God of saints, to whom the number
Of the starry hosts is known:
Many saints by earth forgotten
Live for ever round your throne.

In the roll of your apostles
Stands the name Bartholomew,
For this faithful saint we offer,
Year by year, our thanks to you.

It was he, beneath the fig tree
Seen of Thee, and guileless found;
He who saw the good he longed for
Rise from Nazareth’s barren ground;

He who met his risen Master
On the shore of Galilee;
He to whom the word was spoken,
“Greater things you yet shall see.”

All his faith and prayer and patience
All his toiling and his strife,
All are veiled from us, but written
In the Lamb’s great book of life.

There are named the blessed faithful
Of the new Jerusalem.
When Christ comes again in glory,
Number us, we pray, with them.

ART: Jaume Huguet, Detail of the Martyrdom of St. Bartholomew, 15th century