Saint Bartholomew the Apostle

Saint Bartholomew was one of the Twelve Apostles. Since the ninth century he has been commonly identified with Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, whose call is described in the Gospel according to Saint John, although this is not certain. The Church celebrates the feast of Saint Bartholomew on August 24.

The name Bartholomew is a patronymic: it probably comes from the Aramaic bar Talmay, that is, “son of Talmay.” The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke and the Acts of the Apostles mention him only in the lists of the Twelve, in the Gospels always next to Philip. The Gospel of John does not know the name Bartholomew, but it tells of Nathanael, whom Philip himself brought to Jesus. This is where the identification of the two figures comes from. The name Nathanael means “God has given.” It is not known when the apostle was born.

Philip told Nathanael that he had found the one about whom Moses and the prophets wrote: Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth. Nathanael asked doubtfully whether anything good could come out of Nazareth, and Philip answered: “Come and see.” When Jesus saw him, he called him a true Israelite in whom there is no guile, and said that he had seen him under the fig tree before Philip called him. Then Nathanael confessed: “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus foretold that he would see even greater things.

Nathanael appears in John once more: he was among the disciples to whom the risen Jesus appeared by the Sea of Tiberias. After the Ascension, Bartholomew is named among the apostles who devoted themselves to prayer in the Upper Room. Benedict XVI observed that, although we know so little about him, his figure reminds us that one can remain with Jesus and bear witness to him without performing extraordinary deeds.

There is no certain information about the apostle’s later life. Eusebius of Caesarea, a fourth-century historian, reported that Pantaenus of Alexandria found in India the Gospel of Matthew in Hebrew, left there by Bartholomew. The Roman Martyrology records the tradition that the apostle preached the Gospel in India and suffered martyrdom there. Other accounts, among them the apocryphal Passion of Bartholomew, connect his mission and death with Armenia. From the Middle Ages the story spread that he was flayed; that is why Michelangelo, in the Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel, depicted him holding his own skin. It is not known in what year he died.

The relics of Saint Bartholomew are venerated in Rome, in the church dedicated to him on Tiber Island, where, as is reported, Emperor Otto III brought them, and in Benevento, to which, according to tradition, they were moved from the island of Lipari in the ninth century. In the collect of the Mass on his feast, the Church prays for the strengthening of the faith with which the apostle clung wholeheartedly to Christ. Saint Bartholomew has been venerated since apostolic times, before canonization processes existed.