Andrew the Fool

Over 110 complete and fragmentary Greek manuscripts containing various editions of the Life of Andrew the Fool have survived, with the oldest being a fragment of a manuscript dating to the second half of the 10th century. The Life says that Andrew lived during the time of Leo I () as well as Daniel the Stylite (died 493). Andrew, a Scythian by birth, was a slave of Theognostus, who was serving as a bodyguard in Constantinople. Later, he decided to become a fool for Christ, living out his goal with humility and patience. According to certain sources, Andrew had a vision of the Most Holy Theotokos in the Blachernae church of Constantinople, while the city was surrounded by enemy troops (by some sources, Muslim Arabs). Andrew and his disciple Epiphanius testified that they saw the Holy Virgin surrounded by many angels and Saints, praying and extending her omophorion (protection) over the faithful. After this vision, Constantinople was saved when its attackers retreated. That vision and the avoidance of Constantinople's destruction that was attributed to it inspired the creation of one of the most famous Eastern Orthodox holidays: the feast of the Protection of the Theotokos. ==Veneration==

His memory is commemorated by Eastern Orthodox communities on . The Life was widely disseminated in Russian literature, with the account of Andrew's vision of the Holy Mother of God serving as the basis for a new Russian feast by Andrey Bogolyubsky in the 1160s. The first translation to Old Russian was completed in the late 11th or early 12th century. More than 200 copies of this translation are known, with the oldest complete copy dating to a 14th-century manuscript. No later than the 14th century, a new translation of the Life was completed by the South Slavs, likely Serbs. ==See also==