Bartholomew the Apostle

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Saint Bartholomew
Michelangelo's The Last Judgement shows Saint Bartholomew holding the knife of his martyrdom and his flayed skin. The face of the skin is recognizable as Michelangelo.
Gift of God (Nathaniel)
Born
Died	, Armenia
Venerated in	Catholic Church, Orthodox Church, Anglican Church
Major shrine	Relics at Saint Bartholomew-on-the-Tiber Church, Rome, the Canterbury Cathedral, cathedral in Frankfurt, and the San Bartolomeo Cathedral in Lipari.
Feast	August 24 (Roman); June 11 (Orthodox)
Attributes	One of the Twelve Apostles. Probably a close friend of Saint Philip; his name is always mentioned in the Gospels in connection with him, and it was Philip brought Bartholomew to Jesus.
Patronage	Armenia; bookbinders; butchers; cobblers; Florentine cheese merchants; Florentine salt merchants; Gambatesa, Italy; leather workers; nervous diseases; neurological diseases; plasterers; shoemakers; tanners; trappers; twitching; whiteners
Saints Portal

Bartholomew was one of the twelve Apostles of Jesus. Bartholomew (Greek: Βαρθολομαίος, transliterated "Bartholomaios") comes from the Aramaic bar-Tôlmay (תולמי‎‎‎‎‎-בר‎‎), meaning son of Tolmay (Ptolemy) or son of the furrows (perhaps a ploughman).

The festival of St. Bartholomew is celebrated on August 24. The holiday has a relatively bloody history, being the date of the impalement of 30,000^{[citation needed]} Transylvanians by Vlad the Impaler (Dracula) as well as that of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre. The festival has also been a traditional occasion for markets and fairs; such a fair serves as the scene for Bartholomew Fair, a play by Ben Jonson.

Contents 1 Biblical References 1.1 Nathanael 2 Tradition 3 Holy Miracles 4 Art 5 "Bartholomew" in various languages 6 Place names associated with Bartholomew 7 Other sources 8 External links

[edit] Biblical References

Bartholomew is listed among the Twelve Apostles in the three Synoptic gospels: Matthew, Mark, and Luke. He also appears as one of the witnesses of the Ascension (Acts 1:4, 12, 13).

[edit] Nathanael

Bartholomew is generally supposed to have been the same person as Nathanael. In the Synoptic gospels, Philip and Bartholomew are always mentioned together, while Nathanael is never mentioned; in the gospel of John, on the other hand, Philip and Nathanael are similarly mentioned together, but nothing is said of Bartholomew.

In the Gospel of John (John 1:45-51), Nathanael is introduced as a friend of Philip. He is described as initially being skeptical about the Messiah coming from Nazareth, saying: "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?", but nonetheless, follows Philip's invitation. Jesus immediately characterizes him as "an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit". Some scholars hold that Jesus' quote "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you", is based on Jewish figure of speech referring studying the Torah. Nathanael recognizes Jesus as "the Son of God" and "the King of Israel". Nathanael reappears at the end of John's gospel (John 21:2) as one of the disciples to whom Jesus appeared at the Sea of Tiberias after the resurrection.

[edit] Tradition

According to Syrian tradition, Bartholomew's original name was Jesus, which caused him to adopt another name.

Tradition has it that after the ascension, Bartholomew went on a missionary tour to India, where he left behind a copy of the Gospel of Matthew.

Along with his fellow Apostle Jude, Bartholomew is reputed to have brought Christianity to Armenia in the 1st century. Thus both saints are considered the patron saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

After his martyrdom in this country, his body is said to have been washed to Lipari. Lipari is a small island off the coast of Sicily. It is the largest of the seven Aeolian Islands. Holy Roman Emperor Otto II brought him to Rome in 983. Some of his skull was transferred to Frankfurt, while an arm is venerated in the Canterbury Cathedral today. A large piece of his skin and many bones are also kept in The Cathedral of St. Bartholomew The Apostle in Lipari, Italy.

[edit] Holy Miracles

Of the many miracles preformed by St. Bartholomew before and after his death, two very popular ones are known by the town-folk of the small island of Lipari. When St. Bartholomew's body was found off the shore, the Bishop of St. Christopher's Church of Lipari ordered many men to get the body. When this failed due to its extreme weight, the Bishop then sent out the children. The children easily brought the body ashore even though the older men couldn't.

