Saint Bartholomew: Saints dictionary

Saint Bartholomew

Uncover Hidden Saints meanings

Saint Bartholomew is among Jesus’ twelve apostles and most of the time he is referred to as Nathaniel. The saint was introduced to the lord Jesus Christ through Saint Philip who is as well one of the other twelve apostles of Jesus.

The name Nathaniel first appears in the bible in the book of John. The gospel also refers to him as “Nathaniel of Cana in Galilee”. The instance that he is called Nathaniel of Cana is written at the end of chapter one of John, which is succeeded by the miracle of the Cana marriage in the second chapter of the gospel. All through the gospel of John, he is referred to as Nathaniel.

Based on the Synaxarium of Church of Alexandria, which one of the earliest church in history, his martyrdom is usually commemorated in equivalent to 11th September in the Egyptian calendar. This August festival has been traditionally observed by the holding of various market and fairs that include the Bartholomew fair that is usually held in London right from the middle age.

When being referred to in the Eastern region in which there have been quite common, they usually called him Nathaniel. To prove this, there are several works that have been written by Abdisho abr Berika who is better known as Ebedejsu to the Western believers. In some of the gospels, Bartholomew is always said to be alongside Philip

Miracles associated with this saint

Just like a good number of the early evangelists, Bartholomew was killed for the religious beliefs he held. Saint Bartholomew performed quite a number of miracles but there are two that are most notable, they have been transferred from generation to another in the island of Lipari. In the first case, it is said that, the residents of the small town of Lipari have the over time been observing his feats on an annual basis. As usual, they had to take the statue which was made out of silver and gold from the place that was kept in the saint Bartholomew cathedral and then carry it along in a procession that were to move all over the town.

It is then said that on this one occasion when carrying the statue downhill, it suddenly increased in weight that they had to let it rest on the ground. When those carrying it regained and decided to carry it again, they managed to lift it up only for it to get heavier for another time. On carrying it for the third time, it got much heavier and they set it down, in a flash of a minute, the wall that was down the hill collapsed. This means that had the statue been lifted, then all the town’s residents would have been killed.

In World War II, the dictators decided to take the statute of Saint Bartholomew was taken to be melted as a way of funding war. They took it and on weighting found it was very few grams until they decided to return it back. However, the real weight of the statue was many kilograms. It is said that this was a miracle to prevent it from getting melted.