Feast of Saint Bartholomew, Apostle

August 24, 2016

When I was a very little girl, I remember seeing my parents praying—down on their knees at the end of the day. They looked just like the small picture of a kneeling child with folded hands that hung on the wall in my room. I think my parents coined the phrase What Would Jesus Do long before the acronym WWJD existed.

They lived it. I felt the incredible love Jesus had for me very early on through my parents. I can’t pinpoint the actual time that I came to know Jesus, because I don’t recall not knowing him. For this I am grateful.

Think about your first memory of Jesus…When were you introduced to Jesus for the first time?

In John’s gospel we learn of how several men met him at the start of his ministry. Jesus meets each of them personally. Nathanael meets Jesus through his good friend Philip. Jesus talks of how Nathanael was chosen.

Today is the Feast of St. Bartholomew the Apostle. Some scholars believe that St. Bartholomew was actually the Nathanial that St. John writes about. He was chosen by Jesus, he personally met Jesus, and went on to evangelize, and finally was martyred.

St. Bartholomew is the patron saint of bookbinders; butchers; cobblers; Forentine cheese merchants; Forentine salt merchants; leather workers; nervous diseases; neurological diseases; plasterers; shoemakers; tanners; trappers; twitching; whiteners; Gambatesa, Italy; Armenia.

St. Bartholomew, pray for us.