He is addressed as his name Andreas denotes -manly (masculine). And is portrayed as a Greek philosopher.

Saint Andrew is the patron saint of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Order of Saint Andrew the Apostle.

The Holy Mother Church of Constantinople, one of the original five apostolic sees (Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem) was founded by St. Andrew. He is the "first-called," the Proto-kletos of the Apostles of Jesus Christ.

Saint Andrew was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and was the brother of Peter, the chief of the Apostles who founded the Church in Rome.

St. Andrew had first been a disciple of John the Baptist; afterwards, on hearing the Baptist's witness concerning Jesus, when St. John pointed Him out with his finger and said, "Behold the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29,36). Andrew then began following Christ and became His first disciple, and is therefore called the Protocletus, the First-Called of the Apostles.

After the Ascension of the Lord, he preached in various lands, and founded the Church in Byzantium, the future site of Constantinople. Having suffered many things for the Lord's sake, he died in Patras of Achaia: he was crucified on a cross in the shape of an "X," the first letter of "Christ" in Greek; this cross is also the symbol of Saint Andrew.

While Peter symbolically came to represent the Church of the West, Andrew likewise represents the Church of the East.

The Order of Saint Andrew is made up of Archons who are selected by His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew for their outstanding service to the Church, and are significant, distinguished, and well-respected leaders of the Orthodox Christian community.

Their special concern and interest is to serve as a bulwark to protect and promote the Sacred See of St. Andrew the Apostle and its worldwide salvific mission.

The exquisite icon is painted in the ancient technique of tempera. A method of painting with pigments dispersed in an emulsion miscible with water, typically egg yolk. The method was used in ancient Greece and Rome for fine painting, mainly on wood panels, from the early 13th century, after the sack of Constantinople until the 15th, when it began to give way to oils in the west and eventually by the Russians. Egg tempera remained the preferred technique in eastern Christendom.

Onto a dried birch-wood panel is adhered a fine linen cloth with 24-30 layers of applied marble dust, whiting, and rabbit skin glue - a mixture called gesso.

Precious stone pigments finely ground and mixed with various binders. This icon contains cinnabar, scarlet, vermilion, malachite, as well as earth minerals such as umber, sienna, and ochre...

Learn more at: SchoolofIconography.com

The uniquely polished pure 24-karat gold leaf background is inspired by the famous Diesis Icon, a mosaic in the Great Church of Christ, Agia Sophia in Constantinople (modern day Istanbul. Turkey). Gold is an incorruptible element and symbolizes heaven.

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The Crown of light (Photostephano) has a distinctive significance in Orthodoxy as opposed to the halo of western art suspended and separated from the individual portrayed.

The nimbus aureoles corona emanates from within. We are taught to guard our intellect' as St. Maximos the Confesor teaches; “If you distract your intellect from its love for God and concentrate it, not on God, but on some sensible object you there by show that you value the body more than the soul and the things made by God more than God Himself.”

The Photostephano is burnished pure 24 karat gold.

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TheGoldLeafStudio.com

Saint Andrew’s posture is rendered as a manifestation of -silence and stillness. His hesychia (calmness)affords onto the viewer a sense of serenity.

The saint and viewer encounter a very intimate experience with the eye-to-eye' encounter, another essential Orthodox characteristic in iconography.

His lips are closed conveying a determined reticence,

Saint Andrew’s hair is palpably disheveled. This signifies he was previously a disciple of the holy Prophet. Forerunner Saint John the Baptist who Andrew heard preach-Behold the lamb of God. which taketh away the Sin of the world." He later brought his brother Peter to Christ.

With his right-hand Saint Andrew 's gesture offers a blessing in the form of the tetragrammaton for Jesus Christin Greek IC XC.

In his left- hand he embraces the scroll to identify him as a preacher of the Logos, "one who is sent out an Apostle,

The Protokletos.

The inner red angusticlavia tunic represents divine revelation Andrew was the first Apostles to be called to follow Jesus: Protokletos precisely means, the first called.

The clavia was the tunic associated with the rank and office (Offikion).

Here the artist has delicately rendered it with 24 karat gold inlays with textured finish called Chrysokontolia (literally gold-thread needlework).

The outer himation of green symbolizes both renewal and nature, representing both the spiritual and physical man.

This cloak was an outer garment worn by the ancient Greek philosophers over the left shoulder and under the right and would have been instantly identified until recent centuries.

Unfortunately, we have lost much of these visual discernable idioms.

The Saltire or "Cross of Saint Andrew” denotes his martyrdom in Patra. Greece - 6o AD.

A saltire, also called Saint Andrew's Cross or the crux decussata, is a heraldic symbol in the form of a diagonal cross.

The English word comes from the Middle French sautoir, Medieval Latin saltatoria.

It has become part of many nation’s and state flags around the world and country. X

The Protokletos - Andrew is commemorated November 30th in all Christendom.

Andrew is the patron saint of several countries and cities, including Barbados, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Ukraine, Sarzana, Pienza and Amalfi in Italy, Esgueira in Portugal, Luqa in Malta, Parañaque in the Philippines and Patras in Greece. He was also the patron saint of Prussia and of the Order of the Golden Fleece.

Andrew is beloved around the world