The Acts of St. Bartholomew

The Acts of the Apostles focuses on the work of St. Peter and St. Paul, and does not tell much about the others.  We might wish that its author, St. Luke, had gone into equal amounts of detail about each of the other Apostles, but such was not the scope of his work.  Later writers tried to fill in the gaps in our knowledge of the Apostles with their own works on them.  Some of these apocryphal acts were taken as authentic history by medieval churchmen.  The following homily by St. Bede for the feast of St. Bartholomew is drawn from a collection of these lives of the Apostles called "The Apostolic History", which was edited in the 500's in a Frankish monastery.

"When Blessed Bartholomew went into India, he entered a temple where there was a demon named Asheroth, and he began to stay there as a pilgrim.  The men of that place said that the demon healed everyone who was sick, and many came there from faraway regions at that time, all seeking for him to heal them.  But through the power of St. Bartholomew, the demon remained silent.  Then men from there went out to a city where there was another demon and they asked if he knew why the first demon was not able to speak.  He said, 'From the hour when the Apostle Bartholomew entered the temple, your god was bound with fiery chains so that he could neither speak nor breathe.'  They asked him who was this Bartholomew.  The demon Berith responded, 'He is a friend of the Almighty God, and he has come to this land to destroy all the vain idols.'  They all responded and said to him, 'Give us a sign so that we may be able to recognize him.'  The demon responded, 'He has black hair, white skin, large eyes, nostrils of equal size, ears covered by the hair of his head, and a lengthy beard with a few gray hairs.  He is of middle stature, neither very tall, nor very short.  He is dressed in a white mantle.  Never in twenty-six years has his clothing been changed.  He prays a hundred times each day and so many times every night.  His voice is like a trumpet.  The angels of God walk with him and do not allow him to become tired or hungry.  At all times he remains joyful in The Lord.  He foresees all things, speaks all languages, and has understanding.'  The men returned and found him preaching, and they recognized him.  A certain man, filled with a demon, came and cried out, 'Bartholomew, Apostle of God, your prayers burn me!'  And the Apostle said, 'Be silent, demon, and go out of him!'  And immediately he went out from him.  At last, the king commanded him to be beheaded.  Afterwards, innumerable people, who believed in God through him, came from twelve cities and carried his body with hymns and all glory, and they built for him a basilica of wondrous size, and placed his body in it.  But on the thirtieth day of his entombment, the king was seized by a demon, and he and many priests filled with demons came to the tomb of St. Bartholomew and confessed the Apostle of God, and so they died.  And it came to pass that a great fear came over all the unbelievers, and they believed and were all baptized by the priests whom St. Bartholomew ordained.  And it came to pass, through a revelation of the Apostle that the king was ordained as Bishop by all the clergy, with all the people crying out.  It was King Apollonius who was ordained bishop, and he began to perform many signs in the name of The Lord and of St. Bartholomew.  He remained as bishop for twenty years, and then departed to The Lord by the intercession of St. Bartholomew."