Martyrdom of St. Bartholomew Departure of St. Melyos, the third Pope of Alexandria

Martyrdom of St. Bartholomew, the Apostle

On this day we commemorate the martyrdom of the holy Apostle Bartholomew one of the Twelve Apostles. A lot fell on him to go to the oasis (the great oasis Al-Khargah) in Egypt. He went there and preached to its people and called them to the knowledge of God, after he had performed amazing signs and wonders. He had originally entered the city with Peter who sold him as a slave. He worked in the vineyards of a rich man and whenever he trimmed the vine branches they immediately bore fruit.

It happened that the son of the chief of that city died and Bartholomew the Apostle raised him from the dead. All the people believed and he strengthened them in the knowledge of God.

After that the Lord Jesus commanded him to go to the land of the Barbarians. To help him, the Lord sent Andrew as his disciple. The people of that city were evil and they did not accept any signs or wonders from them. Yet the two Apostles persisted in preaching and teaching them until they accepted the faith, obeyed and became Christians. The two Apostles ordained priests and built churches for them and then departed.

Bartholomew left for cities on the Mediterranean coast whose inhabitants did not know God. He preached and converted them to the knowledge of God and the belief in the Lord Jesus Christ. He taught them to live a life worthy of Christianity and directed them to be pure and chaste. When King Agrippa heard about him he was enraged and commanded his servants to put him in a sack, fill it with sand and cast it into the sea and that was how he was martyred.

Also on this day in the year 98 A.D. St. Melyos, the third Pope of Alexandria, departed. He was enthroned in the fifteenth year of the reign of King Domitian, the son of Vespasian the King of Rome, fifty five years after the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. He pastured the flock of God twelve years and departed in peace.