"In Whom There Is Nothing False"

Church tradition speaks of St. Bartholomew as an evangelist to the peoples of India and Armenia, and report him to have been flayed alive and beheaded, then crucified upside-down for his trouble. Fittingly, Bartholomew is the patron saint of tanners.

The account of St. Bartholomew being skinned alive is the is often portrayed by artists by posing him with a large knife, holding his own skin—by the face, as in Michelangelo's Last Judgment wherein the artist has turned Bartholomew into a self portrait. One might conclude that Michelangelo aspired to that level of faith and could consider his fresco adorning the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel to be a prayer etched in stone.

And the composite character of Nathanael and Bartholomew of Scripture and Christian tradition gives, along with Michelangelo's rendering of the saint, provides us with a fitting illustration of every Christian...

To hear and/or read the entire sermon preached for St. Bartholomew, Apostle, click on this link. http://lcmssermons.com/index.php?sn=3867