Chris Kenny

St Bartholomew

Construction with found twig

£365.00 (framed)

15cm x 20cm

August 24th

Bartholomew (who was also known as Nathaniel) was one of the twelve apostles. Bartholomew means 'son of the furrows' - his father was a humble ploughman. Bartholomew recognised Jesus as the Son of God and the King of Israel, the first time they met. Bartholomew was sitting under a fig tree, Jesus saw him and, knowing that he was a virtuous and faithful man, told him that he witness heaven opening and angels going up and coming down.

Bartholomew took the gospel to India and Armenia but he was captured by the pagan King Astyages (whose brother Polymius he had converted) and flayed and crucified upside down.

A large piece of his skin and some of his bones washed up on the island of Lipari, these relics were later distributed to Benevento, to Rome where they were held in a hospital, to Frankfurt Cathedral and to Canterbury Cathedral.

He appears with his flayed skin in the Sistine Chapel although Michelangelo makes the face of the hanging skin a self-portrait.

During World War II, there was an order for Bartholomew's silver statue to be melted down but, when it was weighed, it miraculously seemed to be only a few grams and so was spared.

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