Whatever Happened to Bartholomew? by Chris White

St. Bartholomew depicted by Michelangelo

Outside of mentions in the Gospels and Acts the trail of authoritative evidence goes cold.   According to an ancient apocryphal work known as the Acts of Philip, Bartholomew escaped persecution in Jerusalem and went to Armenia to preach.  Armenia claims Bartholomew as the founding apostle of their Church.  Church history in Iran says that during Bartholomew’s 16 year ministry in Armenia he also came and evangelized them.  The church father known to us as Jerome says that he evangelized India, but back in the day India was considered to start at Iran so there is a good chance this is a duplicate tradition.  Two accounts are given of his martyrdom, one is that he was drown and the other is that he was flayed alive and then crucified in Armenia.  This is depicted in Michelangelo’s fresco of The Last Judgment.  In the 10^th century, his remains were taken to Rome and placed in a Church dedicated to him.

Whatever Happened to Andrew? by Chris White

Andrew was believed crucified on an "X" hence the St. Andrew's Cross

Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist before Jesus, and was the brother of Simon Peter.  In fact, it was Andrew who made the fateful introduction of his brother to the Lord Jesus which resulted later in a call to apostleship.  The last we read of Andrew in the Bible he is among the apostles in Jerusalem.  He is believed to have gone to Asia Minor and further north to southern Russia and then finally central Greece where he was martyred in 69AD.  The tradition the ancient church is that the governor Aigeatis had him killed out of revenge for converting his wife.  St. Regulus is credited with bringing some of Andrew’s relics (and by this I mean skeletal remains) to Scotland and building a church over them.  Ever since, Andrew has been the patron saint of Scotland even though he never visited the country during his earthly life.  Another tradition has the remains of Andrew being interred at the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople.  When the city was on the verge of falling to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, they were spirited away to Rome for safekeeping.  They were returned by the pope to the metropolitan of the Greek Orthodox Church in 1964 as a goodwill gesture thus showing that even in death, it seems Andrew still has the knack for bringing people together.