ANDREW OF CRETE (OF JERUSALEM), ST.

Archbishop; b. Damasus, c. 660; d. Erissos, July 4, 740. A monk in Jerusalem (678), he became a deacon in Constantinople (c. 685) and head of a refuge for orphans and the aged. He later became archbishop of Gortyna in Crete (692). At the Monothelite Synod of Constantinople (712), he subscribed to the repudiation of two wills in Christ defined by the Council of Constantinople III. In 713 he retracted, explaining his doctrine in a metrical confession, and participated in the quarrels over iconoclasm. He was remarkable as an orator; 22 of his homilies and panegyrics have been published, while some are still unedited. He furthered the development of the Byzantine Liturgy, inaugurating a type of penitential hymn or Great Canon still in use, and he is respected as one of the principal hymnographers of the Oriental Church.

Feast: July 4.

Bibliography: andrew of crete, Opera Omnia, Patrologia Graeca 97:805–1443. s. vailhÉ, Échos d'Orient 5 (1901–02) 378–387. o. clÉment, Le chant des larmes: essai sur le repentir (Paris 1982). v. nechaev, Uroki pokaianiia v Velikom Kanone Sviatogo Andreia Kritskogo, zaimstvovannye iz bibleiskikh skazanii (Moscow 1995; originally published in 1891). e. mercenier, A propos d'Andrée de Créte (Alexandria 1953). o. bardenhewer, Geschichte der altkirchlichen Literatur (Freiburg 1913–32) 5:152–157. b. altaner, Patrology (New York 1960) 645. h. rahner, Lexicon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (Freiburg 1957–65) 1:516–517. h. g. beck, Kirche und theologische Literatur im byzantinischen Reich (Munich 1959) 500–502.

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