Acts of Andrew (Greek fragments and Martyrdom)

… with you lies the whole of the weakness. Are you not yet convicted by yourselves, since you do not yet bear his kindness? Let us be ashamed; let us rejoice together within ourselves at his ungrudging fellowship. Let us say to ourselves: Blessed is our race; by whom has it been loved? Blessed is our existence; by whom has it been pitied? We are not some who have been flung to the ground, we who have been known by such a height. We are not of time, to be dissolved afterwards by time. We are not a contrivance of motion, to be destroyed again by itself, nor the cause of a generation that ends in itself. We are, then, those who lay claim to greatness. We are his own, and perhaps of the one who pities. We belong to the better; for this reason we flee from the worse. We belong to the beautiful, through whom we thrust away the shameful; to the righteous, through whom we cast off the unrighteous; to the merciful, through whom we leave the unmerciful; to the one who saves, through whom we have recognized the one who destroys; to the light, through whom we have cast off the darkness; to the One, through whom we have turned away from the many; to the one above the heavens, through whom we have learned what the earthly things are; to the one who abides, through whom we have seen the things that abide. If we choose to speak a worthy thanksgiving, or boldness, or a hymn, or a boast to the God who has pitied us, it is nothing other than to have been known by him.

When he had spoken such things to the brothers, he sent each of them away to his own home, saying to them: "You will never wholly leave me, servants of Christ, because of the love that is in him; nor again shall I be left by you, because of his mediation." And each went away to his own home. Their rejoicing of this kind continued for many days, during which Aegeates had no thought of pursuing the charge against the apostle. So each of them was strengthened then in the hope of the Lord; and all, gathering fearlessly in the prison with Maximilla and Iphidamia and the rest, stayed there continually, sheltered by the covering and grace of the Lord.

One day, while Aegeates was sitting in judgment, the matter of Andrew came into his mind; and like a man gone mad, he left the case he had in hand, rose from the tribunal, and went running to the praetorium, burning with desire for Maximilla and ready to flatter her. But Maximilla had arrived home from the prison before him; and going in to her he said:

"Your parents, Maximilla, considering me worthy to share your life, betrothed me to you as your husband, looking neither to wealth, nor to family, nor to fame, but perhaps to the good sense of my soul. And, to pass over the many things I wished to bring forward to your reproach, both what I suffered from your parents and what you suffered from me in our whole life together, I have come, having left the court, to learn this one thing from you: tell me sensibly. If you would be the woman you were formerly, living with me in the way we know, sleeping with me, having intercourse with me, having children with me, I would treat you well in every respect; more than that, I will release the stranger whom I have in prison. But if you are not willing, I would bring nothing harsh upon you, for I cannot; but him whom you love more than me I will torment all the more. Consider, then, Maximilla, which of the two you wish, and answer me tomorrow; for I am fully armed for this."

Having said this, he went out. And Maximilla again, at the usual hour, came with Iphidamia to Andrew; and placing his hands on her own eyes and then bringing them to her mouth, she began to report to him the whole of Aegeates' demand. And Andrew answered her: "I know, Maximilla, my child, that you yourself are moved to resist the whole proposal of intercourse, wishing to be separated from a foul and filthy life; this has long held sway in your mind, and now you wish my judgment too to bear witness to it. I bear witness, Maximilla: do not do this. Do not be overcome by Aegeates' threat; do not be conquered by his talk; do not fear his shameful counsels; do not be won over by his artful flatteries; do not consent to give yourself up to his filthy sorceries. But endure every torment he brings, looking to us for a little while, and you will see him wholly numbed and withering away, both from you and from all your kin. For the thing I most needed to say to you has come over me, for I do not keep silent, seeing the matter that is being brought about and coming to pass through you: rightly do I see in you Eve repenting, and in me Adam turning back. For what she suffered in ignorance, you now, the soul to whom I address myself, set right by turning back; and what the mind suffered that was brought down with her and slipped away from itself, I set right together with you, who recognize that you are being led upward. For you yourself have healed her deficiency by not suffering the like; and I have completed his imperfection by fleeing to God; what she disobeyed, you have obeyed; what he agreed to, I flee; and the things in which they went astray, we have come to know. For it has been appointed that each should set right his own fall."

