Information about St. Andrew in the listed sources is mainly brief insertions of a general nature or individual mentions. There is no independent life of the saint, although the recognition of his holiness from these sources seems quite obvious.

An important addition to the few pieces of information about St. Andrew are his works – icons and paintings. According to the well-known decree of the Seventh Ecumenical Council, the Orthodox Church venerates the image "along with the cross and the Gospel." Therefore, the creation of an icon is a feat of piety, presupposing grace-filled help from above. The feat of piety can grow into holiness. Hence the special order in the Orthodox hierarchy of holiness – the order of holy iconographers, headed by the holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke, who, according to tradition, painted the image of the Mother of God. In the Russian Church, St. Alypius of the Caves and St. Dionysius Glushitsky are canonized as holy iconographers. The greatest Russian iconographer was St. Andrei Rublev.

His main works are: the iconostasis and paintings of the Annunciation Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin (1405); murals and iconostasis of the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir (1408); the icon of Our Lady of Vladimir for the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir; paintings and iconostasis of the Assumption Cathedral in Zvenigorod (late XIV — early XV centuries); The Deesis tier from the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Mother of God in the Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery (early XV century); murals and iconostasis of the Trinity Cathedral in the Trinity Monastery of St. Sergius (20s of the XV century); the icon of the Holy Trinity from the same cathedral; murals of the Spassky Cathedral of the Spaso-Andronikov Monastery in Moscow (early 20s of the XV century). Most of them were made in collaboration with other masters, but all these works, created in the spirit of Christian fraternal unity and asceticism, bear an undoubted stamp of holiness, which we associate primarily with St. Andrew, according to what we know about him and his companions.

His most famous work is the icon of the Holy Trinity, created by himself, according to the unanimous recognition of experts. There is no doubt that St. Andrew created many more holy icons and paintings than are listed above, but no evidence of his other works has been preserved.

Historical information about the Monk Andrei Rublev is extremely scarce. Nothing is known about its origin. Some light on this question can be shed by the fact that he had a nickname (Rublev), which he retained in monasticism. Apparently, Rublev is a family nickname, that is, a surname. It has an ending characteristic of Russian surnames. In the 14th-15th centuries, that is, in the era of St. Andrew, as well as much later, surnames were borne only by representatives of the upper strata of society, which makes us assume its origin from educated circles.

In addition, sources note his extraordinary wisdom, as evidenced by his work.

The year of birth of the Monk Andrew is unknown. It is assumed that he was born around 1360. This year is a conventional date officially accepted in modern historical science. If we consider that he was still a relatively young man when his name was first mentioned in the chronicles, this date can be pushed back to the 70-80s of the fourteenth century; In the chronicle record, he is mentioned in the last (third) place, and, therefore, was the youngest of the masters. Education began in childhood and professionalism was achieved early. The exceptionally high quality of the works of the Monk Andrew and the deep penetration into the spiritual meaning of the image, which is especially characteristic of him, makes us raise the question of where the Monk Andrew could have studied the art of painting.

At present, it has become possible to believe that St. Andrew could have learned to work in Byzantium and Bulgaria in the early period of his life. In fact, many Russians visited the Balkan countries, Athos, Constantinople, the Holy Land, and often stayed there for a more or less long time. Thus, Athanasius Vysotsky, a disciple of St. Sergius, and undoubtedly personally known to St. Andrew, spent almost 20 whole years in Constantinople, working together with a group of other monks on the translation and copying of the works of the Church Fathers. In Constantinople there were also icons of Russian saints, in particular, there was an icon of Saints Boris and Gleb. Icons were also painted there specifically for the orders of the Russian Church: for example, in 1392 the already mentioned Athanasius Vysotsky brought to Russia the famous "Vysotsky tier" – a number of Deesis icons painted specifically for the Serpukhov Vysotsky Monastery founded by him. All experts agree that St. Andrew must have known these icons. It is known that iconographers sometimes accompanied ambassadors sent to Constantinople.

