The inscription which runs along the top of the inner wall (just below the ceiling) of this great Roman Church is a quote from the Saint Andrew's confession of faith. It is beautiful prose comparing the contrast of the two woods of death (the tree of original sin and the tree of the Cross of Christ) and the two contrasting immaculate creatures (the immaculate earth and the Immaculate Conception) as sources of life.
B. ANDREAS RESPONDIT AEGEAE PROCONSULI: PRIMUS HOMO PER LIGNI PRAEVARICATIONEM MORTEM INDUXIT: ET NECESSARIUM ERAT GENERI HUMANO UT PER LIGNI PASSIONEM MORS PELLERETUR: ET QUONIAM DE IMMACULATA TERRA FACTUS FUERAT HOMO PRIMUS NECESSARIUM FUIT UT DE IMMACULATA VIRGINE NASCERETUR PERFECTUS HOMO FILIUS DEI QUI VITAM AETERNAM QUAM PERDIDERANT HOMINES REPARARET.
Blessed Andrew responded: For since the first man had brought death into the world by means of a wooden object, (namely the tree of good and evil) it was necessary that the Son of Man should banish death by dying on an object of wood; since the guilty man had been made of spotless earth, it was necessary that the Redeemer should be born of a spotless virgin; (since Adam had stretched forth his greedy hands toward the forbidden fruit, it was necessary that the second Adam should stretch out His pure hands on the Cross; since Adam had tasted the sweetness of the apple, it was necessary that Jesus should taste the bitterness of gall on the Cross; since Jesus was giving His own immortality to man, it was necessary that He should take man's mortality in exchange. For if God had not become mortal, man could not have become immortal). The Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine Part One, New York: Longmans, 1941, 11-12.
El Beato Andrés le respondió al Procónsul Aegeo: Así como el primer hombre incurrió, por el madero del engaño, la muerte: era necesario para el género umano también que por el madero de la pasión la muerte fuera combatida: Y como de la tierra inmaculada fue hecho el primer hombre, fue necesario que de la Inmaculada Virgen naciera el Hombre Perfecto Hijo de Dios a que reparara la vida eterna a los hombres que la habían perdido. (Mi pobre traducción).
Here below is what the Roman Martyrology says of Saint Andrew
This Day, the Thirtieth Day of November
At Patras, in Achaia, the birthday of the Apostle Saint Andrew, who preached the Gospel of Christ in Thrace and Scythia. Being apprehended by the proconsul Aegaeas, he was shut up in prison, severely scourged, and finally, being suspended on a cross, he lived two days on it, teaching the people. Having besought our Lord not to permit that he should be taken down from the cross, he was surrounded with a great brightness from Heaven, and when the light disappeared he breathed his last.
El Beato Andrés le respondió al Procónsul Aegeo: Así como el primer hombre incurrió, por el madero del engaño, la muerte: era necesario para el género umano también que por el madero de la pasión la muerte fuera combatida: Y como de la tierra inmaculada fue hecho el primer hombre, fue necesario que de la Inmaculada Virgen naciera el Hombre Perfecto Hijo de Dios a que reparara la vida eterna a los hombres que la habían perdido. (Mi pobre traducción).
Here below is what the Roman Martyrology says of Saint Andrew
This Day, the Thirtieth Day of November
At Patras, in Achaia, the birthday of the Apostle Saint Andrew, who preached the Gospel of Christ in Thrace and Scythia. Being apprehended by the proconsul Aegaeas, he was shut up in prison, severely scourged, and finally, being suspended on a cross, he lived two days on it, teaching the people. Having besought our Lord not to permit that he should be taken down from the cross, he was surrounded with a great brightness from Heaven, and when the light disappeared he breathed his last.
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