Having said these things as I have said them, I would also say what follows: Well done, O nature, being saved, that did not overpower yourself nor hide yourself! Well done, O soul, crying out what you suffered and returning to yourself! Well done, O man, learning what is not yours and hastening toward what is yours! Well done, you who hear what is said! How I perceive you to be greater than anything thought or spoken! How I recognize you to be more powerful than those who seemed to overpower you; more seemly than those who cast you down into shame and led you away into captivity! So, O man, having learned all these things in yourself, that you are immaterial, that you are holy, that you are light, that you are akin to the unbegotten, that you are intellectual, that you are heavenly, that you are translucent, that you are pure, that you are … above the flesh, above the world, above the rulers, above the authorities, over which you truly are: having grasped yourself in your true condition and recovered yourself, consider wherein you excel; and seeing your own face in your essence, having broken all bonds (I do not mean those that concern generation only, but also those beyond generation, whose names, exceedingly great, we have set before you), long to see him who has been shown to you, who did not come into being, whom perhaps you alone, taking courage, will come to know.

These things I said with you in view, Maximilla; for in their force the words reach to you also. In the way that Adam died in Eve by agreeing to her consent, so I too now live in you, who keep the commandment of the Lord and carry yourself across to the dignity of your true being. Trample upon the threats of Aegeates, Maximilla, knowing that we have a God who pities us. And let not his noise move you, but remain chaste. And as for me, let him not only punish me with the tortures that go with these bonds, but let him also throw me to the beasts, and burn me with fire, and hurl me down a cliff. And what of it? Since this body is one, let him use it as he wishes, since it is akin to him.

Again my word is to you, Maximilla. I say to you: do not give yourself up to Aegeates; stand firm against his snares; above all since I, Maximilla, have seen the Lord saying to me: "Andrew, the father of Aegeates, the devil, will release you from this prison." From now on, then, let it be your part to keep yourself chaste and pure, holy, unstained, sincere, free from adultery, unwilling to consent to the talk of the one who is alien to us, unbroken, unshaken, not given to weeping, unwounded, untossed by storm, undivided, unoffended, without sympathy for the works of Cain. For if you do not give yourself up, Maximilla, to what is contrary to these things, I too shall be at rest, though forced in this way to depart from this life for your sake, that is, for my own sake. But if I were driven away from here, I who could perhaps help others of my kin through you, and you were persuaded by the talk of Aegeates and the flatteries of his father the serpent, so as to turn back to your former works, know that I shall be punished on your account, until you yourself recognize that I spurned this life for the sake of a soul that was not worthy of it.

I beg you, then, the wise man, that your mind may remain clear-sighted; I beg you, the mind that is not seen, that it may itself be kept safe. I exhort you: love Jesus; do not be overcome by the worse. Help me too, the man to whom I appeal, so that I may become perfect; help me too, so that you may recognize your true nature. Suffer with me in my suffering, so that you may recognize what I suffer and escape suffering. See what I myself see, and you will be blind to what you see; see what you should, and you will not see what you should not; hear what I say, and cast away what you have heard.

