Andrew, St
Andrew, St.
(the Apostle). A letter entitled The Priests and Deacons of Achaia, who are said to have been present at the martyrdom of St. Andrew the apostle, A.D. 59, and to have written an encyclical letter concerning his passion, is still extant in Latin, in Lipomannus and Surius, dated Nov. 30, and is defended by Bellarmine, Possevinus, and Labbe as genuine. Alexander Natalis (Hist. Eccles. I, 10, 8) also boldly affirms its genuineness, but fails in his proof, for his argument rests upon the testimony of the fathers, whereas he cites none earlier than Etherius, bishop of Osma, Spain, in 789, while it is notorious that it was ranked among the apocryphal books by St. Philastrius of Bresse and popes Innocent I and Gelasius. An argument, for its genuineness used by Baronius — viz., that parts of it are read by the Roman Church in the Office of St. Andrew — can hardly be entitled to any weight, since it cannot be denied that apocryphal and spurious writings have found their way into the breviary. Cave (Hist. Lit. vol. i) attributes the work to a monk of the Middle Ages. M. Wog, professor of ecclesiastical antiquities in the University of Leipsic, published (in 1749) a dissertation in defence of the authenticity of these acts, which he supposes to have been written in A.D. 67. See Baronius, A.D. 69, No. 34; Dupin, Hist. Eccles. 1, 42.
