenced consciousness, shaped the imagination, and gave language to the worship of God. The poetry contained in Andrew’s hymns exhibits extraordinary density, as Andrew demonstrates how to use theological concepts and scriptural allusions, which allow for various layers of meaning and reward continual meditation.

Gortyna: The Reluctant Archbishop

Around 692-700 AD, Andrew was consecrated Archbishop of Gortyna, the principal city of Crete. This elevation of Andrew to the episcopal office fulfilled both the function of recognizing Andrew’s qualities and calling, but there were strong indications that he questioned whether he wanted to accept it as he preferred the contemplative space of the monastery rather than an episcopal office.

There are many reasons that Andrew probably had doubts about accepting this position. As a bishop, Andrew was responsible for a wide variety of administrative duties, including financial management, dealing with politics, and managing constant requests from people, all of which would have made it difficult for Andrew to devote himself to the same devotion to daily prayer he had been used to in the monastery. Andrew is not the only monk who has become a bishop and had their interior life suffer due to the distractions created through the administrative responsibilities of being a bishop. He was able to bring together his role as bishop and as a contemplative.

In addition to the poetry and hymns he authored, Andrew wrote many homilies while serving as a bishop. He had developed a deep understanding of the Scriptures and had a deeply influential impact on the lives of his parishioners.

Andrew also had the responsibility to protect the integrity of the faith of his diocese. During the 7th and 8th centuries, the Church faced several important doctrinal controversies regarding Christ (Monophysitism), the growing threat of iconoclasm, and numerous local problems regarding dogmatic issues. During his tenure as Archbishop of Gortyna, Andrew saw his responsibilities as being not only to defend orthodoxy, but to promote accurate theology as an integral part of a genuine spiritual life. When accurate theology is corrupted, it negatively affects worship, misleads seekers of God, and creates a barrier to communion with God .

Andrew participated in the Quinisext Council (691-692), a controversial synod addressing disciplinary and liturgical matters. The council canons regarding the practice of prayer and liturgical customs affirm the unified Church’s desire to standardize a wide range of practices while maintaining the validity of cultural diversity within the unified Church.

Andrew served as the Bishop of Gortyna for approximately forty years (c. 700-740), which, given the rigors and expectations of being a bishop, asserts that he was probably in good health and successfully administered his bishopric. He died circa 740 AD. He served faithfully to his diocese, retained the depth of his contemplative life that gave him infused grace to be fruitful in his ministry, and experienced immediate recognition by the Church for his sanctity through being venerated as Saint Andrew and canonized (his feast day is July 4th in the Byzantine calendar).

The Great Canon: A Masterpiece of Penitential Prayer

Andrew’s most famous work, the “Great Canon of Repentance” (Kanon Megas), stands as one of Christian literature’s longest and most profound penitential compositions. It consists of around 250 stanzas or troparia, arranged in nine odes, woven throughout with vast amounts of biblical material. It represents monumental meditation upon sin, repentance, the mercy of God, and the condition of humanity.

The Canon is extraordinary not merely because of its length but also due to the extent of its content. Other compositions may be shorter but do not encompass all of the material that Andrew charts in the course of a series of special services (the fifth week of Great Lent and the fifth Thursday of Lent). This is not to say that the length of the Canon constitutes verbosity; rather, Andrew’s content is comprehensive in that he looks at virtually every aspect of the entire scriptural narrative and all forms of sin, as well as the multiple dimensions of repentance and an abundance of God’s mercy.

The Structure and Method:

The Canon follows the traditional nine-ode structure inherited from biblical canticles, though Andrew expands each ode dramatically beyond typical length. Andrew emphasizes the biblical canticles as providing the basis for the extended meditations found in each of the nine odes; the references to the specific canticles for each of the odes are: Moses’ Song at the Red Sea; Hannah’s Prayer; Jonah’s Psalm from the Whale; etc.

Andrew’s methodology consists of a constant dialogue between the biblical examples he provides in his own meditations and the personal application of these biblical examples to the condition of his soul and the soul of his reader. Andrew recounts significant events in the history of salvation: Creation; the Fall; Cain and Abel; Noah; Abraham; Jacob; Moses; King David. He recounts these events and how each relates to the condition of the sinner’s soul. Each biblical example can be seen to be a mirror, reflecting something of the pray-er’s spiritual condition.