"These things I have said to you, and to everyone who hears, if indeed he will hear. But you, Stratocles," he said, looking at him, "why are you so overcome by many tears, and groan so that all can hear? What is this despondency upon you? What is your great pain, or your great grief? Do you recognize what is being said, and why I pray, my child, that you may be saved? Do you understand to whom the things said have been said? Has each of them laid hold of your mind? Has it touched the thinking part of you? Do I have the one who heard me? Do I find myself in you? Is there someone in you, whom I see as my own, with whom I may converse? Does he love the one who spoke in me, and wish to share with him? Does he want to be made one with him? Is he eager to be made his friend? Does he long to be yoked with him? Does he find some rest in him? Has he somewhere to lay his head? Is anything there opposed to him? Is he roughened? Does he resist? Is he hostile? Does he flee? Is he savage? Does he turn aside? Has he turned away? Does he rush off? Is he weighed down? Does he make war? Does he converse with others? Is he flattered by others? Does he agree with others? Do other things trouble him? Is there anyone within who is alien to me? an adversary? a destroyer? an enemy? a sorcerer? a busybody? a crooked one? a hypocrite? a deceiver? a hater of men? a hater of the word? one like tyrants? a boaster? one puffed up? one raving mad? a kinsman of the serpent? a weapon of the devil? an advocate of fire? one belonging to darkness? Is there anyone in you who will not bear with me, Stratocles, when I say these things? Who is it? Answer! Am I speaking in vain? Have I spoken in vain?" "No," says the man in you, Stratocles, weeping once more.

And Andrew, taking Stratocles by the hand, said: "I have the one I loved. I shall rest upon the one I was waiting for. For your groaning still more and weeping without restraint has become a sign to me that I am already at rest, because I have not spoken my kindred words to you in vain."

And Stratocles answered him: "Do not think, most blessed Andrew, that anything else grieves me but you. For the words that come out through you are like darts of fire shot at me, and each of them reaches me, truly burning me up; and the part of my soul that is set on what it has heard is tormented, foreseeing the grief that will follow. For you yourself are departing, and I know well that it is good; but when I seek your care and love after this, where shall I find it, or in whom? I have received the seeds of the saving words, with you as the sower; but for them to sprout and grow up they need no one else but you, most blessed Andrew. And what have I to say to you but this? I need much mercy and help from you, so that I may be able to become worthy of the seeds I have from you; and they will not grow up unfailing and come out into the open unless you will it and pray for them and for the whole of me."

[13] And Andrew answered him: "These were the very things, my child, that I myself saw in you; and I glorify my Lord, that my thought about you did not tread on empty air, but knew what it said. But so that you may know: tomorrow Aegeates will hand me over to be crucified. For the Lord's servant Maximilla will trouble the enemy within him, to whom he belongs, by not agreeing with him in what is alien to her; and he will turn on me and think to console himself."

[14] Maximilla was not present when the apostle said these things. For she had listened to the words with which he answered her, and had in some way been disposed by them and become what the words pointed to; and she set out, not rashly nor without purpose, and came to the praetorium. And she bade farewell to the whole life of the flesh. When Aegeates put before her the same demand that he had told her to consider, whether she would sleep with him, and she refused, he turned from then on to the killing of Andrew, and considered by what death he should put him to death. And when, of all deaths, crucifixion alone had won him over, he went off and dined with his companions. But Maximilla, the Lord going before her in the form of Andrew, came again with Iphidamia to the prison; and since a larger crowd of the brothers was inside, she found him speaking words such as these:

"I, brothers, was sent by the Lord as an apostle to these regions, of which my Lord counted me worthy, to teach no one, but to remind every man who is akin to these words that they are living among temporary evils, delighting in their harmful imaginings. From these I have always exhorted you too to stand away, and I have urged you to hasten toward the things that abide, and to make your escape from all things that flow. For you see that none of you stands still, but everything is changeable, even human ways. This happens because of the untrained soul, which has wandered off into nature and holds pledges of its wandering. I count blessed, then, those who have become obedient to the words that have been preached, and through them see, as in a mirror, mysteries concerning their own nature, for whose sake all things have been built."

"I charge you, therefore, beloved children: build yourselves up firmly on the foundation that has been laid for you, which cannot be shaken and is safe from the plots of every evildoer. Be rooted on this foundation; be established, remembering … all that happened while I lived among you all. You saw works done through me which you cannot disbelieve, signs done of such a kind that perhaps even speechless nature will cry out. I have handed on to you words, which I pray you may receive … as the words themselves wish. Be established, then, beloved, in all that you have seen, heard, and shared in; and God, in whom you have believed, will have mercy on you and present you well-pleasing to himself, at rest for all ages."

