Bartholomew or Nathaniel

                                          

Stained glass windows depict many things.  Some are saints and some are parishioners' choices.  This is one is of a sailor.  I wish I knew where it came from.

This picture is gruesome.  It depicts St. Bartholomew holding his skin because ne was skinned alive.  The picture is from Michaelangelo's The Last Judgement.

This is also St. Bartholomew being crucified. Was it before or after being skinned alive?

And finally, this last indignity must have surely been the end of Batholomew.  He was beheaded.

St. Bartholomew must have the most depictions of his death than any other apostle.  His name is sometimes Nathaniel and he was probably a fisherman, like many of the other apostles.  

 

The Dilemma Regarding the Apostles

In this morning's readings on the feast of St. Bartholomew the Apostle, Saint John Chrysostom, in a homily on the first letter to the Corinthians (Hom. 4, 3. 4: PG 61, 34-36), marvels over the fact that twelve uneducated, simple men, the apostles, could have affected the world the way they did.  I agree.  In fact, the fact that these apostles did this, is proof that Jesus is who He says He is.

Think about it.  Why would these simple men leave "hearth and home" to follow this unknown rabbi from Nazareth?  Why would they stay?

Money?  They died poor.

Power?  They had no human authority.

Respect?  They were driven out of towns and thrown in prison.  And the majority of them died torturous deaths.

Then why?

Indeed, Jesus must be the Messiah.