ANDREW SALOS, Saint. - A Scythian by birth but not a Slav, he lived from 880 to 946. Having come to Constantinople as a slave, his master, the protospatharios Theognostos, had him learn Greek and used him as a notary. A., after a vision, at the age of 36, devoted himself to prayer and fasting, leading until his death a life of intense and rigid asceticism, not without bold eccentricities, which earned him the appellation of "fool for Christ." The Byzantine rite celebrates his feast on October 2.

The Life (PG 111, 621-888), written by his spiritual director Nicephorus, has an uncertain chronology. Among the sources, mention should be made of: the Life of Simeon Salos, the Spiritual Meadow (PG 87, 2932-36), certain apocryphal visions of Daniel foretelling the coming of the Antichrist and the end of the world (cf. A. Vassiliev, Anecdota graecobyzantina, Moscow 1893, pp. xx-xxv). One critic went so far as to regard this Life as a fantastic production written around the year 1000 (cf. Byzant. Zeitschrift, 21 [1912], p. 317 ff.).

Bibliography

BIBL.: S. Murray, A Study of the Life of Andreas, the Fool for the Sake of Christ, Leipzig 1910 (with the publication of a fragment in uncial script of the 10th century).

Alfonso Rees

@incollection{ec1_andrea_salos_santo, author = {Raes, Alfonso}, title = {Andrea Salos, santo}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {I}, pages = {1204}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1948}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/andrea-salos-santo} }

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Andrew Salos, Saint

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