The Canon consistently has the same refrain: “Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me” punctuates nearly every stanza, creating rhythmic repetition that hammers home the text’s central plea. This refrain occurs in many stanzas of the Canon and functions as a rhythmic reference to the major theme of the Canon—Penitence. Psalm 51 is the greatest of the penitential psalms, and the refrain serves as the heartbeat for the Canon, which is the cry of the penitent for Christ to have mercy on him in his sin, and to behold him as a sinner.

The Theology of Sin:

Andrew’s understanding of sin is not a simple enumeration of external actions of sins. He utilizes a psychodynamics approach to understanding sin as the disposition of the will of the individual to prefer created things over God created things, to pursue things that do not ultimately satisfy and may not be in accordance with God’s ultimate good. Andrew does not simply relate how sin manifests in actions but how sin manifests in another more subtle form—a pattern of habitual sin and a continuing habitual depravity. His understanding of the nature and operation of sin can be described as a multifaceted dynamic process.

He also asserts that the foundation of every sin is a disordered will. The disordered will of the individual manifests itself in his disordered will being directed toward created goods over the ordering of received goods, and to the anxiety and compulsion of ‘compulsions’ of will.

Andrew identifies the “acceleration” of a sin to the next by conditioning it to easily habitually occur. The ability to easily commit individual sinful acts and to ultimately progressively change the heart to sustainably commit sin is another of the significant facets of sin that Andrew highlights. Andrew does not simply accept the concept of ‘sin’ as a singular act or as a sum total of habitual acts; rather, he proposes that to understand and to be liberated from sin, one must understand the nature of sin both as specific choices of action and as a global dynamic of orientation away from God. Thus, the ability of the person to be healed from their particular sins will require the acknowledgement of the ‘sin’ and a global reorientation of one’s life to God.

The Portrait of Humanity:

The Canon presents an unflinching portrait of the human condition after the Fall. Andrew’s examination of the history of mankind demonstrates to us how man has fallen from their state of goodness to the current condition of depravity, e.g., as the Bible records: Adam’s disobedience to God’s command; the murder of Abel by Cain, the wickedness of the flood through which mankind was saved and subsequently destroyed; Israel’s repeated apostasies.

However, the account of the degenerate state of mankind is not one of misanthropy, but rather a true realist who acknowledges to his readers the evidence of how, based on history, mankind has great capacity to inflict evil in the world.

Andrew also acknowledges that, even though a comprehensive view of mankind does depict how mankind is the fallen state of mankind, mankind is not simply fallen. Mankind is also created in the image of God as a perfect being, endowed with the free will to choose to do good or to turn from God and choose to sin. Mankind does not operate under an inherent inability or lack of merit but is condemned because, as a result of mankind’s choice to fall away from God, they have descended from perfections of dignity to the limitations imposed by sin.

Andrew acknowledges the complexity of mankind; therefore, mankind is all of the above simultaneously. While mankind will remain in this complexity throughout their lifetime, the support of this complexity requires continued vigilance through continual honest self-examination coupled with continued humility and dependency on God’s grace.

The Theology of Repentance:

Andrew’s understanding of repentance (metanoia) involves more than regret for past actions. True repentance includes several dimensions: recognition of sin’s reality and horror, genuine sorrow for having offended God, confession without excuse or rationalization, firm intention to change, and trust in divine mercy to accomplish transformation.

He emphasizes that repentance must be concrete and specific. Vague acknowledgment that “I’m a sinner” accomplishes little. To be earnestly penitent, one must identify specific sins, state them clearly without excuse, and confess them sincerely. The Great Canon contains many examples of the various forms of sin.

Andrew also recognizes repentance as an ongoing process rather than a one-time event. Repentance does not come from improved self-will alone; repentance occurs through the process of opening oneself to receive God’s mercy. Through repentance, humans recognize their dependence upon God’s grace, and they understand that they cannot save themselves. As such, we must trust that God abundantly forgives.

The Vision of Divine Mercy:

The Canon’s most profound dimension is its portrait of divine mercy. Andrew doesn’t merely acknowledge God’s willingness to forgive but celebrates mercy’s inexhaustible abundance. He supports this vision with biblical examples of divine mercy: God’s patience with Adam after the Fall, preservation of Noah, forbearance with Israel despite repeated apostasy, forgiveness of David, restoration of Manasseh, acceptance of the Prodigal Son, mercy to the thief on the cross. These aren’t isolated instances but pattern revealing God’s fundamental character.

