150/365 Bartholomew

St. Bartholomew was probably a good friend of Philip's, and maybe wrote his own gospel (it is lost, but referred to in other writings). Some early disciple went to Armenia, India, and Asia Minor, leaving writings behind, and tradition holds that it was Bartholomew. Often he is equated with the apostle in John's Gospel called Nathaniel--since he fills a similar role there (friend of Philip, no other reference to Bartholomew) as he fills in the synoptics.

But what we remember best about Bartholomew, or at least I do from my days in Catholic school with Butler's Lives of the Saints, is that Bartholomew was flayed alive. Not dead afterwards, he was then beheaded. Because of this, most depictions of St. Bartholomew involve a tanner's knife, and sometimes more graphic depictions of a man with his skin draped over one arm.

Here, he is a fig branch. Bartholomew, known as Nathaniel in John's Gospel, was brought to Jesus by his friend Philip. He doubted that anything good come from Nazareth, but came with Philip to meet Jesus. Upon meeting him, Jesus told him that he knew who he was--he had seen him under the fig tree. Nathaniel immediately believed in him, but Jesus told him to wait--there would be so much more he would come to see. (I paraphrase from John 1:45-50).

I think I prefer the fig branch.