Our Crest & Patron Saint

The Latin caption on our Parish coat of arms top of this page - Maiora His Videbis - is from the Gospel of St. John 1:50, and is translated as You shall see see greater things than these. Saint Bartholomew, one of the Twelve Apostles, is listed in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and in the Book of Acts. His name means "son of Tholomai" in Aramaic, and is therefore likely a surname. The Gospel of John calls him by his given name of Nathaniel. St. John also tells us that St. Bartholomew was from Cana in Galilee, and that he was evangelized by St. Philip.

According to the Roman Martyrology, he spread the Gospel to Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Persia and Armenia, and was martyred by King Astyages of Armenia, traditionally in Abanopolis on the Caspian sea. The church historian Eusebius writes that in the third century St. Pantaenus found Christians in India and that they had a copy of St Matthew's Gospel written in Hebrew which, they said had been brought to them by St. Bartholomew. Ancient writers used the name "India" quite indiscriminately, and it likely refers either to Ethiopia or Arabia.

St. Bartholomew is traditionally pictured in art (as in the stained glass window over the main entrance to our church) with knives representing the instruments of his martyrdom - being flayed alive. His relics are thought to be preserved in the church of St. Bartholomew-on-the-Tiber, at Rome. His feast day is August 24th (August 25th on the Byzantine calendar).

An apocryphal account of the "Martyrdom of the Holy and Glorious Apostle Bartholomew" is found in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 8, edited by Philip Schaff & Alexander Roberts. This account dates from the fifth or sixth century, and recounts the marvels by which the Apostle overthrew idolatry and converted a king and his subjects in "India". The account is legendary, and is unfortunately influenced by aspects of the Nestorian heresy. It is available online thanks to the Christian Classics Ethereal Library maintained by Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI.