24
August. 1662 Book of Common Prayer: Bartholomew the Apostle .
St.
Bartholomew the Apostle. The name Bartholomew being
only a patronymic, he is generally identified with Nathanael, the
"Israelite without guile," brought by St. Philip to Our Lord (John
i. 45, 46), because his name is always joined with that of St.
Philip in all the catalogues of the Apostles. He is said by a tradition of the
2nd century to have preached in "India." As we know nothing special
of him, it will be seen that the Collect, Epistle, and Gospel all refer to the
Apostolic mission in general. -- August 24th.
Saint Bartholomew the Apostle.
The
Collect.
O ALMIGHTY
and everlasting God, who didst give to thine Apostle Bartholomew grace truly to
believe and to preach thy Word; Grant, we beseech thee, unto thy Church, to
love that Word which he believed, and both to preach and receive the same;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
One
of the Twelve Apostles, mentioned sixth in
the three Gospel lists (Matthew 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:14), and seventh in the
list of Acts (1:13).
The
name (Bartholomaios)
means "son of Talmai" (or Tholmai) which was an ancient Hebrew name, borne, e.g. by the King of Gessur
whose daughter was a wife of David (2 Samuel 3:3). It shows, at least,
that Bartholomew was of Hebrew descent; it may have been his genuine proper
name or simply added to distinguish him as the son of Talmai. Outside the
instances referred to, no other mention of the name occurs in the New Testament.
Nothing
further is known of him for certain. Many scholars, however, identify him with Nathaniel (John 1:45-51; 21:2). The reasons for this are that
Bartholomew is not the proper name of the Apostle; that the name never occurs in the Fourth Gospel, while Nathaniel is not mentioned in the synoptics; that Bartholomew's name is coupled
with Philip's in the lists of Matthew and Luke, and found next to it in Mark, which agrees well with the fact shown by St. John that Philip was an old friend of Nathaniel's and brought him to Jesus; that the call of Nathaniel, mentioned with the call of several Apostles, seems to mark him for the apostolate,
especially since the rather full and beautiful narrative leads one to expect
some important development; that Nathaniel was of Galilee where Jesus found most, if not all, of the Twelve; finally, that on the occasion of the
appearance of the risen Savior on the shore of the Sea of Tiberias, Nathaniel is found present, together with several
Apostles who are named and two
unnamed Disciples who were, almost
certainly, likewise Apostles (the word
"apostle" not occurring in the Fourth Gospel and "disciple" of Jesus ordinarily meaning Apostle) and so, presumably, was one of the Twelve.
This chain of circumstantial evidence is ingenious and pretty strong; the weak
link is that, after all, Nathaniel may have been another personage in
whom, for some reason, the author of the Fourth Gospel may have been particularly interested,
as he was in Nicodemus, who is likewise not
named in the synoptics.
No
mention of St. Bartholomew occurs in ecclesiastical literature before Eusebius, who mentions that Pantaenus, the master of Origen, while evangelizing India, was told that the Apostle had preached there before him and had given to
his converts the Gospel of St. Matthew written in Hebrew,
which was still treasured by the Church. "India" was a name covering a very
wide area, including even Arabia Felix. Other traditions represent St.
Bartholomew as preaching in Mesopotamia, Persia, Egypt, Armenia, Lycaonia, Phrygia, and on the shores of the
Black Sea; one legend, it is interesting to note, identifies him with Nathaniel.
The
manner of his death, said to have occurred at Albanopolis in Armenia, is equally uncertain; according to some, he
was beheaded, according to others, flayed alive and crucified, head downward,
by order of Astyages, for having converted his brother, Polymius, King of Armenia. On account of this latter legend, he is often
represented in art (e.g. in Michelangelo's Last Judgment) as
flayed and holding in his hand his own skin. His relics are thought by some to be preserved in the
church of St. Bartholomew-in-the-Island, at Rome. His feast is celebrated on 24 August. An apocryphal gospel of Bartholomew existed in the early ages.
From
Wikipedia
Bartholomew was one of the Twelve Apostles
of Jesus, and is usually identified with Nathanael (alternatively spelled
Nathaniel),[1] who is mentioned in John
1. He was introduced to Christ through Philip, another of the twelve apostles
as per John 1:43–51, where the name Nathanael first appears. He is also
mentioned as "Nathanael of Cana in Galilee" in John 21:2. The account
of the calling of Nathanael of Cana occurs at the end of John 1, immediately
followed by the account of Jesus' miracle at the Marriage
at Cana in John 2. The name Nathanael is the one used for him in
John’s Gospel. The relationship between Philip and Nathanael is noted as per John
1:43–51. Bartholomew (Greek: Βαρθολομαῖος, transliterated "Bartholomaios") comes from the Aramaic bar-Tôlmay (בר-תולמי),
meaning son of Tolmay or son of the furrows (perhaps a ploughman).
