3-085-365 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Martyrdom of St Andrew, after 1435. Andrew is said to have been martyred by crucifixion at the city of Patras (Patræ) in Greece, in 60 CE. Early texts describe Andrew as bound, not nailed, to a Latin cross of the kind on which Jesus is said to have been crucified; yet a tradition developed that Andrew had been crucified on a crux decussata (X-shaped cross, or "saltire"), now commonly known as a "Saint Andrew's Cross" - supposedly at his own request, as he deemed himself unworthy to be crucified on the same type of cross as Jesus had been. The iconography of the martyrdom of Andrew - showing him bound to an X-shaped cross - does not appear to have been standardized until the later Middle Ages.