St Bartholomew the Apostle
St Bartholomew the Martyr from Galilee was skinned alive and then beheaded.
Bartholomew of Galilee was one of the apostles to whom Jesus appeared after the resurrection. He is also said to have witnessed Jesus’s ascension.
According to legend, St Bartholomew preached to and cured the possessed daughter of the Armenian king Polimus, which led to the entire royal family converting to Christianity. This was naturally very unpopular among the pagan priests, so St Bartholomew was taken prisoner. He was sentenced to the “Persian Death Penalty”, which meant being flayed alive and then being beheaded or crucified upside down.
The statue
St Bartholomew is depicted holding a long skinning knife, and with his own skin draped over his arm. This refers to the grotesque manner in which he died.
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Feast day
24 August (Barsok)
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Attribute
A long knife and the skinned hide of a human draped over his arm.
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Patron saint of
Bookbinders, tanners, dyers, hide traders, leatherworkers, shoemakers, butchers, sailmakers, farmers, grape growers, and quarrymen.
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Invoked against
Nervous disorders and skin diseases.
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The sculpture
The statue was carved in 1933 by Josef Ankile, as the first of the West Front’s statues.
