St Andrew and St Clement:
Apostolic Founders of Kyivan Christianity

The feast of these our Founder Saints fall only five days apart with St Clement honoured on December 8 and St Andrew honoured on December 13.

When the Apostles moved throughout the Roman Empire to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they tended to preach in established metropolitan centres and established churches there.

These churches later came to hold special authority as a result of their Apostolic roots, but also because of their tremendous service to preaching and maintaining the Faith.

Such were the Churches of Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Rome and Constantinople, the original "Pentarchy."

Rome was the only Apostolic See in the West since it was the only western city which was directly established by the Apostles Peter and Paul.  

This is why the Eastern Church has always had such difficulty understanding Rome's claims to Primacy in the Church on the basis of its Apostolic origins.  In the East, there were many cities and even towns that had bishops originally consecrated by the Apostles!

It is important to note that Peter and Paul were never "Bishops of Rome."  They were Apostles with the same powers as bishops to be sure.  But their mission was not to govern a diocese or eparchy. 

They needed to move around and so they consecrated bishops and priests in the places that received the Christian message.  St Clement the Roman was the third Bishop of Rome from the line established by the Chief Apostles at that city.

St Andrew the First-Called and the brother of St Peter, was said to have preached in the City of Constantine or Byzantium.  He is therefore reckoned to be the Apostolic Founder of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

St Mark the Evangelist and secretary to St Peter founded the "Evangelical See" of Alexandria.  St Peter is the Founder of the See of Antioch and St Thomas the "Doubter" established the Church in India. 

St Andrew the Apostle is also the Founder of the Church of Kyiv.  Sent to preach to the Scythians in what is now Ukraine, St Andrew was accompanied by three Scythian missionaries, Sts. Inna, Pinna and Rimma. 

He stopped at the hills surrounding the area that was to become Kyiv.  As if by a special gift of clairvoyance, St Andrew erected a Cross there and prophesied that a great city would be built there with many Churches of God.

St Andrew worked with Scythians throughout his life and a number of Scythian saints and martyrs carried the Gospel they learned from the St Andrew Tradition into Central Europe.

The Scots themselves claim St Andrew for himself, and not just because St Regulus brought some Relics of St Andrew to Scotland. 

In the "Declaration of Arbroath" in the fourteenth century, the Scots trace their ancestry to Scythia itself.  "Scottia" and "Scythia" are closely related therefore.  They brought with them devotion to the Scythian Apostle, St Andrew.  As we know, St Andrew's X Cross is the Scottish banner today.

St Andrew ended his days tied to an X-shaped Cross, according to later tradition, at Patras in the Peleponessus in Greece.

He hung there for four days until the local people demanded that the governor release him.  As the governor approached to cut the Apostle loose, Andrew expired in a flash of light.

That Andrew should have died on an X-shaped Cross is entirely likely.  Many were, in fact, crucified on such a Cross.  The "X" is, in fact, the first letter of Christ in Greek and Slavonic.  It is among the earliest symbols of Christianity, along with the symbol of the Fish (IC XC or "ichtus").

Later, Kyivan Christianity would develop the three-bar Cross with the slanted foot-rest which is shown on the main page of this website above the Icon of St Andrew.  The foot-rest has always represented the Cross of St Andrew as the Apostolic Founder of the Kyivan Church.  

This may also explain why, in establishing the Kyivan Metropolia in 988 at the time of St Volodymyr the Great, the Kyivan Metropolitan received the robes of a Patriarch and other powers that normally belong only to a Patriarch.

It was St Volodymyr the Great who also promoted veneration of another Apostolic Founder of his nation's Church, St Clement I.   He brought his Relics to Kyiv  and had his Royal Chapel dedicated to him, while placing his Kingdom under his protection. Later, the Icon of St Clement was painted in the Cathedral of St Sophia on the orders of Yaroslav the Wise.

That St Volodymyr should have venerated St Clement is entirely understandable given his own Norse roots.  St Clement was the patron of Scandinavia, especially of those travelling by water.  He was, after all, martyred by having an anchor tied to his neck as he was thrown into the Black Sea.

St Clement was banished to Crimea, as was the later Pope St Martin I.  Clement was a secretary to St Paul and some say he probably wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews in St Paul's name.  St Clement composed a Divine Liturgy that was, at one time, used throughout the early Church.  His famous Epistle was also read for the longest time as part of the New Testament in the early Church.  The 8 books of the Apostolic Constitutions were also, at one time, considered part of inspired Scripture.  It is still part of the New Testament of the Ethiopian Church.

The Church which housed the Relics and the Anchor of St Clement was soon submerged under the Black Sea.  Somehow, the waters receded yearly around the Feast of St Clement so that people could go into the Church to serve Liturgies and honour his memory.  

This is what Sts. Cyril and Methodius reported when they were there and brought his Relics to Rome where they now rest at San Clemente.

It was, all in all, just natural for this sainted Bishop of Rome to become a second Apostolic-era Founder and patron of the new Ukrainian Christian nation.

The X Cross and the Anchor joined together, so to speak, to create a dynamic Christian tradition at Kyiv.  This tradition fused with Slavic culture and was carried throughout the Empire of St Volodymyr the Great, into western Europe, Roumania, Poland, Hungary and Bohemia, and throughout the East, including China, Japan, Alaska and North America.

Kyiv is a true Apostolic Church and Christian centre because of her Apostolic origins and because of her great contributions to world Orthodoxy over the last thousand years as a singular Orthodox Teacher of other Churches.

Even the Russian Orthodox Church has always looked to Kyiv and Kyivan practices as to the true historic witness of Orthodox authenticity.  And even when the Moscow Patriarchate was established, the Metropolitan designated to crown each new Patriarch was that of the "ancient See of Kyiv."

Kyiv has also always been regarded as one of the four "dowries" of the Mother of God, the others being:  Mount Athos, Diveyevo and Georgia.

The Kyivan Caves Lavra has more than 200 Saints and Myrrh-Bearing Relics, including the dozens of glorified missionaries, bishops and ascetics who were trained and tonsured at the Lavra.  

They are a further testimony to Kyiv as the source of Christian spirituality and holiness, a beacon of the Light of Christ for Eastern Europe and the world!

Those who have had the privilege of being part of the Kyivan Church and of Kyivan Christianity come from diverse cultural backgrounds.  Again, the Choir of Ukrainian Saints testifies to this fact.

Like the Churches of Rome, Constantinople and others, the Kyivan Church is also called to preach Christ from within the prism of her precious spiritual heritage.

That heritage is intensely and specifically devoted to the Resurrection of Christ and His Cross, to the transfiguring Power of the Holy Spirit, to the constant praise of the Holy Trinity, to the glory of the Mother of God and the Communion of Saints.

Ours is a Church where the joy and optimism of Christ's Resurrection permeates throughout our spiritual experience.  It is a Church that reflects the communal nature of the Triune God and the inhabitants of Heaven. 

At a time when the West is searching for mysticism, but seems to be finding it "in all the wrong places," Kyivan Christianity, the Church of Sts. Andrew and Clement, is ready to share with it its inner life of constant Communion with Christ and the Holy Trinity.

The West senses a kind of natural call to greatness and holiness.  Our Church can satisfy those yearnings with her own Life in Christ whereby we are transfigured through divinization through Him and by means of the Holy Spirit.

Through Sts. Andrew and Clement, we possess a Pearl of Great Price.  Let us pray for the Grace to fulfill God's Will of us in sharing the joy and fulfillment of Christ's salvation with those who hunger and thirst for it.  May we be found acceptable in God's eyes with respect to this our great and singular vocation!

Dr. Alexander Roman  alex@unicorne.org