St. Bartholomew

St. Bartholomew was one of the Twelve Apostles chosen by Jesus, named in the apostolic lists of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. His name means "son of Tolmai," and a long tradition, widely accepted in the Church, identifies him with Nathanael, the guileless Israelite whom the Apostle Philip brought to Jesus in the Gospel of John. Beyond these Gospel references, Scripture tells us little about him, and nearly everything else known of his life comes from later tradition. According to early accounts, Bartholomew carried the Gospel far beyond the Holy Land after Pentecost. The historian Eusebius relates a tradition that he preached in "India," where he was said to have left behind a copy of the Gospel of Matthew, and other accounts place his missionary labors in Mesopotamia, Lycaonia, and Parthia. The strongest and most enduring tradition holds that he evangelized Armenia, often together with St. Jude Thaddeus, and the Armenian Church honors the two apostles as its founders. Hagiographical accounts relate that Bartholomew was martyred at Albanopolis in Armenia, flayed alive and then beheaded for converting the local king to Christianity. While the details cannot be historically verified, this tradition shaped his iconography: he is typically shown holding a flaying knife, and in Michelangelo's Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel he holds his own skin. From the manner of his martyrdom he became the patron of tanners, leatherworkers, and related trades, as well as of Armenia. Venerated as a martyr from the earliest centuries, Bartholomew was never subject to a formal canonization process. His feast is celebrated on August 24. His relics, moved several times over the centuries, are venerated principally at the cathedral of Benevento in southern Italy and at the Basilica of San Bartolomeo all'Isola on Rome's Tiber Island, both of which remain places of pilgrimage today.