What Happened to the Apostles after Pentecost (Part three)

St. Philip

St. Philip is listed among the apostles awaiting the Holy Spirit in the upper room - as mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles 1:13. After Pentecost, one story-tradition reports that Philip preached in Greece, and was crucified upside down (like St. Peter), in Hierapolis under Emperor Domitian. Another tradition says that Philip brought the gospel to Phrygia and Hierapolis, in Asia Minor and was crucified there. After his martyrdom, stories say that his remains were eventually brought to Rome and have been preserved in the basilica of the Apostles since the time of Pope Pelagius (ca. 561 A.D.).

St. Bartholomew

The Roman Martyrology says the apostle Bartholomew (called "Nathanael" in the gospel of John), preached in India, Mesopotamia, Persia, Egypt and Greater Armenia, where he was flayed and beheaded by King Astyages. The place of his martyrdom was at Abanopolis on the West Coast of the Caspian Sea. There are proofs that St. Bartholomew preached in India according to St. Pantaenus, who found there a copy of the gospel of Matthew in Hebrew in the 3rd century A.D. The peoples St. Bartholomew preached the gospel were the most barbaric in the East, so much so, that when war was declared on the new Christian communities formed by him, St. Bartholomew was beaten, his skin cut into strips and removed, leaving the apostle agonizing with his flesh open and bleeding for a long time. The dreadful manner of his martyrdom explains why in sacred art, St. Bartholomew is shown holding a knife in one hand, with his skin draped over his other arm.

St. Matthew

To Matthew was given the holy task to write one of the gospels. One story-tradition says that after Pentecost, Matthew preached in Judea and then in Ethiopia were he suffered martyrdom. Another tradition states that he preached in Persia and it was there that he was martyred. Many scholars believe that St. Matthew wrote his gospel around the year 70 A.D., in Antioch, Syria. Because of his profession in accounting, before Christ called him to be one of His Twelve apostles, Matthew's written account of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, is the most precise, complete, and accurate. It is no wonder therefore that St. Matthew has been made the patron saint of accountants, bankers, and bookkeepers.

To be continued.