Bartholomew: the sailor  

Bartholomew, St, in the Christian Church, one of the 12 apostles of Christ (see Mark 3:14-19). He is identified by many biblical scholars with Nathanael, a native of Galilee described in John 1:45-51. Unsubstantiated tradition relates that he was a missionary in many countries and preached the gospel in India (properly Arabia), where he left behind a copy, in Hebrew, of the Gospel of Matthew. St Bartholomew's feast day is August 24 in the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England and June 11 in the Orthodox Church.

  For more information see For All the Saints Index .  

Saint Bartholomew was one of the apostles, but he is not venerated as such in Portugal—there is a big gap between the apostle of Jesus and the popular saint. If we ask who was Saint Bartholomew, the answers are like this: “He was an honest man in everything he said and did”. Or “People say that Saint Bartholomew was a sailor”. This is all that is known about such a popular saint.  The last answer sums up the personage: the Portuguese Saint Bartholomew has characteristics of the Greek Poseidon reinterpreted by the people; the popular Poseidon of the ancient Phoenicians, the lord of the seas, father of the rivers and forefather of a numerous posterity of sailors. It is one of the most interesting cults in Portuguese popular religion. Saint Bartholomew is or was patron saint of the sailors and of the fishermen, and of everyone who lives near rivers or bridges.  

In the interior of the Beira region and along the coast we find dozens of churches and chapels with this saint’s name: they are all near rivers or the coast. The images show him as masculine, bearded and ugly. His symbols are a trident or a sword in his hand and, at his feet, the figure of a little monster who either looks like a dog (a mixture of dog and fish), or a dolphin, which is called a “búgio”, or a little devil. Sometimes the little monster is tied to the hands of the saint. We find images of Saint Bartholomew, which are almost identical to those of Poseidon. The relationship that the saint maintains with the little monster (the devil for some people) is not one of conflict but of cooperation. The monster is the lackey or messenger of the saint. “When you ask the saint for something (for example, for him to find something that is missing), the saint sends the “búgio”, who is his servant, and the búgio goes to find it”, or “the saint gives the order, and the “búgio” takes his hand off what is missing, because it was the devil that was hiding it.” Alms are given to the saint but no one forgets the “búgio”. That is why there are two little bags at the feet of the image, red for the boss, black for the servant. In other situations the alms for the “búgio” are placed in his mouth, when it is open. It is said that the saint should be given white coins and his servant black coins, but this is only in theory. We were told near Aveiro where the saint is highly venerated, that the “búgio” often gets more money than his boss. In the region of São Pedro do Sul, mothers threaten their disobedient children with the “screw of Saint Bartholomew”. This screw could only be an instrument of torture, but no one has seen it. Everywhere, Saint Bartholomew is a figure of fear for the children.  

In Ponte da Barca (north of Porto on the Lima River) this saint is venerated with horse races, in the same way that Poseidon presided over horse races and bull fights. He is associated with the holy baths in August. These baths of Saint Bartholomew of the Sea are especially interesting. They are celebrated in Esposende, Nelas (Viseu), Foz do Douro, etc. They have a homeopathic therapy against the fears of children and adults. The cures (which are real in some cases) are not caused by the baths in the sea but from the fear inspired by the saint, a homeopathic fear, which comes from the image of Saint Bartholomew, frowning, sword or trident in his hand, the little monster at his feet. The mechanism is identical to that used by certain exorcists, who, using violent processes, dominate the evil spirit that oppresses the possessed.    

20kb jpg detail from 'The Apostle Saint Bartholomew' by Matteo di Giovanni, c.1480, tempera on wood, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest; please do not write to ask about the image

At the same time, children with certain handicaps in their development (stuttering, rickets etc.) are taken on the pilgrimages to the saint. This visit is enough because the attention given to them on these days awakens certain mechanisms and predispositions, feelings of confidence, which are indispensable to their psychological and physiological development. As a payment for these therapeutic favors, the people from the Minho offer black hens; and some say that, on the saint’s day, the “eggs or the meat to be eaten should be from a black hen.  

It is impossible to distinguish the saintliness from the diabolic in this saint. His intimacy with the little monster ties him to Satanism. According to several proverbs, on his day (24 August) “the devil rides out”, the “wind makes dust devils, caused by the devil”, etc. He has power and control of the storms and the gales. That is why he protects against the movements of the rivers and the sea storms; he causes one evil in order to do away with another evil.  

Saint Bartholomew is the popular version of Poseidon. Some statues in the Beira region, especially near the Ria of Aveiro, still show him with a trident and at his feet is a dolphin, which is the lackey of the saint, as it was the messenger of Poseidon. The dog (mixture of dog and fish) of Saint Bartholomew corresponds to Cila, lover of Poseidon which his wife, Anfitrite, torn by jealousy, transformed into a dog and which became his companion or slave, a diabolic nymph who was companion of Charybdis: Scylla and Charybdis were two perils for sailors in the strait of Messina, where there was an important shrine to Poseidon. Black hens are offered to Saint Bartholomew of the Sea (Esposende), as black bulls were offered to Poseidon, according to the Odyssey; since Poseidon was a divinity who lived in the depths of the ocean and at any moment could unleash maritime forces and storms; he was the prototype of the unpredictable divinity, angry and terrible.  

Saint Christopher is similar to Saint Bartholomew with respect to rivers, since he keeps the rivers from overflowing. He was born in Canaan, according to Catholic hagiology. His cult is important in the Minho region. He was a giant, and according to the myths that surround him, he was a good man who helped the weak to cross a river. One day he had to take a child across that was very heavy. “You seem as heavy as the world!” And the child answered: “It is because you are carrying the world.” Saint Christopher is the Christianizing of the Phoenician figure called Malcartus, Melkarth or Heracles of Tyre, a great sailor, adventurer and Phoenician hero, founder of Tyre. He carried out his famous Twelve Labors and many other adventures in the country “where the day ends” (in the West). The mountain where there was a temple to Melkarth of Tyre, in Cadis, is called today Sam Cristobal. The story of the Child “as heavy as the world” is the popular adaptation of the episode of this Heracles of Tyre holding the world that Atlas has thrown on top of him. The people in the Minho show him supported on a corrugated mace, dressed in a woman’s tunic, his hair well brushed and slightly effeminate. Heracles also ended up like this. He was the father of the boy called Telefe, who was abandoned by his mother; he was shown on Heracles’ shoulder as Saint Christopher is shown in the popular imagination.    

A card showing Bartholomew

Links to Saint Bartholomew