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ICON OF ST BARTHOLOMEW FOR THE ANGLICAN CHURCH IN DINARD

The St Bartholomew Icon   -   Please be patient as pictures load

Father Gareth of St Bartholomew's Church (the Anglican Church in Dinard) commissioned the icon as early as 2009 when Corrie Stein brought him to see my studio in Le Lyvet. The following July, some of my work was on display in St Bartholomew’s during the Flower and Icon Festival and I was also engaged in writing icons for Anglican churches in Jersey.  It was agreed, therefore, that I would research and write an icon for August 2011 to coincide with the feast of St Bartholomew and the church in Dinard’s 140th anniversary.

And so I set to work to research my subject. The icon was to be Armenian in style and colour for it was in Armenia that Bartholomew was ultimately martyred. His robe is the garment worn by a 1st Century Apostle. Its colour determined by the Armenian penchant for mauves and reds.

In his right hand, a cross and a book. The book is the gospel of St Matthew (in Hebrew) which Bartholomew is said (according to the apocryphal gospel of Bartholomew) to have brought to the people of India. The cross is that of a martyr. In his left hand, a skinner’s knife symbolising the manner of his death - that of being flayed alive.

Barefoot, as befits an Apostle, Bartholomew stands with his feet planted firmly on the ground in green surrounded by a fig-leaf motif to symbolise his Jewish roots. According to John’s gospel, it was under a fig tree that Jesus saw him before he was brought by his friend, Philip, to meet Jesus.

Bearded, Bartholomew is surrounded by a halo to indicate he is a saint whose inner light is sufficiently radiant for us to see. Above him to his left, an angel tenders to him his very own skin, symbolising the particular form of martyrdom suffered as a consequence of his proclamation of the gospel of our Risen Lord. A vision of heaven was promised Bartholomew at his call and it is to heaven on his right-hand side to which the angel now points Bartholomew. For he is indeed ‘a saint in heaven for the church on earth’ and is, as an antiphon suggests, ‘a servant of God who esteemed as naught all things earthly and by word and work laid him up treasures in heaven.’

It has been a privilege to be asked to write this icon for the Church. It is written on a piece of pine, a nineteenth century pew end from an Anglican church in Jersey. But the representation of St Bartholomew is much older for like all icons, it is rooted in a tradition that developed in the Early Church and suggests the continuity of our 2,000-year-old story.

It was a privilege to spend a week in the church at the end of August, the week which climaxed in the  patronal festival and to pray there each day as I prayerfully wrote the icon. My prayer now is that dedicated and blessed, this icon may form a new but integral part of the prayer and worship which permeates the fabric of the church, a building which the Dinardais themselves consider to be one of their town’s little ‘bijoux’.

Icon of St Bartholomew

Revd. Gareth Randall blesses the icon

Pictures of the Icon

and St Bartholomews

above right and below

Revd. Gareth  Randall takes the service

Karen and the icon of St Bartholomew

Entrance to St Bartholomew's Church

Interior of Church

St. Bartholomew's is an English-speaking Anglican church

in the north Brittany seaside resort of Dinard. It was dedicated in 1871.  The church extends a warm welcome to visitors to Dinard as well as local residents. 

Photographs taken from www.stbarts-dinard.org.uk

St Bartholomew’s Anglican Church

rue Faber, Dinard

Founded 1871

The Revd Gareth Randall

Priest-in-charge

0033 (0)2 99 46 77 00

e-mail : father-gareth@stbarts-dinard.org.uk

Website : www.stbarts-dinard.org.uk