Hymn Writers of the Church

Andrew of Crete, so called because he was bishop of the island of Crete, was born in Damascus in 660. He died about 732. He was deputed by Theodore, Patriarch of Jerusalem, to attend the sixth General Council at Constantinople (680). He was also a member of the Pseudo-Synod of Constantinople, held in 712, which revived the Monothelite heresy. Afterwards he returned to the faith of the Church. Seventeen of his homilies remain to us. His most ambitious poem is called "The Great Canon." it contains more than three hundred stanzas, yet it is sung right through on Thursday of mid-lent week in the Greek Church.