According to the Synaxarium of the
Coptic Orthodox Church, his martyrdom is commemorated on the 1st day of the Coptic Calendar (1st day of the
month of "Thout"), which currently falls on September 11
(corresponding to August 29 in the Gregorian Calendar). His feast is June 11 in
Eastern Christianity, and August 24 in both forms of the Roman Rite of the
Catholic Church. The festival in August has been a traditional occasion for
markets and fairs, such as the Bartholomew
Fair held in Smithfield, London
since the Middle Ages, which served as the scene for Ben
Jonson's homonymous comedy.
Contents
New
Testament references
In the East, where Bartholomew's
evangelical labours were expended, he was identified as Nathanael, in works by Abdisho bar Berika
(often known as Ebedjesu in the West), the 14th century Nestorian metropolitan
of Soba, and Elias, the bishop of Damascus.[2] Nathanael is mentioned
only in the Gospel according to
John. In the Synoptic gospels, Philip
and Bartholomew are always mentioned together, while Nathanael is never
mentioned; in John's gospel, on the other hand, Philip and Nathanael are
similarly mentioned together. Giuseppe Simone
Assemani specifically remarks, "the Chaldeans confound Bartholomew with Nathaniel".[3] Some Biblical scholars
reject this identification, however.[4]
As Bartholomew
Bartholomew is listed among the Twelve
Apostles of Christ in the three Synoptic
gospels: Matthew,[10:1–4] Mark,[3:13–19] and Luke,[6:12–16] and also appears as one of the witnesses of the Ascension[Acts 1:4,12,13]; however, each time he is named in the company of Philip. He is not mentioned in John. Nor are there any early acta,[5] the earliest being written by a pseudepigraphical writer who assumed the identity of Abdias
of Babylon and called the Saint-Thierry
Manuscript and Pseudo-Abdias
Manuscripts.[6][7]
As Nathanael
In the Gospel of 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 "Here is a man
in whom there is no deception." Some scholars hold that Jesus' quote
"Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw
you", is based on a Jewish figure of speech referring to studying the Torah. Nathanael recognizes Jesus as "the Son of
God" and "the King of Israel". He reappears at the end of John's
gospel[21:2] as one of the disciples to whom Jesus appeared at the Sea
of Galilee after the Resurrection.
Tradition
Eusebius of Caesarea's Ecclesiastical History (5:10) states that after the Ascension,
Bartholomew went on a missionary tour to India, where he
left behind a copy of the Gospel
of Matthew. Other traditions record him as serving as a missionary
in Ethiopia, Mesopotamia, Parthia, and Lycaonia.[8]
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.
He is said to have been martyred in Albanopolis in Armenia. According to one account, he was beheaded, but a more popular tradition holds that he was flayed alive and crucified, head downward. He is
said to have converted Polymius, the king of Armenia, to Christianity.
Astyages, Polymius' brother, consequently ordered Bartholomew's execution.[9]
The 13th century Saint Bartholomew
Monastery was a prominent Armenian monastery constructed at the
site of the martyrdom of Apostle Bartholomew in the Vaspurakan
Province of Greater Armenia (now in southeastern Turkey).[10]
Mission in India
Two ancient testimonies exist about
the mission of Saint Bartholomew in India. These are of Eusebius of Caesarea (early 4th century) and of Saint
Jerome (late 4th century). Both these refer to this tradition
while speaking of the reported visit of Pantaenus to India in the 2nd century.[11]
The studies of Fr A.C Perumalil SJ and
Moraes hold that the Bombay region on the Konkan coast, a region which may have
been known as the ancient city Kalyan, was the field of Saint Bartholomew's missionary activities.[11]
Bartholomew's relics
The 6th-century writer in
Constantinople, Theodorus Lector,
averred that in about 507 Emperor Anastasius gave the body of Bartholomew to the city of Dura-Europos, which he had recently re-founded.[12] The existence of relics
at Lipari, a small island off the coast of Sicily, in the part of Italy controlled from Constantinople, was explained by Gregory
of Tours[13] by his body having
miraculously washed up there: a large piece of his skin and many bones that
were kept in the Cathedral of St Bartholomew the Apostle, Lipari, were
translated to Beneventum in 803, and to Rome in
983 by Holy Roman Emperor
Otto II, conserved at the basilica of San Bartolomeo
all'Isola. In time, the church there inherited an old pagan
medical centre. This association with medicine in course of time caused
Bartholomew's name to become associated with medicine and hospitals.[14] Some of Bartholomew's
skull was transferred to the Frankfurt Cathedral, while an arm is venerated in Canterbury Cathedral today
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