The Acts of the Apostles does not tell us what became of St. Andrew after the first Pentecost, when the disciples scattered to carry the gospel to every corner of the Mediterranean world. Tradition says that St. Andrew carried the gospel to Greece, although the Russians believe that he also traveled into their country. At the town of Patras on Greece's western coast St. Andrew was arrested and tied to an X-shaped cross. The legend claims it took him three days to die, and all the while he hung on the cross St. Andrew preached to anyone who passed by.

After conquering Constantinople on May 29, 1453, the Ottoman Turks turned their eyes toward Europe. Three years later a Turkish army of approximately 60,000 men marched into Hungary. Arrayed against the invaders was a force of experienced fighting men led by Janos Hunyady, a Hungarian general who had been battling the Turks for at least 20 years, and a Franciscan priest, St. John of Capistrano, who led a rag-tag army of peasants armed mostly with knives, slings and farm implements.