Today is the Feast of St Bartholomew. He was one of the Original Twelve and a favorite of my high school catechism teacher, Sr. Philomena. My boys like him because his was a particularly gruesome death. Boys are like that. We also like him because of all the Apostles, he's the sarcastic one. He's the one who asked, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"
According to tradition, his original name was Jesus so he changed it to Batholomew. That was pretty convenient for us. Just imagine how confusing Bible study would be if there were more than one guy with the name Jesus running around.
St Bartholomew is credited with bringing the Gospel to Armenia and founding the Church there. Not everyone was thrilled about that fact because he was dragged to Baku in Azerbaijan where he was skinned before being crucified upside down. The Catholic Church, with its typical sense of humor, made him the patron saint of tanners. According to Sr Philomena, all he had to do was renounce Christ and he would have been mercifully beheaded. He wouldn't, so they didn't. I don't know how long it took for him to die, but I'm willing to wager that skinned is not a quick way to go.
I remember the good sister challenging one of my Evangelical Protestant classmates with the question, "So you say you are a Christian and that you love God...are you willing to be skinned alive for Him? Because Christianity is more than hand-clapping, pretty songs and shouting 'Amen!' and going to a weekly Bible class. It's saying 'I would rather be skinned alive than renounce my God.'" Amen, sister...I think I'm there, but I pray no one ever puts it to that kind of test.
6 comments:
Boy, oh, BOY!!! WHADDA, way to go!
[What a cool blog, keep it up! - I like your attitude towards the pink flamingos. If I could find one, I'd put one up just to tick people off!
I'll go with your cuisine too. Nothing beats a grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup when you need some comfort food... although right now some "comfort food" would be B&Js Peach Cobler ice cream, or B&Js Steven Colbert's Americone dream!
I'm going to link to your post too...because it inspired me!
Cool post! BTW, I enjoyed my visit to your blog which I found through Karen.
Very good one! I never heard that "name used to be Jesus" thingy! I can't wait to tell the kids about it. They just love a gruesome story. Sickos.
Ok, so why is he also called Nathaniel?
Mac,
I wish I knew. Perhaps they were nicknames taken on since the Gospel writers didn't call him Jesus. I'll have to look up what they mean in the original Greek. I haven't run across the answer yet, but I promise to keep looking. Check back with me. I'll post the answer when I find it.
Alright Mac, that took less time than I thought. I love the internet.
They appear to be descriptions of the man. Nathanael means "God has given" while Bartholomew means "son of Talmay (Talmay means furrowed)". Perhaps they are simply two different views of the same man. One saw him as a continuation of his family and the other saw him as a gift from God.
I'm willing to look into it more deeply if you want me to do so.
Cheers!
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