When is St. Andrew's Day?
St. Andrew's Day is the feast day of Saint Andrew.
The day is celebrated annually on 30th November, as this is the generally accepted date of St. Andrew’s death.
St. Andrew’s Day has been a national holiday in Romania since 2015. St. Andrew is the patron saint of Romania and the Romanian Orthodox Church and is credited with spreading the gospel to Romania.
More than 900,000 Romanians will celebrate their name day on November 30th, with popular variants of the name being Andrei, Andraș, Andruș, Andreas, Andreiu, Endre, András, for men, and Andreea, Andra, Andrada, Andruța, Deia, Deea, for women.
Who was St. Andrew?
St Andrew was one of the Twelve disciples of Jesus (Apostles) and was originally a fisherman like his brother, St Peter. St Andrew is credited with spreading the gospel to Romania, Greece, and Russia.
In 60AD, he was working in Patras, where he baptised the wife and brother of the Governor, Aegeus. The Governor was so incensed by this, that St Andrew was arrested and crucified.
It is believed that Andrew died on a diagonally transversed cross which the Romans sometimes used for executions and which, therefore, came to be called St Andrews cross. It is said that Andrew could have been crucified on a standard but didn't see himself as worthy enough to die in the same manner as Jesus..
In addition to Romania, Andrew is the patron saint of Barbados, Ukraine, Russia, and Scotland.