"And as for what is about to happen to me, let it not trouble you as some strange wonder, that the servant of God, to whom God himself granted many things in works and words, is driven out of this temporary life by force by a wicked man. For such a thing will happen not only to me, but also to all who have loved him, believed in him, and confessed him. The utterly shameless devil will arm his own children against them, so that they may side with him; and he will not have what he wants. And why he attempts these things, I will tell you. From the beginning of all things, and indeed, I may say, ever since the one who has no beginning came down into the realm beneath him, the enemy, a stranger to peace, has tried to drive away one who was not his own, but only one of the weaker, conspicuous, and not yet able to be known. And because he did not even know himself, he had for this reason to be warred upon by the enemy. For thinking that he had him and was his master for ever, the enemy so set himself against him that their enmity came to look like friendship. For, putting his own things before him, he often depicted them as pleasant and deceptive, and through them he thought he was mastering him. So he did not show himself an enemy openly, but pretended a friendship worthy of himself."

"And this was his work, carried on for a long time, … . But when the mystery of grace was kindled, and the counsel of rest was made manifest, and the light of the word was shown, and the race that is being saved was shown to be warred upon by many pleasures, and the alien himself was despised and laughed at in his own gifts, through which he had thought to despise that race, because of the kindness of the one who had mercy, he began to weave his counter-plots against us with hatred and enmity and insurrection; and he has made it his work not to leave off from us until he thinks he can separate us. For before, the one who is alien to us was free of care, and pretended to offer us a friendship worthy of himself; and he had no fear that we, deceived by him, would fall away. But the matter of the dispensation, once kindled, made his enmity, I do not say stronger, but more evident; for it exposed what was hidden in his nature and seemed to escape notice, and compelled him to confess what he is. Knowing, then, what is going to happen, brothers, let us wake up, not being resentful, nor putting on a show, nor carrying away on our souls his traces, which are not our own; but, all of us wholly lifted up in the whole word, let us gladly welcome the end and make our escape from him, so that he too may at last be shown for what he is, and our nature hasten toward what is ours …"

When the blessed apostles of our Savior Jesus Christ were sitting in Jerusalem after his ascension, the blessed Peter stood up in their midst and said: "Men who were called by the Word of God, chosen by him, and made disciples by his wisdom, who have done powers and signs and wonders through his working, you surely remember how he commanded us, once we had received the Holy Spirit, to be scattered into the whole inhabited world, preaching repentance and forgiveness of sins to those who believe in his holy name. And now the power that came down from heaven has fallen on each one of us, and the gift of the Holy Spirit has been poured out upon us, and we have been crowned with the weapon of godliness and with the word, and the grace of our Master and God and Savior Jesus Christ has reached us richly. Shall we, then, hesitate and be slack to go out to the work to which he has called us and for which he chose us?"

And they rose and cast lots, as to where each should go and which nation each should win. And by lot Peter received the circumcision; James and John the East; Philip the cities of Samaria and Asia; Bartholomew Albanopolis; Matthew Parthia and the city of the Myrmidons; Thomas Great Armenia and the land of India; Lebbaeus and Thaddaeus Beronicis; Simon the Cananaean Barbaria. After all of them, Bithynia and … fell by lot to Andrew.

So when all had been scattered into the regions of the world, Andrew the apostle came to pass through Bithynia and to teach the many the word of God; and from there he entered Patras in Achaia. When he had entered the city, a report went out that a stranger had come into the city bringing nothing with him but only the name of a certain man Jesus, through whom he does signs and great wonders, heals diseases, casts out demons, raises the dead, cleanses lepers, and heals every ailment. When the proconsul Lesbius heard this, he was troubled and said: "He is a magician and a deceiver; we must not pay attention to him, but rather seek benefits from the gods." And he sought to seize him and put him to death.

