St. Bartholomew's Day

Today, August 24, is known in much of the Christian world as St. Bartholomew's day. Bartholomew, also known as Nathanael, was one of Christ's Twelve Disciples. After Christ's resurrection and ascension, Christian tradition tells us that St. Bartholomew worked to carry out Jesus' Great Commission by going on a missionary trip to India, taking with him a copy of the Gospel of Matthew. He also is believed to have traveled in Asia Minor--modern-day Turkey--and in Armenia, where he is understood to have brought the first news of the Gospel.

Protestants have other reasons to remember St. Bartholomew's Day, as well. On this day in 1572 began the mass slaughter of thousands of French Huguenots. The Protestant influence of John Calvin's French-speaking Geneva had spread widely throughout Calvin's homeland, and France seemed about to follow England, much of Germany, and the Low countries in becoming mainly Protestant nations. Under the authority of Catherine de Medici, several important Protestants were assassinated, and as many as seventy thousand Huguenots were murdered in the mob violence that ensued.

Also, in 1662, the English Parliament passed the second great Act of Uniformity, requiring all ministers of the Church of England to subscribe to a narrow set of practices and doctrinal beliefs. Nearly a third of the clergy--nearly all of the Nonconformists--lost their posts for objecting to doctrines and practices they believed were not Reformed enough. This great expulsion resulted almost immediately in the coalescing of distinct Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Baptists. The American iterations of these denominations trace their history back to this time.