A Saint for the Rest of Us

All of us – lay persons, bishops, priests and deacons – “represent Christ and his Church,” according to our Outline of the Faith. To break it down by syllables, all of us are called to re-present the risen Christ, so that our words and actions point to him. When we celebrate the feasts of individual saints, we celebrate them because they were particularly memorable in re-presenting and pointing to Christ Jesus.

Except that Bartholomew isn’t all that memorable, compared to Peter, Paul, John, the Blessed Virgin Mary, or Mary Magdalene among others In Matthew, Mark and Luke, Bartholomew is listed as one of the Twelve Apostles, exclusive company to be sure. But “Bartholomew” just means, “Son of Tolmai,” “Son of…” being a common designation in 1st century Judaism. So by the time those Gospels were written, enough years had apparently passed for this apostle’s name to be unknown.

But Bartholomew is paired with Philip, “Philip and Bartholomew.” And early in John’s Gospel, Philip goes to a friend of his named Nathanael, who apparently sees Nazareth as a redneck backwater: “Philip found Nathanael and said to him, ‘We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and the prophets wrote, Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth.’ “Nathanael said to him, ‘From Nazareth? Can anything good come from Nazareth?’ Philip replied, ‘Come and see.’”

So when Philip and Nathanel find Jesus, before Nathanel says anything, Jesus looks at him and says, “Here, truly, is an Israelite in whom there is no deception.” How do you know anything about me, Nathanel demands to know. “Before Philip spoke to you, I saw you under the fig tree.” Not just saw him but saw into him. To which Nathanel proclaims, “Rabbi, you are Son of God, you are King of Israel.” Most biblical scholars now believe that Nathanael is the same “Son of Tolmai,” or Bartholomew.

Beyond the beginning of his discipleship, we only have traditions of how and where Bartholomew re-presented Jesus. According to those traditions, he traveled to the eastern coast of India, and then went to Armenia, where he was martyred, but today is the patron saint of Armenia. Perhaps by the time the authors of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, were writing their gospels, Nathanael Son of Tolmai had been gone from Judea for too long to be fully remembered.

But in a way, that makes Bartholomew an apostle, a saint for the rest of us, who probably won’t be known far and wide enough for our representations of Christ to end up in a calendar of saints. But just as Bartholomew’s re-presentation of Christ is known to whom it matters most, so will all of us be known to whom it matters most for how we re-presented the infinite love of Christ.

August 24th, 2025

St. Bartholomew the Apostle

The Rev. David Kendrick