The Feast of Saint Andrew
The Feast of Saint Andrew is an annual Orthodox feast observed in Patras on 30 November. The 2025 feast was held at the Cathedral of Saint Andrew, with the Divine Liturgy and the procession of the saint's relics and icon through the city — a tradition kept without interruption since 1930.
The Feast of Saint Andrew is an annual Orthodox feast observed in Patras, Greece, on 30 November, the day held to mark the apostle’s martyrdom in the city. The Cathedral of Saint Andrew serves as the seat of the feast. After the Divine Liturgy, the relics and the large silver-plated icon of the saint are carried in procession through the main streets, a tradition introduced in 1836, suspended between 1874 and 1930, and kept without interruption since.
The cathedral guards two relics of primary importance: the saint’s holy head, returned to Patras on 26 September 1964 after more than five centuries abroad, and fragments of the cross of his martyrdom, brought from the Abbey of Saint-Victor in Marseille in 1980. The Cathedral of Saint Andrew is the patronal cathedral of Patras and the principal seat of veneration of the apostle in Greece. Pilgrims travel from across the country to the feast on 30 November.