BARTHOLOMEW THE YOUNGER, St. — He flourished between the 10th and 11th centuries and was the most illustrious disciple of St. Nilus, sharing with him the region of Calabria as their homeland. His feast is recorded in the Roman Martyrology on 11 November. Having become a monk while still young at Serperi near Gaeta, he followed his revered master to Tusculum, where the future monastery of Grottaferrata was to arise (v.).
After the death of St. Nilus, he was designated as his successor in the governance of the monastery and in the practice of its virtues, in which he emulated the founder.
Using remains of ancient Roman villas, he built a church which he dedicated to the Madonna and which in 1024 was consecrated by Pope John XIX himself. The saint’s relations with the powerful family of the Counts of Tusculum were such that the nephew and successor of John, Benedict IX, addressed a letter to Bartholomew as “spiritual and venerable father.” It has therefore been believed that the young and inexperienced pope yielded to the entreaties of St. Bartholomew and abdicated the papal throne to go and do penance at Grottaferrata, where he was buried.
In April 1044, B. took part in the Lateran Council and subscribed to its decrees as the second among the abbots; a few years earlier he had hastened to Gaeta as a peacemaker between Duke Adonolf and the Prince of Salerno. He died in the early years of the second half of the 11th century, leaving numerous sacred hymnographic compositions preserved through the precious Greek manuscripts of the library of Grottaferrata. His two principal works are said to be the Life of St. Nilus and the drafting of a Typikon, or liturgical ordinance, attributed to him by tradition and supported by not inconsiderable critical reasons.