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Bartholomew
APOSTLE OF ARMENIA.
Also called Bartholomaeus Parvus (the Little), born at Bologna, year
not known; died 15 August, 1333. Nothing certain has been preserved as to
his family. At the end of the thirteenth century, while still young, he entered
the Dominican Order, made his studies in the monastery of his native town, and
soon became noted as a capable theologian and a preacher zealous for souls. Pope
John XXII cherished a great desire not only to keep the Catholic Armenians in
connection with the Roman See, but also to lead the schismatic part of this people
into unity with the Church; for this reason he supported and encouraged the
Dominican missions in the regions inhabited by Armenians. Bartholomew was
selected to be the head and leader of a little band of Dominican missionaries
whom John XXII sent to Armenia. He was consecrated bishop and received as his
see the city of Maragha, lying east of Lake Urumiah. Accompanied by several
companions the new missionary bishop arrived (1318-20) in the territory
assigned to him. He studied the Armenian language, built a monastery for
his brethren of the order, and with the aid of these began his apostolic
labors. He met with such success that large numbers of heathen and Mohammedans
were converted and many schismatic Armenians were brought into Catholic unity.
The zealous bishop gave great care to this latter part of his missionary labors,
as he found many Armenians favorably disposed to union. Bartholomew's reputation
for saintliness and learning spread rapidly into distant regions and came to the
knowledge of a group of Armenian monks who were striving after a higher degree
of perfection and the attainment of Church unity. The leader of these monks was
the learned John of Kherna (Kherni), the head of a monastery near Kherna in the
district of Erentschag (now Alenja), not far from Nachidjewan. John was a pupil
of the celebrated theologian Isaias, whose school had produced 370 doctors of
theology (Vartabed). In 1328 John of Kherna sought out Bishop Bartholomew,
remained with him a year and a half and became a warm advocate of union with
the Roman Church. He sent an invitation to a conference, drawn up by the
zealous missionary, to his former fellow-students, and Bartholomew went with
him to Kherna, where the conference was held. The result was that a large number
of learned monks joined John of Kherna in submitting to the authority of the
Holy See. In order to promote union and raise religious life John founded in
1330, with the consent of Bartholomew, a religious congregation called the
Uniats (Unitores) of St Gregory the Illuminator
, which was later
incorporated with the Dominicans. About this time Bartholomew seems to have
substituted Nachidiewan for Maragha as his see. This brought him nearer to
the center of Armenia, so that he was able to work more efficiently for the
development of the union. He translated a number of works into the Armenian
language, as the Psalter, treatises of St. Augustine, the Summa contra
Gentiles
of St. Thomas, and a part of the Summa Theologica
; he also
wrote several original works, especially a work on casuistry and a treatise
on the sacraments.
Conciliationes ecclesiae Armenae cum Romana, ed. CLEM. GALANO, Armenian and Latin (Rome, 1650), Pt. I, 598f.; MELLONI, Atti e memorie degli uomini illustri in santità nati o morti in Bologna (Bologna, 1779), cl. II, vol. II, 110-142; TOURON, Hist. des hommes illustres de l'ordre de S. Dominique (Paris, 1743), II, 110f.; TOURNEBIZE, Histoire politique et religieuse de l'Arménie, Les Frères-Unis de S. Grégoire l'Illuminateur in Revue de l'Orient chrétien (1906), 74f.; BRÉHIER, L'Église et l'Orient au moyen áge (Paris, 1907), 280-281.
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