But at night an angel of the Lord stood over the proconsul and said to him, with great urgency and a fearful threat: "What harm have you suffered from the stranger, that you have plotted evil snares and slighted the God whom he preaches? And now, behold, the hand of his Lord is upon you, and you will be stricken senseless until you come to know the truth through him." And when the angel had vanished from him, he was left speechless; and after a little, coming to himself, he called the soldiers who served him and said to them with tears: "Have pity on me; hurry, search the city for a stranger called Andrew, who preaches a strange God; through him I shall be able to come to know the truth." They searched eagerly for the blessed apostle Andrew, and when they had found him they brought him to the proconsul. And the proconsul, seeing him, fell at his feet and, beseeching him, said: "Man of God, stranger and knower of a strange God, have pity on a man who has gone astray, a man who is a stranger to the truth, a man branded with the stains of sins, a man who knows many false gods and is ignorant of the only true God. I beseech the God who is in you: stretch out to me a hand of salvation; open to me a door of knowledge; shine on me the light of righteousness."

And the blessed apostle, pierced to the heart and weeping at the words of the suppliant, lifted his eyes to heaven, laid his right hand on his whole body, and said: "O my God Jesus Christ, who are unknown by the world but are now made manifest through us, the Son of God, the Word, who before all things and in all things contain all: touch this your servant, and, having made him your vessel, heal him, so that he too may be one of your people, preaching your effective power." And at once, taking him by the right hand, he raised him up; and having risen, he gave thanks to the Lord, saying: "Truly this is God, O stranger, who has no need of hours or days or times. Therefore I attach myself to you with all my household; I believe in the one who sent you to us." And Andrew said to him: "Since you have believed greatly in the one who sent me, you will be filled still more abundantly with knowledge …"

While these things were going on, the whole city rejoiced at the salvation of the proconsul, and crowds gathered from every side, bringing those who were sick with various diseases. And he prayed for them, called upon the Lord Jesus Christ, laid his hands on them, and healed them all. Amazement seized all who lived in the city, and they cried out aloud: "Great is the power of the strange God! Great is the God preached by the stranger Andrew! From this day we destroy the wooden images of our idols; let us cut down their groves; we turn away from the many-god knowledge of vain idols and demons, and rather acknowledge the true God preached by Andrew. Great is the God of Andrew!" And all with one accord rushed to the temples and burned their gods, ground them to powder, hacked them to pieces, scorned them, trampled them, and destroyed them, saying: "Let the God of Andrew alone be named." And the proconsul Lesbius rejoiced at the shouting of the populace and exulted at the deeds of the people.

When a considerable time had passed, and the word of the blessed Andrew and his preaching had spread to all without hindrance, Caesar sent a successor to Lesbius and removed him from office. Lesbius, receiving the emperor's order, came with joy to the blessed Andrew and said: "Now I shall believe in the Lord all the more, having stripped off vain glory, put away the flower of the world, and cast off the distractions of life. Receive me, then, as your fellow traveller, man of God; receive me as a believer, speaking faithfully and bearing witness to all men of the things concerning Christ, the common Savior." And leaving the praetorium, he lived with Andrew.

Meanwhile the apostle Andrew saw a vision: it seemed to him that the Savior Christ stood facing him and said to him: "Andrew, lay the Spirit upon Lesbius and give him of your grace; and take up your cross and follow me; for he who will cast you out of the world is hastening to Patras." When the apostle woke, he made known the vision of the dream to those present, and awaited the fulfilment of the word. And behold, someone rushed in and said to the apostle: "Aegeates, who has been given the proconsulship, sent by Caesar, has come up to the regions of Achaia; and some servants of the devil, evil and hostile men, have informed him that you have destroyed the gods of the city, overthrown their temples, cut down their groves, and persuaded people to worship a certain crucified one. And he has sent executioners to arrest you." And the blessed Andrew knelt down and said: "God who cannot lie, who revealed to us what will be, my Master, grant me to stand with boldness against the schemes of the adversary Aegeates."

