The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-08-24
ST. BARTHoLosIEw's DAY HAS :.
 IMPORTANT PLACE IN HISTORY

St. Bartholomew, Apostle and Mar tyr, will be flonored today by Chris tiAns throughout the world. The tFenty-fourth of August has been ob- served as St. Bartholomew's Day since 1130, and the date is an important one in history. The saint whose memory is revered is identified by most theo- logians as the Nathaniel mentioned in the gospel of St. John as an up- right Israelite, and one. of the first disciples of Jesus. He suffered mar tyrdom for the new faith in the year
 On the evening of this day, s4o years massacre took place in France. Over 1e.0D0 persons were slain in Paris, and Y the victims throughout the Kingdom are variously estimated to have num- bered from 10000 to 100000
 The festival of St. Bartholomew was long generally observed in England. The St. Bartholomew Fair, at smith field, in the heart of London, twas for centuries an Institution that attract ed viaitors from all over Europe. The charter for. the fair was granted by Henry | in 113S to the famous monk, Rahers. who for years had been King Henrys court jester and who was the founder of the priery of St. Bartho- lonnew and the famous St. Bartholo- mew Hospital. It was while employed in the latter institution. several cen- turies later, that William Harvey made his. epochal announcement re- garding the circulation of the blood. St. Bartholomew Fair opened annu- ally on August A, the feast of the saint, and continued fourteen days. When 1t was first established it was the great annual market of the king world. The shows were not discon- tinued until 1850, and of late there has been an effort toward the revival of the historic exhibition. Sports and pastimes of the most brutal and vul- gar nature marked the early fair, and it's dedication to a saint was hard ly in keeping with it's character, so far as its amusement features were concsrned.
 Sandwich was for centuries the scene of an annual observance of the festival. as the people of the place looked upon St. Bartholomew as their patron saint and deliVerer. It was through his intercession, say the leg endary accounts, that the city was saved from being footed by Eustace the Monk, @ famous pirate of the thir- teenth century. This Eustace is said to have become proficient in black art at Toledo, which in those times was a center for instruction in the mysteries Of magic. He made an al liance with the devil and became a black monk at Saint Saumer, where he caused great consternation in the mon astery by making his fellow monks fast on feast days and feast on fast days. and to perform ceremonies in honor of Satan. On the death of his father. a peer Of Boulogne, Eustace became a noble, but was soon forced to flee the country He became pi- rate, with fleet of thirty galleys, and plundered Guernsey, Jersey and Normandy On St. BartholomeW's Day he entered Sandwich Harbor, where the inhabitants prayed to St. Bartholomew to come to their relief. Eustaee had made his ship invisible according to the old chronicle-but through the aid of the saint one Crabbe was enabled to board his ves- sel and cut off the head of the dread- ed buccaneer. Then a terrible storm arose and destroyed the pirate fleet. In the midst of the tempest the good folk of Sandwich saw a man with red gar- merts, and heard a voice saying, 'I am Bartholomew, and am sent to assist you: fear nothing The people of Sandwich then built a hospital and chapel dedicated to St Bartholomew, and a custom was established which required that every twenty-fourth of August be observed by a solemn pro- cession of the commons, each member carving a taper in his hand to be ofefred to tfKeir saviour.