Andrew particularly emphasizes that no sin exceeds mercy’s capacity. Whatever one has done, however far one has fallen, however long one has persisted in sin—return remains possible, forgiveness is available, restoration can occur. The only unforgivable sin is refusal to seek forgiveness, the only hopeless condition is despair that denies mercy’s reality.

Personal and Corporate Dimensions:

Sin is not individual; sin affects the entire community. Therefore, repentance involves personal confession as well as a corporate “we” that appears throughout— “we have sinned,” “forgive us,” “have mercy on us” —creating solidarity in sinfulness and shared need for grace.

The Church acknowledges, through collective acts of repentance, that we share in both the consequences of our sins and the need for God’s mercy. Repentance primarily takes place in the Liturgical context of the Church. Because liturgical repentance occurs in a communal setting, it is not understood as morbid introspection or a sense of personal guilt, but as a process of restoration through the grace of God, and of continuing to receive the grace of God in community.

Other Hymns: The Liturgical Legacy

Andrew created numerous hymns outside of the Great Canon that enriched Byzantine liturgy and continue to shape Orthodox worship; these works illustrate how Andrew was able to bring together both theological precision with poetical beauty, condensing deep theology into memorable verses and creating liturgical texts which serve as both instruction and prayer.

The Canon for the Nativity of the Theotokos:

Andrew composed a lengthy canon celebrating the birth of the Virgin Mary (September 8 in the Byzantine calendar) which meditates on Mary’s birth as being a critical point in salvation history and the beginning of the New Eve who would undo the disobedience of the Old Eve, the birth of the Ark who would be the fertile Mother of God.

The hymns demonstrate Andrew’s sophisticated Mariological theology. He honors Mary as Theotokos (God-bearer), recognizing her unique role in the Incarnation while maintaining clear distinction between worship due to God alone and veneration appropriate for the saints. His verses celebrate Mary’s purity, humility, and obedience—virtues that qualified her for her vocation.

The Canon for the Exaltation of the Holy Cross:

For the feast celebrating the Holy Cross (September 14), Andrew composed hymns meditating on the Cross’s cosmic significance. He employs a great deal of paradox in his hymns as the Cross is at once the tree of death and the tree of life, the instrument of shame and the throne of glory, the evidence of human evil and the example of God’s love.

These hymns speak to how the Cross reveals both the nature of God and the condition of humanity. In the willing acceptance of the crucifixion by Christ, the love of God is made manifest in its most perfect form; on the other hand, the mankind of this world called Him to be crucified and showed the full horror of human sin. Thus, the Cross becomes the axis on which all reality will turn, thus becoming a key to know who God is and what man has become.

Funeral Hymns:

Andrew composed hymns for funeral services that meditate on death’s meaning, the soul’s destiny, and the hope of resurrection. They are not simply meant to be comforting words but are actually deep reflections on the reality of mortality, the certainty of judgment, and the triumphant grace over death.

The funeral hymns reflect the balance between the truthful acknowledgment of the horror of death and the certainty of the resurrection. Andrew does not diminish the horror of death, nor does he portray it as merely a natural transition, but rather acknowledges death as an enemy; death is the consequence of sin and is the destruction of the good that God created. Still, the resurrection of Christ has transformed death; what once was defeat is now the passage into life; what once was an enemy has become a servant; and what once was an end is now the beginning.

Feast Day Canons:

Andrew composed canons for numerous feast days throughout the liturgical year: Epiphany, Transfiguration, Dormition of the Theotokos, and many saints’ commemorations. Each canon shows Andrew’s deeply contemplative way of thinking about the mystery of God’s salvation and drawing out theological implications, and how it connected in the overall story of God’s plan of salvation.

The canons also have educational purposes—Andrew teaches theology in poetic form, creating memorable verses for doctrinal understanding—however, the canons also serve as a means of contemplation. Hymns enable worshipers to experience the depths of the mysteries they are contemplating—the verses accompany us in our search for deeper understanding of the mysteries of God—rather than merely describing the mysteries of God.

The Contemplative Hymnographer

Andrew’s primary contribution to Christian mysticism came through hymnography rather than systematic treatises or spiritual direction letters. The benefit of this methodology has its limitations. The briefness of hymns creates an inability to expand on the ideas provided, and the poetic form of hymns forces a compression that sacrifices rigidity and precision. The liturgical context of hymns is a very important aspect of how they are experienced as worship instead of just an intellectual exercise.

