Holy Apostle Bartholomew (I)
The holy Apostles Bartholomew and Barnabas (I). The holy Apostle Bartholomew, one of the Twelve, was from Cana of Galilee. After the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Lord’s disciples it fell to him and to the Apostle Philip (commemorated 14 November) to preach the Gospel in Syria and Asia Minor. With Saint Philip went his sister Mariamne. Travelling in Syria and Mysia, the chosen ones of the Lord had to endure many afflictions and trials.
In one village the saints met John the Theologian and set out with him for Phrygia. In the city of Hierapolis, by the power of prayer, they killed a huge viper which the pagans worshipped as a deity.
The preaching of the holy apostles was confirmed by many signs and miracles.
In Hierapolis lived a man named Stachys, who had been deprived of his sight for forty years. The apostles’ prayer restored his sight. The rejoicing Stachys believed in Christ and was baptised. The news of this miracle spread through the whole city, and there was always a crowd at the house where the apostles were staying. Pagans freed from bodily and spiritual ailments were baptised and glorified the true God. The enraged pagan priests complained to the tribunal. The head of the city ordered the preachers to be seized and shut up in prison, and the house of Stachys to be burned. The chosen ones of the Lord were sentenced to crucifixion. The Apostle Philip was nailed to the wood head downwards. Suddenly the land shook terribly; the earth split open and swallowed up the governor and part of the crowd. The frightened people began to take the apostles down from their crosses. Bartholomew was taken down, but Philip died in his torment. After making Stachys Bishop of Hierapolis, the Apostle Bartholomew and the blessed Mariamne left the city.
After this Mariamne went preaching the word of God to Lycaonia, where she commended her soul to the Lord in peace (commemorated 17 February). The Apostle Bartholomew set out for India; he translated the Gospel of Matthew from Hebrew into the local language and converted many pagans to Christianity; he was also in Greater Armenia, where he worked many miracles and healed the possessed daughter of King Polymius. The grateful ruler sent the apostle gifts, but the saint refused to accept them: “I labour only for the salvation of men’s souls.” Then Polymius was baptised with the queen, the healed princess and many nobles. Many inhabitants of Greater Armenia followed their example. Alarmed by this, the priests prevailed on the king’s brother Astyages, who seized the apostle and in the city of Alban (present-day Baku) crucified him head downwards. Nearing his end, the chosen one of the Lord did not stop preaching the Gospel. Then the savage Astyages ordered the blessed one first to be flayed and then beheaded. The faithful laid his body in a shrine and buried it. Around 508 the incorrupt remains of Bartholomew were translated to Mesopotamia, to the city of Dara. When in 574 the city was taken by the Persians, the Christians took the apostle’s relics and set out towards the shore of the Black Sea, but on the way the enemy overtook them and they were forced to let the shrine down into the sea. By the will of God the holy thing floated to the island of Lipari. In the ninth century the Arabs seized this island, and the incorrupt remains were translated to the Neapolitan city of Benevento. In the tenth century part of the holy bones was translated to Rome.
The holy hierarchs John Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria, Epiphanius of Cyprus and some other fathers of the Church identify Bartholomew with Nathanael (John 1:45–51; 21:2).
