Martyrium apostoli Andreae
Standard abbreviation: Mart. Andr.
Other titles: Coptic Martyrdom of Andrew
Clavis numbers: ECCA 310; CANT 235
Category: Apocryphal Acts
Related literature: Acts of Andrew and Bartholomew, Acts of Andrew and Matthias, Acts of Andrew and Philemon, Historia Sacra
Compiled by Tony Burke (York University) and Ivan Miroshnikov (Lund University)
Citing this resource (using Chicago Manual of Style): Burke, Tony, and Ivan Miroshnikov. “Martyrdom of Andrew.” e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha. Accessed DAY MONTH YEAR. https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/martyrdom-of-andrew/.
Created May 2026.
1. SUMMARY
The Coptic Mart. Andr. is a brief account of Andrew’s death that is much different from available Greek and Latin martyrdoms. It begins with mention of Andrew preaching in three locations: to Scythians, Sogdians, and Sacae (the latter two corrupted as Orgianos and Sakkos). The substance of this preaching is encapsulated in Mark 10:29–30 par. (“He who has not forsaken his father,” etc.). The Arabic text (and its Ethiopic translation) is more expansive at this point. The people (of which city is not specified) come together to discuss Andrew and decide to expel him from the city. But the envoys they send become believers, so the council then plan to burn him alive. When they approach Andrew, he tells them that God will send fire from heaven to burn them instead. Undaunted, the group revile Jesus and God and the lightning strikes and kills them all.
The Coptic text resumes with the arrest of Andrew (now the second time in the Arabic and Ethiopic versions), accusing him of sorcery and of separating wives from husbands. Andrew is beaten, stripped naked, and led around the city (recalling Acts of Andrew and Matthias 25–29). Then he is thrown into prison where he prays for fire to come from heaven to burn the city and everyone in it (“again” in the Arabic and Ethiopic), but Jesus appears and tells him that it is time for him to fulfill his destiny. The next day, Andrew is crucified and stoned. Eight lines are missing in the Coptic text, but the Arabic and Ethiopic add that Andrew’s followers took his body and placed it in a grave. The day of his death is given as 4 Kiakh (30 November).
Named Historical Figures and Characters: Andrew (apostle), Jesus Christ, Maximilla, Sacae, Satan, Sogdians.
Geographical Locations: Scythia.
2. RESOURCES
3. BIBLIOGRAPHY
3.1 Manuscripts and Editions
3.1.1 Arabic (BHO 53)
3.1.1.1 Arabic Script
Beirut, Bibliothèque Orientale de l’Université Saint Joseph, 1426 (1855) ~ contents not provided
Cairo, Coptic Catholic Patriarchate Library, Graf 472 (18th cent.)
Cairo, Coptic Catholic Patriarchate Library, Hist. 1 (13th/14th cent.)
Cairo, Coptic Catholic Patriarchate Library, Hist. 2 (14th cent.)
Cairo, Coptic Catholic Patriarchate Library, Hist. 3 (1626)
Cairo, Coptic Catholic Patriarchate Library, Hist. 6 (not dated) ~ no descript.
Cairo, Coptic Catholic Patriarchate Library, Hist. 7 (14th cent.)
Cairo, Coptic Catholic Patriarchate Library, Hist. 16 (15th cent.)
Cairo, Coptic Catholic Patriarchate Library, Graf 718, fols. 30r–37v (14th cent.)
Cairo, Coptic Museum, 59, fols. 203r–205v (19th cent.)
Cairo, Coptic Museum, 60, fols. 123r–127v (19th cent.)
Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze, Magl. III 29, fols. 61v–65r (ante 1664)
Leipzig, Universitätsbibliothek, Or. 1067 (Tischendorf 32) (15th cent.)
Mount Sinai, Monē tēs Hagias Aikaterinēs, ar. 397, fols. 257r–264r (1333) ~ to be confirmed
Mount Sinai, Monē tēs Hagias Aikaterinēs, ar. 423, fols. 230r–233v (1626) ~ to be confirmed
Mount Sinai, Monē tēs Hagias Aikaterinēs, ar. 539, fols. 88r–90v (12th cent.)
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Arabe 75, fols. 51r–54v (16th cent.)
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Arabe 81, fols. 26v–30v (16th cent.)
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Arabe 4770, fols. 109r–113r (19th cent.)
Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Borg. Ar. 223 (1729)
Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Sbath 500, fols. 57v–61r (15th cent.)
Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. ar. 171, fols. 1v–3v (17th cent.)
Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. ar. 694, fols. 38v–41v (14th cent.)
Wadi El-Natrun, Monastery of the Syrians (Dayr al-Suryān), no shelf number, fols. 41v–44v (14th cent.)
Bausi, Alessandro. “Alcune osservazioni sul Gadla ḥawāryāt.” Annali dell’Istituto Orientale di Napoli 60–61 (2001–2002): 77–114 (list of 31 Arabic manuscripts of the Arabic acts collection, pp. 97–101).
Graf, Georg. Geschichte der christlichen arabischen Literatur. 5 vols. Studi e testi 118, 133, 146–147, 172. Rome: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1944–1953 (survey of Arabic manuscripts comprising Acts Andr. Phlm., vol. 1, pp. 260–63).
Lewis, Agnes Smith. Acta mythologica apostolorum. Horae semiticae 3. London: Clay, 1904 (Arabic text from the Dayr al-Suryān manuscript and a portion of Paris, Arabe 81, pp. 23–26).