While he was still praying the prayer, the executioners sent by the [foul] Aegeates stood before the doors and threw into an uproar the house where the blessed apostle was lodging; and seizing Antiphanes, the host of the servant of God, they dragged him off by force, saying: "You brought inside a stranger, a magician and deceiver, a destroyer of the gods and an annihilator of the temples, and gave him rich hospitality, and you have laid waste our whole city together with its gods. So call the stranger to account and bring out the servant of the crucified one, whose name is Andrew; for Aegeates, the great and illustrious proconsul, wants him." And at this violence the whole city at once gathered at the doors of Antiphanes, shouting and saying: "Caesar sent the pro[consul] …

… proconsul for the punishment of the wicked and the praise of the good. Why, then, does Aegeates seek the servant of God? We want to know. For Andrew, the apostle of the strange God, has become our father and teacher and physician."

[10] While they were shouting this, the blessed apostle, fearing that the multitude of the city might lay hands on those sent by the foul Aegeates, came out of the house, stood in the midst of the crowds, and motioned to them with his hand to be silent. And when he stood on a high place and was about to open his mouth, they all cried out with one voice: "Great is the God of the stranger, who went about through his servant doing good to all who were oppressed by the devil." And Andrew said: "Brothers, you who were called by the Word and chosen by his name: this is not the only grace, that you believe in him who sent me, but that you also die for him. Stop, then, making an uproar, lest we have to give account as causes of sedition and leaders of war, and not as citizens of godliness. Let me go to Aegeates; yield to those who are holding me; for by dying I shall rather appear to you today showing the way of the resurrection." And so, having calmed the crowds with difficulty, he handed himself over to the executioners. And they, beasts and not men, like wolves that have found a tender and beautiful lamb, seized him and carried him off to the utterly foul Aegeates.

And Aegeates, seeing the blessed Andrew, said: "Tell me, O man, a stranger to our place, our ways, and our blood: trusting in whom did you enter the places ruled by Caesar and destroy the venerable worship of our gods? And to what crucified one have you commanded all Achaia to give heed, having taken the city of Patras without a spear?"

And the blessed Andrew stretched out his hand and said: "Well done, well done! My good God, in whom I trust, has brought you here, the God through whom the swarm of demons has been flung into the abyss, the phalanx of your gods has dissolved into smoke, and your idols, as you see, have been turned into nothing. Look at the deed, proconsul, and consider my God; reflect on the destruction of your gods, and glorify my God. For he is the almighty God the Word, who subsisted before all ages; who received from the Father the authority and lordship to judge the living and the dead; who, being God, took up a body by his own power and came into the world, and chose us the apostles, and gave us authority to go through all the nations to preach in his name repentance and forgiveness of sins, so that mankind, turning away from a polytheism that fights against God and acknowledging the one and only God, might worship him and serve him alone. For this reason he has sent you here too, so that if, having heard, you believe in him, you will be saved; but if you disbelieve and refuse, you will be condemned together with your so-called gods."

But the utterly foul Aegeates, like an asp that stops its ears, unwilling to hear the truly wise man, said: "O vain-minded inventor of some strange name, enjoy my gifts." And having had him scourged with whips, he ordered him to be crucified. And the blessed apostle, as he went out, said: "You are good, Jesus Christ, for you have adorned us with your weapon and crowned us with your grace. Receive me henceforth into your eternal dwellings; give me rest from now on from my incurable toils; be my release from toil, and release my body, so that my soul, dancing with the angels, may praise you." When he came to the cross, the whole multitude cried out: "Unholy is the judgment of Aegeates! He has condemned to the cross a stranger who did no wrong. O unjust judgment! Take us instead, proconsul, who have sinned much, and not the righteous man."