However, this methodology offers inspirational benefits for contemplative formation. Hymns shape consciousness through repetition; as they are sung on an annual basis at feast days, they gradually become part of our consciousness. Through repetition, they shape two aspects of our life: imagination and language. Their poetic nature combines both the intellectual and symbolic expressiveness of the worshiper and improves our understanding of the meaning of the words.

Since hymns occur within a liturgical and communal context, contemplation cannot become an isolated exercise outside of the ministry of worship. Andrew recognized that liturgy is contemplation—not just preparing the worshiper to contemplate or to express contemplation, but the actually changing reality. The gathering of the Church for worship, while singing hymns praising God and participating in the Eucharist to experience the sacrament, is an act of worship through which we encounter God.

Andrew created myriad hymns to help us achieve contemplative worship. Songs are not just words, but rather vehicles by which we can ascend to God. Singing about the Incarnation proposes an engagement in contemplative engagement. Singing about the Cross engages us in the mystery of the Cross. Singing accounts of the Resurrection invites us to participate in the risen life of Christ.

He also recognized that an increased repetition of the same hymns over the course of years would deepen contemplation; the same hymns used on an annual basis would have different meaning; and as a married couple grow deeper in love through saying “I love you” for decades, worshipers singing hymns year after year find that the repetition creates familiarity and allows for profoundness.

Theology Through Poetry

Andrew’s hymnography demonstrates a sophisticated theological method—doing theology through poetry rather than prose. Instead of expressing doctrine through arguments or syllogisms, he expresses theological truths through images; instead of trying to teach the truth with logic, he teaches the truth with the beauty of poetic language. This approach has deep roots within Christianity (think of the Psalms, the great hymns in Philippians 2 or Colossians 1) but reached particular development in Byzantine hymnography.

There are five basic principles to the way Andrew uses poetry for theology:

Use of Paradox: Throughout his hymns, Andrew frequently makes use of paradoxical expressions in the creation of a paradoxical nature of creation and the salvation of mankind. For instance: The Virgin remains virgin while she bears a child; God dies while He remains immortal. Andrew demonstrates that through paradox, we can see that the Truth is greater than our human capacity to understand it.

Biblical Typology: Andrew demonstrates the way God uses typological readings to make connections between the Old and New Testaments. For example, the crossing of the Red Sea foreshadows baptism. Manna foreshadows the Eucharist. David provides a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ. Jerusalem represents the Church. Through typology, we can understand that all of human history is directed by and ultimately leads to Jesus Christ.

Compression and Density: Andrew’s poetic writing style packs tremendous amounts of profound theological truths into very compact forms. In only one stanza he can cite multiple biblical texts, make multiple metaphors, create multiple Christological statements, and provide multiple practical applications—all in only four to six lines.

Liturgical Function: Andrew’s hymns are not intended solely for private reading. They have liturgical functions, marking liturgical seasons, providing structure to the Church’s divine services, bridging the various liturgical feasts, and responding to the readings of Scripture.

Aesthetic Dimension: Andrew’s hymns are aesthetically beautiful, and this beauty is not decorative embellishment of the text, but an essential aspect of the theological purpose of the text. The beauty of Andrew’s hymns draws us to them and toward God. The ugly or unattractive hymns fail to achieve the same results as those that are beautiful; thus, the aesthetic beauty of hymns facilitates bringing worshippers into contemplation of God through beauty.

Iconography and Liturgy

Andrew lived in the decades leading up to the outbreak of iconoclasm (726 onwards). Although he died before iconoclasm reached its peak, his hymns reflect developed theology of images that would prove crucial when iconoclasts attacked sacred art.

Andrew’s hymns for various liturgical feast days describe biblical events in vivid detail (The Nativity of Christ, The Baptism of Christ in the Jordan, The Transfiguration, The Resurrection of Christ). These vivid verbal images serve as “verbal icons” and encourage contemplation by offering a snapshot image that can be contemplated. By providing these images, Andrew implicitly shows that God can communicate special grace through material images and gives further validation to the use of material images as means of representing divine mysteries.

Andrew’s strong belief in the significance of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ strengthens the theology of iconography. If the eternal Word of God fully assumed human nature, and if God took on human nature and was conceived through the Virgin Mary, then it is not idolatry to represent the Incarnate Word of God as a visible human. Icons do not adequately depict the divine nature of the Word of God, but they do depict the human nature that the Word of God assumed; thus, they are representations of orthodoxy rather than idolatry .

