The Feast of Saint Bartholomew (2026)
There is something special about the way the Church remembers the apostles. We know a great deal about some of them, while others appear only briefly in the pages of Scripture. Saint Bartholomew is one of those apostles. His name appears in the lists of the Twelve, and the Church has traditionally identified him with Nathanael, the man whom Philip invited to “come and see” Jesus.
Beyond the gospels, the Church's tradition remembers Bartholomew as a missionary who carried the Gospel beyond the land where Jesus had lived and preached. He is especially associated with the evangelization of Armenia, along with the Apostle Jude Thaddeus, and traditions also connect his missionary preaching with other regions of the East.
But, the truth is that we really can’t reconstruct any elements of his life. But that’s okay, because any time we celebrate the feast of an apostle, we aren’t really remembering only one man—we are celebrating the witness of the apostles.
The Book of Revelation gives us a remarkable image of that witness. The seer of Revelation tells us that heavenly Jerusalem has twelve foundation stones, and on them are written the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
The Apostles are foundations because the faith we profess today did not begin with us. We believe because people who encountered Jesus knew him, listened to him, followed him, and witnessed to what they had seen and received.
That brings us to today’s Gospel when Nathanael skeptically asks, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Philip does not try to win an argument. He simply says, “Come and see.”
And Nathanael comes.
He encounters Jesus, and Jesus promises him that he will see greater things. The man who first wondered whether anything good could come from Nazareth would become one of those whose witness helped others to come to know Christ.
That is the extraordinary thing about apostolic faith. They received something, and then they handed it on…
The faith we have received today has come to us through centuries of people who believed the testimony of the apostles and then became witnesses themselves. We did not stand beside the Sea of Galilee. We did not hear Jesus speak. We did not see the risen Christ. But we have received the testimony of those who did.
This feast of Saint Bartholomew is a reminder to us that the Gospel was never meant to remain in one place. The apostles carried it outward, and generation after generation has carried it farther still.
If we believe what the apostles knew to be true, how can we not tell the story?
Not because we know everything.
Not because we have all the answers.
But because we have received something precious. And what has been received as gift is meant to be handed on.
Strengthen in us, O Lord, the faith,
by which the blessed Apostle Bartholomew
clung wholeheartedly to your Son,
and grant that through the help of his prayers
your Church may become for all the nations
the sacrament of salvation.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.
-Collect for the Feast of St. Bartholomew
