Early life
Born at Damascus, Andrew did not speak till the age of seven when his parents took him to church and he received Communion. At the age of fifteen he went to Jerusalem, entered the monastery of St Sabba, and while working as secretary for Theodore, Bishop of Jerusalem.

Archbishop of Gortyna in Crete
In 681 Theodore sent him as his representative to the Sixth Ecumenical Council at Constantinople, where he first opposed monothelitism, but later for a short time in a smaller council is said to have retracted that opposition. At Constantinople he impressed the Emperorand was appointed archdeacon at the Church of Hagia Sophia. Later he was appointed archbishop of Gortyna in Crete. As archbishop he was loved by the people.

Writer of hymns and sermons
He is renowned as a writer of sermons and of many liturgical hymns and was the originator of a new liturgical form - the canon. He is best known for the Great Canon of Repentance. Many of his sermons are contained in the Office of Readings in the Liturgy of the Hours.