Andrew’s liturgical compositions show that Andrew understood worship to be more than merely an auditory expression. Worship involves engagement of every sensory element—sight (through the use of icons, vestments, and gestures), smell (through incense), taste (through the reception of Holy Communion), and touch (through kissing icons, making the sign of the cross). Thus, Andrew’s liturgical compositions demonstrate the theology of the Incarnation—because God sanctified material creation, and because God took on a human body, material reality is an effective means of mediating the presence of God, and therefore, worship must utilize the entirety of each individual’s experience.

The Spirituality of Repentance

Of all of the themes of Andrew’s spirituality, the theme of repentance (metanoia) dominates Andrew’s spirituality. The sole purpose of the Great Canon is to promote repentance by encouraging readers to search their own conscience and to acknowledge and confess their personal sins, and to seek mercy. In addition to the Great Canon, Andrew’s other compositions frequently contain penitential themes of recognizing human sinfulness and celebrating God’s grace.

The spirituality of Andrew on repentance reflects a number of beliefs:

The Universality of Sin: Andrew recognizes that every human being is a sinner and therefore dependent upon God’s mercy. The measure of holiness is not that a person does not commit sins, but rather the extent to which an individual recognizes their own sinfulness and continually seeks God’s forgiveness. Even the holiest of saints continues to repent throughout their lives.

The Depth of Self-Deception: Human beings naturally tend to minimize their own sins and to amplify the faults of others. The process of rationalizing sin is a major factor that leads to an individual developing an identity as a sinner.

The Necessity of Specific Confession: Simply saying, “I am a sinner,” accomplishes nothing. To be earnestly penitent, one must identify specific sins, state them clearly without excuse, and confess them sincerely. The Great Canon contains many examples of the various forms of sin.

The Centrality of Divine Mercy: Repentance does not come from improved self-will alone; repentance occurs through the process of opening oneself to receive God’s mercy. Through repentance, humans recognize their dependence upon God’s grace, and they understand that they cannot save themselves. As such, we must trust that God abundantly forgives.

The Corporate Dimension: Sin is not individual; sin affects the entire community. Therefore, repentance involves personal confession as well as a corporate recognition that “we have sinned.” The Church acknowledges, through collective acts of repentance, that we share in both the consequences of our sins and the need for God’s mercy.

The Connection to Liturgy: Repentance primarily takes place in the liturgical context of the Church. There are formal and informal ways of engaging in liturgical repentance, through the rites of penitential services, the rite of sacramental confession, and the rite of receiving Holy Communion. Because liturgical repentance occurs in a communal setting, it is not understood as morbid introspection or a sense of personal guilt, but as a process of restoration through the grace of God, and of continuing to receive the grace of God in community.

The Final Years and Death

The end of Andrew’s life is less clear other than what we do know, which is that he continued as the Archbishop of Gortyna, and continued to work on books and writings. The general tradition surrounding Andrew, while he lived, had him as an outstanding pastor, a teacher of much learning, and a very holy man.

Andrew died about 740 AD, at the age of nearly 90 years. This is an exceptionally long life for the time period in which he lived, and it would suggest that either his physical health was extremely good, or God had a divine purpose for his life and extended his life. The Church recognized Andrew’s sanctity as soon as he died, thus immediately beginning to celebrate him by declaring him a saint or martyr, as well as preserving many of his written works. Several places in the world have relics that they say are Andrew’s; however, this cannot be confirmed as genuine or not. The most important component of Andrew’s legacy is not the relics, but rather the legacy of theology and worship through hymns that he wrote and continue to be very important in supporting how we as Orthodox Christians experience worship, including the Great Canon that facilitates repentance generation after generation.

Legacy: The Canons Still Sung

St. Andrew of Crete’s influence on Christian spirituality operates primarily through Orthodox liturgy rather than through systematic study of his writings. Most Orthodox Christians who know his work know it not through reading but through participating in services where his hymns are sung, especially the Great Canon during Lent.

The way of passing this wealth of spiritual wisdom through liturgical life is different than simply studying theology. The way of passing along Andrew’s spiritual wisdom through liturgical worship is that the theology that Andrew teaches enters into your very being not through a process of academic study but rather through the experience of worship in which his hymns are sung. Each year that the Great Canon of Repentance is sung during Lent, it speaks to a different situation of our lives, and provides us with an experience of the different spiritual situations we face along with different ways to repent from them, and reveals to each individual new aspects of God’s mercy towards them.