3.1.1.2 Garšūnī
Edgbaston, University of Birmingham, Mingana Syr. 40, fols. 72v–76v (ca. 1750)
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Syr. 232, fols. 236v–238v (16th cent.)
Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Sbath 124, fols. 50v–53v (16th cent.)
3.1.1.3 Copto-Arabic Synaxarion
The Copto-Arabic Synaxarion includes a summary of Mart. Andr. for Nov. 30.
Basset, René. “Le Synaxaire arabe jacobite (rédaction copte) II: les mois de Hatour et de Kihak.” Patrologia orientalis 3 (1909): 243–545 (edition and translation of the summary of Mart. Andr. in the Copto-Arabic Synaxarion, pp. 377–79).
Forget, Jacques. Synaxarium alexandrinum: pars prior. Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium 78. Leuven: Secrétariat du Corpus SCO, 1921 (Latin translation of the summary of Mart. Andr. in the Copto-Arabic Synaxarion, pp. 175–76).
Forget, Jacques. Synaxarium alexandrinum: tomus I. Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium 47–49. Leuven: Secrétariat du Corpus SCO, 1963 (edition of the summary of Mart. Andr. in the Copto-Arabic Synaxarion, pp. 175–76).
3.1.2 Coptic (Sahidic; CPC 0553; PAThs entry)
MONB.DM, p. 63 (10th–12th cent.)
MONB.GQ, pp. 65–66 (ca. 920–940)
Miroshnikov, Ivan. “The Coptic Martyrdom of Andrew.” Apocrypha 29 (2018): 9–28 (edition of MONB.DM and MONB.GQ, pp. 20–23).
3.1.3 Ethiopic
3.1.3.1 Ethiopic Text (BHO 54)
London, British Library, Or. 678, fols. 82r–84r (15th cent.)
London, British Library, Or. 683, fols. 188r–190r (17th cent.)
London, British Library, Or. 685, fols. 89v–91v (18th cent.)
Manchester, John Rylands University Library, Eth. 6, fols. 102v–105v (19th cent.)
Bausi, Alessandro. “Alcune osservazioni sul Gadla ḥawāryāt.” Annali dell’Istituto Orientale di Napoli 60–61 (2001–2002): 77–114 (list of 31 manuscripts of the Ethiopic acts collection, pp. 93–97).
Budge, E. A. Wallis. Gadla Ḥawâryât: The Contendings of the Apostles, Being the Lives and Martyrdoms and Deaths of the Twelve Apostles and Evangelists. 2 vols. London: Frowde, 1899–1901 (Ethiopic text based on British Library, Or. 678 and 683, vol. 1, pp. 184–88).
Pisani, Vitagrazia. “The apocryphal Acts of the Apostles: unknown witnesses from East Tәgray.” Pages 75–93 in Essays in Ethiopian Manuscript Studies. Proceedings of the International Conference Manuscripts and Texts, Languages and Contexts: the Transmission of Knowledge in the Horn of Africa. Hamburg, 17–19 July 2014. Edited by Alessandro Bausi, Alessandro Gori, and Denis Nosnitsin. Supplements to Aethiopica 4. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2015 (descriptions of ten Ethiopic manuscripts cataloged for the Ethio-SPaRe project).
3.1.3.2 Ethiopic Synaxarion
The Ethiopian Synaxarion (first recension) includes a summary of Mart. Andr. for Nov. 30.
Budge, E. A. Wallis. The Book of the Saints of the Ethiopian Church. 2 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1928 English translation of the Ethiopian Synaxarion, vol. 2, pp. 320–21).
Grébaut, Sylvain. “Le Synaxaire éthiopien IV: le mois de Tâḥschâsch.” Patrologia orientalis 15 (1927): 545–798 (edition and translation of Mart. Andr. in the Ethiopian Synaxarion, pp. 579–82).
3.2 Modern Translations
3.2.1 English
Budge, E. A. Wallis. The Contendings of the Apostles. 2 vols. London: Frowde, 1899–1901 (translation of the Ethiopic text, vol. 2, pp. 215–21).
Lewis, Agnes Smith. The Mythological Acts of the Apostles. Horae semiticae 4. London: Clay, London, 1904 (translation of the Arabic text from the Dayr al-Suryān manuscript, pp. 26–29).
Malan, Solomon C. The Conflicts of the Holy Apostles: An Apocryphal Book of the Early Eastern Churches. London: Nutt, 1871 (English translation of the Ethiopic text based on Rylands Eth. 6, pp. 112–17).
Miroshnikov, Ivan. “The Coptic Martyrdom of Andrew.” Apocrypha 29 (2018): 9–28 (translation of MONB.DM and MONB.GQ, pp. 24–26).
3.3 General Works
Lipsius, Richard A. Die apokryphen Apostelgeschichten und Apostellegenden. 2 vols. in 3. Braunschweig, 1883–1890 (see vol. 1:621–22).
McDowell, Sean. The Fate of the Apostles: Examining the Martyrdom Accounts of the Closest Followers of Jesus. Abindgon: Ashgate, 2008. Repr. London and New York: Routledge, 2015 (pp. 175–85).
Peterson, Peter M. Andrew, Brother of Simon Peter, his History and his Legends. NovT Sup 1. Leiden: Brill, 1958; repr. 1963 (pp. 34–35).
Prieur, Jean-Marc. Acta Andreae. Vol. 1: Praefatio-Commentarius. CCSA 5. Turnhout: Brepols, 1989 (p. 74).
