For those of you who don’t know this Sunday is the feast day of St. Andronicus, the patron saint of silversmiths. I did some reading on our patron saint but unfortunately I couldn’t get any information on his career as a silversmith. Here’s what I did find out…
Andronicus was born in Alexandria, Egypt and trained as a silversmith. He married Athanasia and went on to have two children who later died in a local plague. Following their childrens’ death Athanasia and Andronicus returned to Egypt where they became hermits in the desert. Here they lived separately for twelve years. Athanasia had disguised herself as a man when she became a hermit and her true identity was not discovered until her death. The story goes that Andronicus travelled to Jerusalem to join a monastery and met a man on his journey. On arriving in Jerusalem the two men joined the monastery where they lived until their death. It was not until the man died that Andronicus discovered it had actually been his wife in disguise. I’m not sure how much of that I believe but if it is true it says alot about mens observational skills!
So there you have it, the story of the patron saint of silversmiths!