SAINT BARTHOLOMEW

Sunday, August 24, 2025

Saint Paul’s Parish, K Street, Washington, D.C.

 

Deuteronomy 18:15-18

I Corinthians 4:9-15

John 1:45-51

 

On this Feast of Saint Bartholomew, I’d like to begin with some verses from the second chapter of St. Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians. “So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ himself as the cornerstone.”

 

Those verses remind us that our identity and life in the Church today are built upon the foundation of the prophets and apostles. So, what we’re doing today—celebrating a Prayerbook holy day in honor of Saint Bartholomew—is more than just an exercise in historical curiosity. It’s an opportunity to reflect on where we’ve come from and who we are as members of a spiritual household standing upon this prophetic and apostolic foundation.

 

In a passage from Chapter 11 of St. Luke’s Gospel, Jesus links the vocations of prophets and apostles to martyrdom. “The wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute’ so that this generation may be charged with the blood of all the prophets since the foundation of the world.” So, it seems fitting this morning to consider Saint Bartholomew under the three headings of prophet, apostle, and martyr.

 

First: as prophet. Today’s Old Testament reading highlights this role: “The Lord your God shall raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people. You shall heed such a prophet.”

 

Down through the centuries, many commentators have identified Bartholomew with the Nathanael we meet in today’s Gospel. New Testament scholars go back and forth on this, and I don’t want to get into their arguments. However, the three synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—all list Bartholomew as one of the Twelve Apostles but say nothing about Nathanael. Conversely, John’s Gospel names Nathanael but makes no mention of Bartholomew. If they are the same person, then Nathanael is his first name, and Bartholomew, meaning “Son of Tolmai,” is his patronymic last name. So, his full name would be Nathanael Son of Tolmai, or simply, Nathanael Bartholomew.

 

The Nathanael who appears at the end of Chapter One of John’s Gospel is a fascinating figure. In a way, he resembles doubting Thomas at the end of the Gospel, who’s converted from deep skepticism to an enthusiastic faith in the Risen Lord. Similarly, Nathanael’s initial reaction when Philip tells him about Jesus, son of Joseph from Nazareth, is dismissive: “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Then there is that mysterious exchange between Jesus and Nathanael about the fig tree. What was Nathanael doing under the fig tree? We don’t know, but whatever it was, the Lord’s words cause Nathanael to do a complete 180: “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” 

 

Here is a prophet speaking words of prophecy. To which Jesus responds, “You will see greater things than these … You will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” We don’t know when these words were fulfilled for Nathanael. But they describe a prophetic vision that must have motivated Nathanael in his subsequent calling and ministry.

 

Beyond this appearance in John 1, the Fourth Gospel names Nathanael only once more, when the risen Jesus appears to seven disciples, including Nathanael, by the Sea of Tiberias. (There, incidentally, his hometown is identified as Cana in Galilee.) Beyond that, the New Testament makes no further mention of the names Nathanael and Bartholomew.

 

Early Christian tradition does recount Bartholomew’s missionary journeys. So, we come to our second heading: Bartholomew as apostle. In Greek, the term 'apostle' means someone who is sent, often as an ambassador or envoy on behalf of someone greater. After His resurrection, the risen Lord commissions the Twelve to go into all the world, preaching the Gospel to every nation, and baptizing those who respond in repentance and faith.

 

Eusebius of Caesarea, writing in the fourth century, and Saint Jerome, in the early fifth century, record the tradition that Bartholomew traveled to India, where he left behind a copy of Saint Matthew’s Gospel. Ancient writers sometimes used the name India to refer to various places, such as parts of Arabia. However, the possibility that Bartholomew reached what we now call India is not as far-fetched as it might seem. Significant trade flourished during those times between the eastern Roman Empire and the west coast of India, along maritime routes passing through the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and the Arabian Sea.

 

Another tradition holds that after visiting India, Bartholomew traveled to Armenia along with his fellow Apostle Saint Jude. There, he converted the king of Armenia to Christianity. However, the king’s brother had Bartholomew executed by flaying him alive and then beheading him.

 

And so we come, thirdly, to Bartholomew as martyr. St. Paul writes in today’s reading from his First Epistle to the Corinthians: “I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, as though sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to mortals.” Of the Twelve Apostles, only John the Beloved Disciple is believed to have lived to old age and died a natural death, at Ephesus in what is today Turkey. The Greek word martyr means witness. And the unanimous tradition of the Church is that the remaining eleven Apostles all suffered violent death for their witness to the Gospel.

 

After their earthly deaths, the apostles and martyrs continue to live on—not only as the saints in heaven interceding for us on earth, but also through the traditions of remembrance that have kept their memory alive across generations. To this day, the Armenian Apostolic Church venerates Bartholomew and Jude as its founders and patron saints. And Bartholomew’s principal relics—what are claimed to be his bones and a large piece of his skin—are housed in the San Bartolomeo Basilica in Benevento, in south-central Italy.

 

During the Middle Ages, hospitals were often named after Saint Bartholomew. One example is Saint Bartholomew’s Hospital in London, established in 1123. Attached to it is the Church of Saint Bartholomew the Great—the only medieval church building in the City of London to have survived both the Great Fire of 1666 and the Blitz of World War II. It’s an architectural gem and a must-see on any visit to London.

 

In art, Bartholomew’s symbol is a tanner’s knife, the instrument of his death. Some gruesome artistic portrayals depict him standing naked to his muscles and holding aloft his flayed skin. He’s considered the patron saint of tanners and dermatologists, and is invoked by those suffering from skin ailments. (It all makes sense.)

 

Today, then, we give thanks for the life and witness of Saint Bartholomew: prophet, apostle, and martyr. And we ask his prayers, that in a manner appropriate to our various states in life, we may follow his example of prophetic vision, apostolic mission, and faithful witness until our lives’ end.