Editing Bartholomew the Apostle (section)

===In Armenia===
[[File:Saint Bartholomew Monastery general view.png|thumb|250px|[[Saint Bartholomew Monastery]] at the site of the Apostle's martyrdom in historical Armenia, now ruinous]]
Along with his fellow apostle [[Jude the Apostle|Jude "Thaddeus"]], Bartholomew is reputed to have brought Christianity to [[Kingdom of Armenia (antiquity)|Armenia]] in the 1st century; as a result, in 301 the Armenian kingdom became the first state in history to embrace Christianity officially. Thus, both saints are considered the [[patron saint]]s of the [[Armenian Apostolic Church]]. According to these traditions, Bartholomew is the second [[Catholicos-Patriarch]] of the Armenian Apostolic Church.<ref name="Gilman">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UGpr2KsbS94C|title=Christians in Asia before 1500|isbn=9781136109782|last1=Gilman|first1=Ian|last2=Klimkeit|first2=Hans-Joachim|date=2013-01-11|publisher=Routledge }}</ref>

Christian tradition offers three accounts of Bartholomew's death: "One speaks of his being kidnapped, beaten unconscious, and cast into the sea to [[drowning|drown]]."

In the Hellenic tradition, Bartholomew was executed in [[Albanopolis, Armenia|Albanopolis]] in Armenia, where he was martyred for having converted Polymius, the local king, to Christianity. Enraged by the monarch's conversion, and fearing a Roman backlash, King Polymius's brother, Prince Astyages, ordered Bartholomew's torture and execution. However, this version of the story appears ahistorical, as there are no records of any Armenian king of the [[Arsacid dynasty of Armenia]] with the name "Polymius". Other accounts of his martyrdom name the king as either Agrippa (identified with [[Tigranes VI]]), or [[Sanatruk]], king of Armenia.<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8WPfEAAAQBAJ |title =The Martyrdom of St. Bartholomew: Greek, Arabic, and Armenian Versions |isbn = 9798868951473 |last1 = Curtin|first1 = D. P.|date = January 2014|publisher =Dalcassian Publishing Company }}</ref>

The 13th-century [[Saint Bartholomew Monastery]] was a prominent Armenian monastery constructed at the presumed site of Bartholomew's martyrdom in [[Vaspurakan]], Greater Armenia (now in southeastern Turkey).<ref name="raa.am" />