| The Cretan Aghios Andreas ho en te Krisei (St Andrew of the Monastery of the Judgement) gained his spiritual formation in the years of the pastorate of Andreas Hierosolymites, Archbishop of Crete. His activities coincided with the detachment of the Church of Crete from papal jurisdiction and its subjection to the Patriarchate of Constantinople, due to the controversies of iconoclasm. Andreas was martyred for his iconodule views in the mid-8th century. His martyrdom, however, was publicised by the political and ecclesiastical circles of Constantinople only after the liberation of Crete from the Arabs, in the latter half of the 10th century, in the context of efforts to reinforce the Christian faith of the Cretans. These efforts included sending Nikon Metanoeite to Crete. |