Bartholomew is interpreted “son of the one who suspends me” or “son of the one who suspends the waters.” Dionysius says of him in the Mystical Theology: “The divine Bartholomew says that theology is both extensive and very brief, and that the Gospel is broad and great yet again concise.”
He means that, considered in one way, everything can be affirmed of God, while in another and more proper way everything can be denied of God. The Gospel is concise—that is, brief—with respect to its end, which is faith in Christ and charity. It is broad and great with respect to its subject matter because of the innumerable teachings and mysteries contained within it.
Bartholomew was one of the senators of the Church, the apostles of Christ, as appears in Luke 9. After the coming of the Holy Spirit, he entered India, which lies at the end of the world. Arriving at a certain city, he began to lodge in a temple where the god Astaroth was worshiped.
The devil dwelling in that idol deceived human beings by imposing certain illnesses upon them. To obtain deliverance, the sick offered sacrifices to the idol, after which the devil ceased inflicting the suffering he himself had caused.
When Astaroth’s temple was full of the afflicted and the devil gave none of his customary answers through the idol to those who sought them, they went to a neighboring city where Berith was worshiped. They asked why their god did not answer them.
Berith said: “Your god has been bound with fiery chains so that he can neither speak nor breathe, ever since Bartholomew, an apostle of God, entered your city.”
They asked: “Who is this Bartholomew?”
He answered: “He is a friend of almighty God. He has come to this province to render all the gods of India powerless.”
They said: “Give us a sign by which we can distinguish and recognize him among so many thousands of people.”
The demon replied: “His hair is black and curly; his flesh is fair; his eyes are large; his nostrils are even and straight; his beard is long and has a few gray hairs; and his stature is well proportioned. He wears a white tunic bordered with purple and a white cloak bearing purple gems at each corner. Twenty-six years have passed during which his garments and sandals neither grow old nor become soiled.
[Running head: Chapters Eleven and Twelve, Folio 196.]
“A hundred times each day and a hundred times each night he prays upon bended knees. Angels of God accompany him and do not permit him to grow weary. He always remains cheerful and joyful, with the same expression and disposition. He foresees everything, knows everything, and possesses knowledge of every language. He already knows what I am now saying to you.
“When you seek him, he will show himself to you if he wills; if he does not will it, you will be unable to find him. But I beg you, when you find him, ask him not to come here and do to me what he has done to Astaroth.”
They went away and searched diligently for two days but could not find him. On the following day a demoniac walking near him cried out: “Bartholomew, Apostle of God, your prayers burn me!”
Bartholomew said to him: “Be silent and come out of him.” The man was immediately delivered.
When Polemius, king of that province, heard this, he sent to Bartholomew and begged him to come and heal his daughter, who was a lunatic and possessed by a demon. When the Apostle arrived at the royal palace and saw that she was bound with chains because she tore those who approached her with her teeth, he ordered her to be released.
When the servants were afraid to do this, he said: “I hold that demon bound, and yet you are afraid?” Once she had been released, he immediately freed her from the devil.
King Polemius sent many camels laden with gold, silver, and precious stones, intending that those seeking the Apostle of God should find him and present these things to him as a royal gift. When they could not be found [read: when they could not find him], they returned to the king.
The next morning, while the king was alone in his chamber, Bartholomew appeared and said to him: “Why did you make people search for me throughout the whole of yesterday with gold and precious stones? Such things are necessary to those who desire earthly and carnal possessions, but I seek nothing worldly.”
The Apostle then spoke to him about the mystery of our redemption and showed that Christ had conquered the devil through a marvelous harmony of power, wisdom, and justice. After explaining these things, he said: “If you are disposed to be baptized, I shall give you and your people your god bound in chains.”
When the king declared himself ready, on the following day the priests of Astaroth and the people assembled at the temple. While the priests sacrificed to the idol, the demon began to cry out from the statue in the presence of the king and the people: “Cease, wretched people, to offer sacrifices to me, lest you suffer worse torments than I do. I have been bound with fiery chains by the angels of Jesus Christ, who was crucified by the Jews, who thought him to be detained by death. But that Jesus conquered death, our queen, and bound the prince of death, our lord.”
They immediately all cast ropes around the image to pull it down, but they were unable. The Apostle commanded the demon to shatter that idol and break all the other images of the temple by his own power. This was done, and all the sick who were in the temple were healed while the Apostle prayed for them. He also dedicated the temple to Christ.
An angel of the Lord flew around the temple, appearing in human form, and carved the sign of the cross upon its four corners. He said: “Just as the sick have been healed of their illnesses by the Apostle, so this temple has been cleansed from its impurities and from the devil who inhabited it.
“But before the devil goes to the desert to which the Apostle has commanded him to go, I shall show you his horrible appearance. When you see him, do not be afraid; instead, imprint upon your foreheads the sign that I have carved upon the temple.”
They all then saw an Ethiopian blacker than soot, with a sharp face, a long beard, hair extending to his feet, fiery eyes emitting sparks like heated iron, sulfurous flames breathing from his nostrils, and his hands bound behind him with fiery chains.
The angel of the Lord said to him: “Because you obeyed the Apostle and shattered all the idols of the temple, I shall release you. Go into a desert place where no human being dwells, and remain there until the day of judgment.”
With a great crash and howl the demon disappeared. The angel ascended into heaven in everyone’s sight.
King Polemius, his wife and children, his whole household, and a great part of the people were baptized. Polemius himself abandoned his kingdom and became a disciple of the Apostle.
The priests of the idols then went to Astiages, the brother of Polemius, and complained against the Apostle: he had injured their gods, transformed their temple, and deceived Astiages’s brother by magical art.
Furiously angry, Astiages sent a thousand armed men to seek the Apostle, seize him, and bring him before him. When Bartholomew had been brought into his presence, Astiages said: “Are you the man who has overthrown my brother?”
The Apostle answered: “I did not overthrow your brother; I converted him.”
Astiages said: “Just as you made my brother abandon his god and sacrifice to yours, so I shall make you abandon your God and worship mine.”
The Apostle answered him: “I bound the god whom your brother worshiped, showed him in chains, and made him shatter his own image. If you do the same to my God, you will be able to provoke me to worship your image. But if I shatter your gods, believe in my God.”
As he said this, it was announced to the king that his god Baldach had been shattered and had fallen to the earth. When he heard this, the king tore the purple robe he was wearing in his great sorrow. He ordered the Apostle beaten with clubs, flayed alive after the beating, and finally beheaded after he had been flayed.
Thus Bartholomew flew to heaven through the palm of martyrdom. The faithful took the Apostle’s body and buried it honorably. Astiages and the priests of the idols were seized by demons and suffocated. Polemius was made bishop and commendably governed that church for twenty years. Full of virtues, he rested in the Lord.
Opinions differ concerning Bartholomew’s death. Blessed Dorotheus says that he was crucified upside down at Abbano, a great city of Armenia. Blessed Theodore says that he was flayed. Others assert that he was beheaded. These accounts can be reconciled by saying that he was first flayed, then crucified, and finally beheaded before he had yet died.
After a time the body of blessed Bartholomew was translated to the island of Lipari near Sicily. About the year of the Lord 331 [read: 838], unbelievers invaded and completely devastated the island and scattered the Apostle’s bones through the streets.
At the Apostle’s command, however, he appeared in a dream to a holy man and identified which bones were his—namely, those shining like fire. They were gathered and carried by him to Benevento, the metropolitan city in the kingdom of Apulia.
It is commonly held that his body is preserved at Benevento, although the Romans also assert that they possess it.