St. Andrew Svorad was born around the year 980. Tradition has it that he lived his youth as a monk in a small village in what is now southern Poland. He with many other monks fled the Polish Crown lands of King Boleslav Chrabry when the King banned the use of the Old Slavonic (Byzantine) Liturgy. Svorad came to Slovakia and settled in the monastery of St. Hyppolytus in Zobor near Nitra. He was accepted by Abbot Philip, received the monastic name of Andrew, and lived for a while in the monastery. He was given permission to establish a hermitage in the Skalka forest on the Vah River near Trencin. Here alone in the wilderness of the forest he lived a life of prayer and penance and became known for his holiness of life.

Benedict Vaganus (of the Vah basin), also a monk of Zobor abbey, became a hermit and retired to a cave in the Skalka forest as Andrew’s disciple. Andrew died about 1034 and Benedict returned his body to Zobor for burial. About three years latter Benedict suffered martyrdom at the hands of bandits seeking the secrets of his miraculous powers received from God for his holiness of life. His body was thrown into the Vah River. Searching for Benedict for over a year monks from Zobor miraculously found his incorrupt body in the river.

Devotion to the holy monks spread rapidly through out central Europe from Slovakia to the Kingdoms of Poland, Bohemia, Croatia and Hungary. On July 10, 1083 Pope Gregory VII proclaimed them saints of the Church. Their bodies were carried in solemn procession to the cathedral of St. Emmeram in Nitra were they are entombed to this day. King Geza proclaimed Andrew a patron of Hungary.