7th–8th century
Saint Andrew of Crete
Archbishop of Crete and major Byzantine hymnographer, best known for composing the Great Canon sung during Lent.
Biography
Andrew was born in Damascus and from a young age served at the patriarchal see of Jerusalem. He was sent to Constantinople for the Sixth Ecumenical Council, where he stayed on as a deacon running an orphanage; he later became archbishop of Crete, valued by his flock as both an able administrator and a spiritual father. He died in 740 on a voyage back from Constantinople and was buried on Lesbos.
He is counted among the Church's greatest hymn-writers, the author of dozens of festal homilies and hundreds of hymns. He is best remembered for the Great Canon, a long penitential poem sung in sections at the start of Lent and in full on the Thursday of its fifth week.