Today as we celebrate the feast of St Bartholomew, Fr Paul Gooley reads from the Gospel of John (1: 45-51) in which Jesus seeing Nathanael approaching said, ‘There is an Israelite, who deserves the name incapable of deceit.’ Nathanael responds asking Jesus, ‘How do you know me?’.

Fr Paul says Bartholomew was born at Cana and brought by the Apostle Philip to meet Jesus. Nothing further is known for certain. Eusebius speaks of him in India, but the Roman Martyrology has him martyred in Armenia, skinned alive according to the Persian custom.

Because his relics were enshrined on an island in the Tiber that is principally used as a hospital, he has become a patron saint of the sick.

On this day, Fr Paul invites us to ask, ‘St Bartholomew…pray for us!’