Peter Bartholomew

Peter Bartholomäus († April 20, 1099 ) was a penniless French monk and mystic who accompanied the knights on the First Crusade .

In December 1097, during the siege of Antioch , he reported visions, mostly of St. Andrew , that he had. Peter reported that St. Andrew took him to St. Peter's Church within Antioch and showed him where the Holy Lance could be found. St. Andrew instructed Peter to inform the leaders of the crusade and to hand over the lance to Raymond IV of Toulouse if it was found. Peter did not inform Raimund or the other leaders immediately, waited four more visions until June 1098. Since February 1098 he lost his sight, perhaps because of the hunger the Crusaders had to fight, but in his opinion as a punishment by the Saints.

After the Crusaders conquered Antioch, Peter and Raimund began to dig up the floor of the church. On June 14, 1098, Peter discovered the lance, pretending to have had another vision of St. Andrew that night, who told him to set up a festival in honor of the discovery. Many people, including the Apostolic Legate Adhemar de Monteil , believed that Peter was a charlatan who simply brought a piece of iron to find it here. After Adhemar's death later that year, Peter said Adhemar visited him to confirm the authenticity of the lance.

The discovery of the lance was initially seen as a good omen, it boosted the morale of the crusaders when they were besieged by a Muslim army. The lance was said to have secured the Christian victory in this siege, as St. Andrew had promised. Nevertheless, Peter's reputation suffered, especially since many nobles did not believe his statements. He later stated that Jesus instructed him to let the Crusaders go barefoot to Jerusalem, which was largely ignored. Other visions of Jesus, Andrew, Adhemar, and others revealed divine anger at the sins and customs of the Crusaders.

On April 8, 1099, Peter went through a trial by fire in an attempt to prove his statements. He most likely got severe burns in the process, although he said he was unharmed because Jesus appeared to him in the fire and was only hurt when the crowd celebrated him afterwards. He died twelve days later, on April 20th.

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• Gesta Francorum et aliorum hierosolimitanorum