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A6 Mew The Apostle 6 of 12
A6 Mew The Apostle 6 of 12
Saint Bartholomew
Apostle, Martyr
Contents
[hide]
• 1 New Testament references
○ 1.1 Nathanael
• 2 Tradition
• 3 Bartholomew's relics
• 4 Miracles
• 5 Art and literature
• 6 See also
• 7 References
• 8 Other sources
• 9 External links
Statue of St. Bartholomew, with his own skin, by Marco d'Agrate, 1562 (Duomo di Milano)
During World War II, the Fascist regime looked for ways to finance their activities. The order
was given to take the silver statue of Saint Bartholomew and melt it down. The statue was
weighed, and it was found to be only several ounces. It was returned to its place in the Cathedral
of Lipari. In reality, the statue is made from many pounds of silver and it is considered a miracle
that it was not melted down.
St. Bartholomew is credited with many other miracles having to do with the weight of objects.
[edit] Art and literature
In works of art Bartholomew 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 upside down. This fate has led to him being adopted as the patron
saint of tanners.
Saint Bartholomew plays a part in Francis Bacon's Utopian tale The New Atlantis, about a
mythical isolated land Bensalem populated by a people dedicated to reason and natural
philosophy. Some twenty years after the ascension of Christ the people of Bensalem found an ark
floating off their shore. The ark contained a letter as well as the books of the Old and New
Testaments. The letter was from Bartholomew the Apostle and declared that an angel told him to
set the ark and its contents afloat. Thus the scientists of Bensalem received the revelation of the
Word of God.[11]
[edit] See also
• St Bartholomew's Hospital
• St. Bartholomew's Day massacre
• Beatty/Beattie surnames
[edit] References
1. ^ a b Encyclopedia Britannica, micropedia. vol. 1, p. 924. Chicago:Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.,
1998. ISBN 0-85229-633-0.
2. ^ William Smith and Samuel Cheetham, A Dictionary of Christian Antiquities (1875) noted the
"absence of any great amount of early trustworthy tradition."
3. ^ These Acta were published by Johann Albert Fabricius, Codex Apocryphus Novi Testimenti i.
341ff.
4. ^ Both noted, Ebedjesu as "Ebedjesu Sobiensis", in Smith and Cheetham, who give their source,
Giuseppe Simone Assemani Bibliotheca Orientalis iii.i. pp. 30ff.
5. ^ Bartholomaeum cum Nathaniele confundunt Chaldaei Assemani, Bibliotheca Oriental;is, iii, pt
2, p. 5 (noted by Smith and Cheetham).
6. ^ John P. Meier, A Marginal Jew Volume 3, Doubleday, 2001. pp 199-200. ISBN 0-385-49663-4
7. ^ (Russian) History of a Holiday
8. ^ Noted in Smith and Cheetham.
9. ^ Gregory, De Gloria Martyrum, i.33.
10.^ Attwater, Donald and Catherine Rachel John. The Penguin Dictionary of Saints. 3rd edition.
New York: Penguin Books, 1993. ISBN 0140513124.
11.^ Text at Project Gutenberg
Saints portal
• 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
• St. Bartholomew in Catholic Encyclopedia