Bartholomew's Secret
“Do not let this book come into the hand of any man who is an unbeliever and heretic. Behold, this is the seventh time I have commanded you, O my son Thaddaeus, concerning these mysteries. Do not reveal them to any impure man, but keep the safely.”
-Saint Bartholomew the Apostle to his son Thaddaeus
Spanning the entire altar wall of the Sistine Chapel is one of Michelangelo’s greatest works. The Last Judgement.
The painting depicts the return of Jesus Christ and the resurrection of the dead who have arrived at their judgment day.
You can see throughout the painting souls ascending to heaven as well as the damned being ushered into hell.
What isn’t so obvious are the secrets the Michelangelo hid throughout his art work.
In a private showing of the painting before its public opening, the Pope’s Master of Ceremonies, Biagio da Cesena said,
"It was most disgraceful that in so sacred a place there should have been depicted all those nude figures, exposing themselves so shamefully, and that it was no work for a papal chapel but rather for the public baths and taverns.”
Michelangelo returned the favor by painting Cesena’s portrait as one of the souls damned to hell with a serpent in a compromising position.
But our attention goes to one of those souls ascending to the heavens.
Just below Christ is Saint Bartholomew who is depicted holding his own skin.
Bartholomew, one of Jesus’ disciples, was condemned to death and skinned alive during his missions in India.
In The Last Judgement, it is widely accepted that Michelangelo painted his own face on the skin.
What was Michelangelo trying to tell us?
Who was Saint Bartholomew?
Bartholomew who was one of Jesus’ twelve disciples (Referred to as Nathanael in the Book of John)
Like Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Bartholomew also wrote a book, but it was different than the traditional gospels. His book is often referred to as the “Questions of Bartholomew.”
Bartholomew was like us.
He was asking questions.
He witnessed the death and resurrection of Jesus and wanted to know “what the heck did I just witness?”
In one instance, he witnesses Jesus vanish from the cross and asked him where he went:
“And Bartholomew said, ‘Lord, when you went to be hanged upon the cross, I followed you afar off and saw you hung upon the cross, and the angels coming down from heaven and worshipping you. And when there came darkness, I looked and I saw that you vanished away from the cross, and I heard only a voice in the parts under the earth, and great wailing and gnashing of teeth all of a sudden. Tell me, Lord, where did you go to from the cross?” 1
In a second instance, he asked the Virgin Mary how she was able to conceive Jesus:
“Bartholomew came near to her [The Virgin Mary] with a cheerful countenance and said to her, ‘You who are highly favoured, the tabernacle of the Most High, unblemished, we, all the apostles ask you to tell us how you conceived the incomprehensible, or how you bore him who cannot be carried, or how you brought forth so much greatness.” 2
In another example, he asked Jesus how Satan takes control of the minds of men.
Jesus literally summons Satan out of hell and commands Bartholomew to stand on his neck and ask for himself.
“Come near, Bartholomew, and trample your feet on his neck, and he will tell you is work, what it is, and how he deceives men.” 3
Bartholomew was scared…
“Lord, I fear because, just as he did not spare your angels, he will swallow me up also.” 4
But Jesus instructs him to have faith.
“Were not all things made by my word, and by the will of my Father the spirits were made subject to Solomon? You, therefore being commanded by my word, go in my name and ask him what you will.” 5
When Bartholomew finally works up the courage to ask the great beast his question, Satan reveals his methods.
“For we have other swift ministers whom we command, and furnish them with a hook of many points and send them forth to hunt, and they catch for us souls of men, enticing them with various tempting baits, that is, by drunkenness and laughter, by backbiting, hypocrisy, pleasures, fornication, and the rest of the trifles that come out of their treasures.” 6
Now armed with these teachings, Bartholomew traveled to India and the surrounding regions to start spreading the word. While he was there he cast out demons and subverted many of their Gods.
At one point, he was charged with coercing a King to abandon his god, who subsequently sentenced him to death by flaying his skin.
The Patron Saint of the Central Nervous System
Bartholomew’s mission has earned him the unofficial title of Patron Saint of the Nervous System.
In fact, at the Duomo in Milan, a statue of Bartholomew stands with his nervous system exposed (and holding his skin of course).
His flayed skin has become representative of the removal of false identities and the revealing of your true self.
This is the Secret of Saint Bartholomew.
What is Bartholomew’s Secret?
What Saint Bartholomew revealed through his work was how to conquer the nervous system. How to conquer the self.
Through years of working with chronic pain clients, I have discovered that the brain and nervous system’s influence over pain is nothing short of profound.
In the presence of fear, self-doubt, anxiety, depression or any mental chaos, the healing powers remain behind lock & key.
The nervous system must grant permission for the pain signal to be removed.
“Now blessed Bartholomew came to the door of the house in the guise of a pilgrim and begged ins
In one story, Bartholomew, disguised as a beggar walked up to the house of one his disciples and asked the following question.
“Where on earth was the place, measuring not more than a foot, where God manifested the greatest miracles?”
A woman inside responded, “it is in the human head, in which the world exists, as it were, in miniature.”
The apostle approved. 7
The secret that Bartholomew had worked so hard to uncover and was so cautious to not let it fall into the wrong hands was the secret to conquering the nervous system.
The Apocryphal New Testament. Edited and translated by J. K. Elliott, Oxford UP, 1993, p. 655.
The Apocryphal New Testament. Edited and translated by J. K. Elliott, Oxford UP, 1993, p. 658.
The Apocryphal New Testament. Edited and translated by J. K. Elliott, Oxford UP, 1993, p. 662.
The Apocryphal New Testament. Edited and translated by J. K. Elliott, Oxford UP, 1993, p. 662.
The Apocryphal New Testament. Edited and translated by J. K. Elliott, Oxford UP, 1993, p. 662.
The Apocryphal New Testament. Edited and translated by J. K. Elliott, Oxford UP, 1993, p. 664.
Jacobus de Voragine. The Golden Legend: Readings on the Saints. Translated by William Granger Ryan, vol. 2, Princeton University Press, 1993, p. 500.