Can Anything Good Come Out of Nazareth? The Feast of St. Bartholomew
On August 24th, the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Bartholomew, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke each mention him by name (Matt. 10:3, Mark 3:18, Luke 6:14), and in the Gospel of John he appears under the name Nathanael, giving us one of the most honest first encounters with Jesus in all of the Gospels.
When Philip finds Nathanael and tells him they have found the one Moses and the prophets wrote about, Jesus of Nazareth, Nathanael responds with the kind of refreshing honesty that must have made him immediately likeable: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46). Philip simply says, “Come and see.” And when Jesus meets him, He greets him with words that tell us something important about who Bartholomew was: “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no guile.” When Bartholomew asks how Jesus knows him, Jesus tells him He saw him under the fig tree, and that is enough. Bartholomew’s response is immediate and wholehearted: “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”
It is a brief encounter, but it reveals a man of genuine faith and transparent heart, exactly the kind of person Jesus gathered around Him.
The Life of St. Bartholomew
Unlike some of the other disciples, the New Testament does not give us a detailed account of Bartholomew’s life and ministry. What we know is that he traveled everywhere with Jesus, learning from Him and participating in His mission throughout those years of public ministry. He was present with the other disciples after the resurrection and ascension and was in the upper room when the Holy Spirit fell at Pentecost (Acts 1:13, Acts 2).
From that point, tradition takes up the story. After the descent of the Holy Spirit, Bartholomew is said to have traveled widely in service of the Gospel, to India, to Armenia, and possibly to parts of Africa, bringing the Christian faith to regions far beyond the borders of the Jewish world he had known. He is credited in various traditions with establishing the Church in these places, a missionary whose reach extended further than almost any of the other apostles.
The Martyrdom of St. Bartholomew
St. Bartholomew’s martyrdom is one of the most vivid and enduring parts of his tradition. He is believed to have been martyred in Albanopolis in ancient Armenia, though the accounts of exactly how he died vary. Some traditions say he was crucified upside down. Others say he was beheaded. But the account that has captured the Christian imagination most powerfully and that appears again and again in art and iconography across the centuries is that he was flayed alive.
Perhaps the most famous depiction of St. Bartholomew in all of Western art is found in Michelangelo’s Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel, where the apostle stands holding his own flayed skin, a haunting and unforgettable image of martyrdom and faith. Scholars have long suggested that the face on the skin is a self-portrait of Michelangelo himself, which gives the image yet another layer of meaning.
Though the details of his life remain sparse, St. Bartholomew has been widely commemorated in art, architecture, and tradition. Churches, cathedrals, and monuments throughout the world bear his name, and the feast day associated with him has given rise to some of the most distinctive and enjoyable folk traditions in the Christian calendar.
How to Celebrate St. Bartholomew’s Day at Home
Make gingerbread.
During the Middle Ages in England, gingerbread was among the most traditional foods served on feast days, often stamped with the image of the saint being honored. At the famous Bartholomew Fairs held across England, gingerbread marked with the image of St. Bartholomew was one of the signature treats of the celebration. We are making Gingerbread Cake from one of my favorite seasonal cookbooks, Honey and Jam by Hannah Queen, whose recipe captures the warmth and spice of this old tradition beautifully. The recipe is included at the end of this post.
Have a race and eat a currant bun.
In the village of Sandwich in Kent, England, children still observe a St. Bartholomew’s Bun Race, running around the chapel of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital and receiving a currant bun as their reward. It is the kind of simple, joyful local tradition that has survived for centuries because children love it, and it translates beautifully to a backyard or neighborhood on the feast day.
Make Bartlemas Beef.
St. Bartholomew has long been considered the patron saint of butchers, for what are perhaps obvious reasons, given the manner of his martyrdom. Traditionally, the beef served on his feast day was known as Bartlemas Beef, a name derived from “Bartlemas,” meaning the Mass of St. Bartholomew. The Cook’s Guide from 1664 offers this remarkable recipe, which we share here in its original form:
“Take a fat Brisket piece of beef and bone it, put it into so much water as will cover it, shifting it three times a day for three dayes together, then put it into as much white wine and vinegar as will cover it, and when it hath lyen twenty-four hours take it out and drye it in a cloth, then take nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and mace, of each a like quantity, beaten small and mingled with a good handful of salt, strew both sides of the Beef with this, and roul it up as you do Brawn, tye it as close as you can; then put it into an earthen pot, and cover it with some paste; set it in the Oven with household bread, and when it is cold, eat it with mustard and sugar.”
Please let me know if you make this, and particularly what you decide to use as “some paste!”
Eat watermelon and make watermelon lanterns.
In Italy and Spain, watermelon has long been the traditional food of St. Bartholomew’s Day, arriving as it does at the very height of watermelon season in late August. On the feast day, communities would gather for watermelon festivals, attending Mass, eating the fruit, and celebrating the saint together. At the Cathedral of San Bartolomeo all’Isola, which stands on the Tiber Island in the middle of the Tiber River in Rome, a market would be held with vendors displaying whole and sliced watermelons for the crowds gathered to celebrate. And on the Spanish island of Majorca, children carried on a tradition that sounds like pure delight, hollowing out watermelons, carving them into lanterns, and parading through the village with them glowing in the summer evening.
It is hard to imagine a more festive or more seasonally perfect way to honor a feast day in late August!
the recipe -
Gingerbread Cake
1 cup strong brewed coffee
1 cup dark unsulfured molasses
½ teaspoon baking soda
2-¼ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
1-½ teaspoons baking powder
1 Tablespoon ground ginger
1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¾ cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
2 cups packed dark brown sugar
Powdered sugar for dusting
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 10-inch Bundt pan.
In a large saucepan, combine the coffee and molasses, bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, then remove the pan from the heat. Whisk in the baking soda (the mixture will foam). Allow the syrup to cool.
Whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves in a medium bowl.
Whisk together the oil, eggs, sugar, and molasses mixture in a large bowl. Add the flour mixture and stir until just combined.
Pour the batter into the pan. Bake until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 50 minutes.
Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then invert it on a wire rack and cool completely. Dust the cake with powdered sugar.
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