St BARTHOLOMEW'S DAY, a festival of the Christian church, celebrated on the 24th of August. St Bartholomew was one of the twelve Apostles; and is esteemed to be the same as Nathanael, one of the first disciples that came to Christ.
It is thought this apostle travelled as far as India, to propagate the gospel; for Eusebius relates, that a famous philosopher and Christian, named Pantenus,
desiring to imitate the apostolical zeal in propagating the faith, and travelling for that purpose as far as India, found there, among those who yet retained the knowledge of Christ, the gospel of St Matthew, written, as the tradition asserts, by St Bartholomew, one of the twelve apostles, when he preached the gospel in that country. From thence he returned to the more northern and western parts of Asia, and preached to the people of Hierapolis; then in Lycaonia; and lastly at Albania, a city upon the Caspian Sea; where his endeavours to reclaim the people from idolatry were crowned with martyrdom, he being (according to some writers) flea'd alive, and crucified with his head downwards.—There is mention made of a Gospel of St Bartholomew, in the preface to Origen's Homilies on St Luke, and in the preface to St Jerom's commentary on St Matthew: but it is generally looked upon as spurious, and is placed by pope Gelasius among the apocryphal books.