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Blessed Bartolomeo of Simeri

Blessed Bartolomeo of Simeri Also known as

Bartolomeo of Semeri
Bartolomeo of Trigono
Bartholomew…
Bartholomäus…
Basilio

19 August

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The son of Giorgio and Elena, a pious couple who consecrated the boy to God, and insured he had a good education, both religious and secular. As a young man, he left to become a spiritual student of the desert hermit fathers. During this time he received a monk‘s robe, the tonsure, and took the name Bartolomeo. This led him to become a cave hermit in the Italian mountains of Sila. His reputation for wisdom and holiness led would-be spiritual students to seek him out. Bartolomeo valued his solitude, but he received a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary who asked him to welcome those who wished to serve God; he then gave up the life of a hermit, built the Santa Maria Nuova Odigitria monastery and church in the Cosenza province, and served as its first abbot.

Santa Maria Nuova Odigitria became a leading house in the area, so influential and richly endowed that it caused brothers in other houses to accuse Bartolomeo using the house assets to bribe people in the region to keep his independence of the authority of local bishop. The abbot was called to answer these charges, and refused to defend himself, leaving it to God; the authorities took his lack of defense as admission, and condemned him to be burned at the stake. However, a pillar of fire reaching into the heavens appeared, defending Bartholomew; the authorities reversed their decision and asked for the abbot‘s forgiveness.