Eclectic Anecdotes

The eminent Catholic scholar Francis Dvornik was renowned for his work on Byzantine history. One area of study he contributed to was the history of the association with the apostle Andrew with Constantinople. He writes:

Many scholars have supposed that because of the impression which the display of the apostolic character of the Roman See had made during the Acacian Schism in Byzantium, the Greeks had invented the legend that their See was also founded by an Apostle, St. Andrew, the brother of Peter. Because St. Andrew was the first to be invited by the Lord to join Him, and because he had introduced his brother Peter to the Master, he, Andrew, should be regarded as the first of the Apostles, and his successors in Byzantium at least equal, if not superior, to the successors of Peter in Rome.

If this could be verified, it would amount to a clear negation of Roman primacy in the Church by the Byzantines. I have examined this story thoroughly in my book The Idea of Apostolicity in Byzantium and the Legend of the Apostle Andrew and came to the conclusion that there is no trace of it in Byzantine or Western tradition before the end of the seventh or the beginning of the eighth centuries. During this time the Byzantines were still clinging to the old principle of accommodation to the political situation, and the fact that their city was the Imperial residence was regarded as sufficient to assure it a privileged position in the Church.

However, they were impressed by the idea that a See which was to play such a prominent role should be connected with the Apostles, the universal teachers, whose doctrine the Patriarchs should explain and promote. In reality, we find some instances in the seventh century in which the See of Constantinople is called “apostolic.” It is reasonable to see in this the influence of the Roman emphasis on the apostolic character of the Church in general and the Roman See in particular. It should be stressed, however, that this custom was not originated by the story of the Apostle Andrew as founder of its bishopric, because the Andrew story was then not yet known in Byzantium.

Early Syriac, Armenian and Coptic traditions show, however, that the apostolic character was attributed to the See of Constantinople because this See was the heir of Ephesus, and, thus, of the Apostle John, when the jurisdiction which the See of St. John had exercised over Asia Minor was transferred to Constantinople. This is also confirmed by the declaration of the Patriarch Ignatius at a synod in 861, and seems also to be alluded to by the Patriarch Photius in his letter to the Armenians.

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The fact that the idea of the pentarchy took such firm root in Byzantium in the eighth and ninth centuries signifies that the Roman principle of leadership in the Church—the apostolic character of the Church and of her principal Sees as opposed to the principle of accommodation to political changes—had gained considerable ground in Byzantium. With the iconoclastic heresy the traditional concept of the “imperium” was defeated in Byzantium and the Church affirmed most strongly her rights for which she had been fighting so vigorously. It meant also the definitive acceptance of the apostolic character of the See of Constantinople by the Easterners, and this time this supposition was strengthened by the spread of the legendary story of the apostolic foundation of the See of Byzantium. This story, based on the apocryphal Acts of St. Andrew in which Byzantium is mentioned, originated in the eighth century and became popular, largely as the result of new lives of St. Andrew written in the eighth and ninth centuries.

Even the Patriarch Ignatius refers to St. Andrew, as well as to St. John, as his predecessor. This indicates that the story of the apostolic foundation of the Byzantine See by Andrew was already accepted in many circles. In spite of this it was not yet officially accepted in the Church. The Typicon of the Church of Hagia Sophia from the end of the ninth century, which is an official document, does not mention the story when recording the feast of St. Andrew, and neither does it list the feast of St. Stachys, the legendary first Bishop of Byzantium, ordained by the Apostle Andrew. In Byzantium and in the East this story was generally accepted only in the tenth century.

It is believed that this story was used by the Patriarch Photius in a treatise denying the primacy of Rome and exalting the high position of the Byzantine See because it was founded by the brother of Peter, who had been the first of the Apostles chosen by the Lord. The fact that this story was not listed officially in the Typicon of the Patriarchal church, although this Typicon was re-edited by Photius, should be sufficient to show that Photius could not have written such a pamphlet. Only in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries could such an attack on the Roman primacy have been written on the basis of the legendary story of Andrew.[1]

[1] https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=1355