In the heritage of St. Andrew there is an image of a Greek sea vessel (in the fresco "The Earth and the Sea Give Up the Dead", Vladimir Assumption Cathedral, 1408), masts, yards, the hull of the ship, the flag on the stern – everything is painted with such a living knowledge of the ship's design, which is difficult to imagine in land Russia. One of two things can be assumed: either St. Andrew saw such ships himself, that is, he was at sea, or he adopted this information from his mentor, an artist of Greek origin. According to one of the hypotheses, St. Andrew is a disciple of the famous Theophanes the Greek. This hypothesis is based on the fact that in the record of 1405 their names are mentioned together, with Theophanes being the first. That Theophanes exerted a definite and perhaps considerable influence on St. Andrew can be considered indisputable, if only because they worked together for some time, and the younger Andrew, of course, carefully observed how the famous Greek worked. However, there is no indication of their closer cooperation. On the contrary, the fact that in the record of 1405 another master is mentioned among them – the elder Prokhor from Gorodets, who is not related to Theophanes, rather speaks of the absence of close contacts between Theophan and St. Andrew. There is no doubt that St. Andrew was fully armed with the culture of his time. The mobile way of life and the very character of Theophanes also speak rather against the possibility of systematic studies. Such an education, which made it possible to penetrate into the spiritual depths of phenomena, could most likely be obtained in the appropriate environment, primarily in Byzantium. Thus, the above hypothesis about the Greek education of the Monk Andrew is not unfounded. St. Andrew lived in an era of major historical events. He was a witness and, possibly, a participant in these events, often very difficult for Russia. In 1380, a bloody battle took place on the Kulikovo field, which marked the beginning of the liberation of Russia from the Tatar yoke. Two years later, Moscow was ravaged and burned by Tokhtamysh. It is likely that these events influenced the choice of the monastic path made by St. Andrew.

In 1395, Russia was subjected to a new invasion - this time it was attacked by the hordes of Tamerlane. Despite the readiness of Grand Duke Vasily Dimitrievich to repel the enemy, there was very little chance of victory due to the colossal numerical superiority of the enemy troops. There was only one hope left for the intercession of the Mother of God. A miraculous icon of the Mother of God was brought to Moscow from Vladimir. All the people, headed by Metropolitan Cyprian, came out to greet the holy icon at the place where Sretensky Monastery was later founded in memory of this event.

The Church called everyone to prayer, fasting and repentance. A miracle happened: the Mother of God appeared to Tamerlane (Temir-Aksak) in a dream and menacingly forbade him to go to Moscow. Reaching Yelets, Tamerlane turned back and disappeared as suddenly as he had appeared. Soon after this, Saint Andrew painted a copy of the icon of the Mother of God of Vladimir with the blessing of Metropolitan Cyprian.

The place of tonsure of Saint Andrew is not known for certain. But his whole life is connected with two monasteries - the Trinity-Sergius and the Spaso-Andronikov in Moscow. Tradition, dating back to the end of the sixteenth century, sees in St. Andrew the spiritual son of St. Nikon of Radonezh. However, modern research shows that he most likely took monastic vows in the Spaso-Andronikov Monastery. These two versions do not contradict each other in essence, since both monasteries were closely related to each other; it is obvious that Saint Andrew was in obedience to the Monk Nikon when he worked at the Trinity Monastery, and memories of this have naturally been preserved. Since the monk Andrei constantly fulfilled the orders of the metropolitan and the grand prince, it was natural for him to be, so to speak, "at hand," that is, in one of the Moscow monasteries, namely in the Spaso-Andronikov monastery. It is possible, however, that earlier relations unknown to us connected St. Andrew with the monastery of St. Sergius. In spirit, St. Andrew is an undoubted disciple of St. Sergius.

But even while staying at the Spaso-Andronikov Monastery, the monk Andrei lived in the spiritual environment of the disciples of the Monk Sergius, with whom he was in close contact during his trips related to the fulfillment of orders. In addition to the Monk Nikon, he apparently knew St. Savva of Storozhevsky, since at the turn of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries he worked in Zvenigorod and somewhat later in the Savvino-Storozhevsky monastery itself. He must also have known the nephew of St. Sergius, St. Theodore, Archbishop of Rostov, who for some time was hegumen at the Simonov Monastery, next to the Andronikov Monastery. Another abbot of this monastery and an interlocutor of the Monk Sergius, Saint Cyril, departed in 1392 to Beloozero, but as a person he was undoubtedly known to the monk Andrew. Finally, a direct disciple of the Monk Sergius was the Monk Andronicus, the founder and first abbot of the monastery. Ties with the Trinity-Sergius Monastery were constant and diverse. Some monks moved from the Trinity Monastery to the Spaso-Andronikov. Among them was Ermola-Ephraim, who gave funds for the construction of a stone church, and the future abbot, with whom the monk Andrei was also in close relations. Saint Andrew undoubtedly knew Epiphanius the Wise, a direct disciple of Sergius, who wrote down the initial information about the Andronikov monastery and left information about Theophanes the Greek. Epiphanius did not write anything about the monk Andrew, which is quite natural, since he was telling about the past, albeit recent, and not about his contemporaries.

Living in a lofty spiritual environment, in an atmosphere of holiness, the monk Andrew learned both from historical examples of holiness and from the living example of the ascetics around him. He delved deeply into the teaching of the Church and into the lives of the saints whom he depicted, followed them, which allowed his talent to reach artistic and spiritual perfection.