For centuries, and still today, the Great Canon of Repentance during the Lenten season has been uniquely important in the spirituality and life of Orthodox Christians. The Great Canon helps us look deeply inside our conscience and examine our sins, and honestly acknowledges the presence of our sinfulness, and focuses on God’s mercy towards us. A number of Orthodox Christians believe Lent would be incomplete if they didn’t experience the long and fatiguing reading of the Great Canon of Repentance.

St. Andrew’s canon for the Nativity of the Theotokos (Mother of God) teaches us about the theology of the Virgin Mary; his canon for the Cross teaches us the theology of Christ’s Passion; and his canon for the Funeral teaches us about life after death—all through the medium of the verses sung as a group during the various feasts.

His influence goes far beyond the Orthodox Church. The Great Canon of Repentance has been translated into many languages, and is becoming increasingly popular within Catholicism and even among some Protestant churches as a rich penitential prayer resource. The Great Canon contains a comprehensive study of sin, and has insight into psychology and incredible depth of theological insight that is applicable and usable across all religious denominations.

Conclusion: Prayer Through Poetry

St. Andrew of Crete invites contemporary Christians to a prayerful relationship with God and spiritual growth through an understanding of how theology, doctrine, and worship are all bound together through a poetic, artistic, and aesthetically pleasing manner. St. Andrew’s life and work illustrate that these three concepts are not in opposition to one another—that to fully understand, appreciate and live out one’s Christian faith requires a melding of these three aspects into the unified whole of who we are as God’s children.

Andrew’s belief that hymnography serves as an expression of theology challenges the artificial separation that many people enforce between academically-based theology (often lacking in aesthetic beauty) and popular worship (often lacking in theological insight). St. Andrew has provided the world with an example of how to combine superior poetic artistry with sound theological principles; to express profound theological truths through music; to unite beauty and truth in worship.

The Great Canon specifically offers contemporary Christians a true and authentic means of penitential prayer. In this day and age, when many forms of spirituality are presented in such a way that they diminish or reduce the idea of sin to nothing more than a psychological problem, St. Andrew’s Great Canon maintains a traditional and biblical understanding of sin—it is a real thing, it offends God, it harms the individual; however, repentance from sin and salvation through divine mercy is not only achievable through the understanding of one’s own personal sins.

St. Andrew expresses the depth of his contemplation on the Holy Scriptures throughout the Great Canon. He has taken the time to deeply reflect upon the stories in the Bible, to empathize with others in the stories, and to allow the history of our salvation to help him in his own life experiences. The contemplative manner in which he engages the Holy Scriptures fosters rich discussions between the Scriptures and an individual’s personal experience—the sacred history of salvation and an individual’s life story.

Additionally, St. Andrew was aware of the importance of corporate worship to foster contemplation, rather than relying on purely private contemplation or prayer. Personal prayer is vital; however, the worship experience provides the usual and normative context in which individuals come together with the rest of the Church, to worship God, to celebrate the mysteries, and receive the sacraments. This is the reason why Andrew’s work, and the way he lived, radically altered the life of the Church and provided an opportunity for everyday Christians to participate in the same spiritual experience with him.

St. Andrew’s life and work serve to demonstrate how one’s active ministry and contemplative practice may be integrated and sustained. Throughout his life he maintained a deep spiritual life while serving the Church as a bishop, while continuing to compose hymns; and while continuing to experience a mystical vision of God through his service to the Church for several decades. St. Andrew shows that contemplation and service do not have to be mutually exclusive and that mystics do not have to retreat from the active ministry.

Perhaps most importantly, the life and legacy of St. Andrew of Crete demonstrate that the liturgy is contemplation—it is not merely a means of contemplation or the expression of contemplation, the liturgy is contemplation. When Christians are gathered to worship, sing Andrew’s hymns, contemplate the mysteries they celebrate, confess sins through the Great Canon of Repentance, and receive the Body and Blood of Christ through the Holy Communion as described in the verses of the hymns, they are experiencing genuine mystical experiences with God, the God that cannot be comprehended yet who is truly present with us sacramentally.

St. Andrew of Crete—monk and archbishop, poet and theologian, hymn composer and mystic—continues to call Christians of every generation to pray through the beauty of poetic expression; to repentance through poetry; and to contemplate God through corporate worship. The hymns composed by St. Andrew continue to echo for us across 13 centuries, reminding us that we experience God through the liturgical life of the Church, that we are changed and transformed through our participation in the mysteries of Christ, and that our relationship with the same Christ who was worshipped and served by St. Andrew is established through the life of the Church, and who gives mercy to those with the same words St. Andrew cried out:

Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me!