When he came to the place, he saw the wood set up; and leaving them all, he went up to the cross and said to it aloud: "Hail, O cross! Rejoice indeed! I know well that you, set up long since and weary with waiting for me, are now at rest. I have come to you, whom I know to be my own; I have come to you who longed for me. I know your mystery, for which you have been set up. For you are fixed in the world to make firm what is unstable. One part of you stretches up to the heavens, that you may signify the Word above; another part of you is spread out to the right and to the left, that you may put to flight the fearful and opposing power and gather the world into one; another part of you is fixed in the earth, that you may join the things on the earth and under the earth to the things of heaven. O cross, instrument of salvation of the Most High! O cross, trophy of Christ's victory over his enemies! O cross, planted on earth and bearing your fruit in heaven! O name of the cross, a thing filled with all things! Well done, O cross, who have bound the circumference of the world! Well done, form of understanding, who have given form to your own formlessness! Well done, unseen punishment, severely punishing the substance of the knowledge of many gods and driving its inventor out from mankind! Well done, O cross, who put on the Master, bore the thief as your fruit, called the apostle to repentance, and did not disdain to receive us! But how long shall I say these things and not embrace the cross, that in the cross I may be made alive, and through the cross go out of the common death of this life? Come near, ministers of my joy and servants of Aegeates, and fulfil the will of both: bind the lamb to the passion, the man to the Creator, the soul to the Savior."

[15] When he had said this, the executioners came and bound his feet and hands, and did not nail him; for they had this command from Aegeates, who wished him to hang there and be tormented, and to be devoured alive at night by dogs. But when the fourth day had come and as many nights had passed, the apostle's face did not fall, his voice did not weaken, his limbs did not grow slack, he did not groan or weep; so that the whole crowd called him blessed and glorified God, who nourishes and strengthens those who have hoped in him.

When Aegeates heard that he was still alive, he was amazed and hurried to him at a run. And when the apostle saw him standing opposite him, he said to him in a loud voice: "Why have you come, Aegeates, to one who is not yours? Why do you gaze at the one who hangs here? Why are you astonished at the one who is bound? Rescue your soul; believe in Christ who sent me; lift up your eyes and see the blessed light, Jesus; open wide the ruling part of your soul and receive the knowledge of the first Word; put away ignorance; do not maim your thoughts; do not destroy what is in you according to the image; do not deprive yourself of the good things; do not be condemned all the more by refusing; do not be swallowed up by the serpent; let him not snatch you away like a lion. Let your life be sweetened by the things on the wood, and believe in the one who was crucified. Good is the cross, for it gives life. Good is he who hung on the cross, for he is the destroyer of the demons; for he is the redeemer of souls and the judge of those who contend in the games. But why do I say so much? Come to me, Christ: release your servant free, the weak healthy, the mortal immortal, the corruptible incorruptible, the bound loosed, the earthly heavenly, so that through me those who believe may be saved, and I too may become a true witness of your divinity."

Having said this, and having glorified the Lord still more, he gave up his spirit with thanksgiving. And all, amazed, cried out: "Great is the God of Andrew; one is the God of the stranger; good is the God of the Christians. Christ, save us all, as you saved Andrew, who hoped in you."

After the apostle's departure, the wife of Aegeates, together with Stratocles, came to the cross, took down the remains of the apostle, buried them faithfully, and laid them outside the city. And she, following Christ, separated from Aegeates because of his beastly soul and conduct; and choosing a holy and quiet life, she lived blessedly with the brothers in the love of Christ. But Aegeates, stung in his soul and tormented in his conscience, rose by night and, unnoticed by all, threw himself down from a great height; he was dashed to pieces, burst open, and ended his life. And Stratocles, the brother of Aegeates, took over his property, sold it, and distributed it all to the poor, himself also awaiting the kingdom of heaven.

The holy apostle bore his witness, according to the reckoning of Asia, on the sixth of the month … , and according to the Romans on the thirtieth of November, while our Lord Jesus Christ reigns, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.