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ANDREW<br />
Twenty thousand stood by and mourned.Out of fear of the people<br />
Aegeates came to remove <strong>Andrew</strong> from the cross. <strong>Andrew</strong> told him that he<br />
could still become a Christian but that he would not permit his removal<br />
from the cross as he had seen Jesus. Many tried to untie the knots but<br />
their hands became numb. There then appeared a heavenly light which<br />
covered <strong>Andrew</strong> for about half an hour.When it left, <strong>Andrew</strong> was dead.The<br />
crucifixion occured in about the year 70. <strong>Andrew</strong> was 80 years old when<br />
he died.<br />
Relics<br />
He was removed from the cross by Bishop Stratoklis and Maximilla and<br />
buried with honour. Many came to Patras to pay their respects. When<br />
Aegeates realised that he had killed a man of God, he committed suicide.<br />
<strong>Andrew</strong>'s body was removed from Patras in 357 under the orders of the<br />
Emperor Constantine (son of King Constantine the Great) and buried in<br />
the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople.The skull of St <strong>Andrew</strong><br />
was kept in Patras until 1460.It was then taken to Rome by Thomas<br />
Paleologos, the last ruler of Morea.In 1967 it was returned to Patras. The<br />
Christians with their bishop Stratoklis, the first bishop of Patras, then<br />
received the the Sacred Relic and buried it with great honor. Later, when<br />
the throne of Byzantium was ascended by Constantius, who was the son<br />
of Constantine the Great, part of the sacred relics were transferred from he<br />
city of Patras to Constantiniple and enshrined in the Church of the Holy<br />
Apostles "inside the Holy Altar".<br />
The holy of Skull of Apostle <strong>Andrew</strong>s seems to have remained in Patras.<br />
But when the Turks were to occupy the city in 1460, Thomas Paleologos,<br />
brother of the last emperor Constantine the last Master of Moria, took it to<br />
Italy and was placed in the church of St. <strong>Peter</strong> in Rome, where it remained<br />
until 1964. On September 26th of that year, a delegation from the pope<br />
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