Ever since his discovery on the island, the people of Lipari celebrated his feast day annually. The tradtion of the people was to take the solid silver and gold statue from inside the Cathedral of St. Bartholomew and carry it through the town. When taking the statue down the hill towards the town, it suddenly got very heavy and had to be set down. When the men carrying the statue regained their strength they lifted it a second time. After another few seconds, it got even heavier. They set it down and attempted once more to pick it up. They managed to lift it but had to put it down one last time. Within seconds, the walls further downhill collapsed. If the statue had been able to be lifted, all of the townspeople would have been killed.

At some point in the statue's history (above), there were many invasions of the island. One time it was invaded, the king of the invading country discovered the statue and order it be taken to be melted down. The statue was taken to the kingdom and weighed. It was found to weigh only two ounces and was thought to be hollow. It was returned to its place in the Cathedral in Lipari. In reality, the statue weighs several tons and it is considered a miracle that it was not melted down.

St. Bartholomew is credited with many other miracles to do with the weight of objects.

[edit] Art

In works of art he is often represented with a large knife, or, as in Michelangelo's Last Judgment, with his own skin hanging over his arm, tradition holds that in Armenia he was flayed alive and then crucified with his head upside down. This fate has led to him being adopted as the patron saint of tanners.

[edit] "Bartholomew" in various languages

• Amharic: በርተሎሜዎስ (Berteloméwos)
• Armenian: Բարթողիմէոս [pʰɑɾtʰoʁimɛjos] Partoghimeos
• Aramaic: תולמי‎‎‎‎‎-בר‎‎
• Azeri: Bartolumay
• Catalan: Bartomeu
• Croatian: Bartolomej
• Czech: Bartoloměj
• Danish: Bartolomæus
• Dutch: Bartolomeüs
• English: Bartholomew (learned); Bart (vernacular)
• Faroese: Bartal
• Finnish: Perttu or Pärttyli
• French: Barthélemy
• German: Bartolomäus
• Greek: Βαρθολομαίος
• Hungarian: Bertalan (given name), Bartal, Bartos, Bartó (last names)
• Insubric (Milanese): Bartolamee
• Irish Gaelic: Bairtliméad or Parthálan
• Italian: Bartolomeo
• Korean: 바르톨로메오(learned); 바돌로메(vernacular)
• Latin: Bartolomaeus
• Latvian: Bartlomejs
• Loretano Peruvian Spanish: Bartuco (vernacular)
• Maltese: Bartoloméw (learned); Bartilméw (vernacular)
• Norwegian: Bartolomeus
• Polish: Bartłomiej (learned); Bartosz (vernacular)
• Portuguese: Bartolomeu
• Provençal: Barthomieu
• Romanian: Bartolomeu
• Russian: Варфоломей (Varfolomei)
• Scottish Gaelic: Pàrlan
• Slovak: Bartolomej
• Spanish: Bartolomé
• Serbian: Вартоломеј (in Cyrillic), Vartolomej (in Roman letters)
• Slovak: Bartolomej
• Slovene: Jernej
• Swedish: Bartolomaios, Bartolomeus (older transcription)

[edit] Place names associated with Bartholomew

• St Bartholomew's Hospital. Located in London, England, it was founded in 1123 by a monk called Rahere. “St. Bart’s” has been catering for the sick and injured on its present site for almost nine centuries.

[edit] Other sources

• Easton's Bible Dictionary, 1897.
• Encyclopedia Anglicana, 1911
• Dictionary of First Names, Patrick Hanks and Flavia Hodges. Oxford University Press, 1996

For a discussion of Baroque paintings of St. Bartholomew by the Spanish artist Ribera, see: Williamson, Mark A. "The Martyrdom Paintings of Jusepe de Ribera: Catharsis and Transformation", PhD Dissertation, Binghamton University, Binghamton, New York 2000 (available online at myspace.com/markwilliamson13732)

[edit] External links

• The Martyrdom of the Holy and Glorious Apostle Bartholomew, attributed to Pseudo-Abdias, one of the minor Church Fathers
• St. Bartholomew's Connections in India

Persondata
NAME	Bartholomew
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Barnabas the Apostle, Saint Bartolomew, Nathaniel
SHORT DESCRIPTION	New Testament figure,Apostle of Jesus, Christian saint and martyr
DATE OF BIRTH	unknown
PLACE OF BIRTH
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH