Sidonia called Bartholmai
This is the blind-born from John 9,1-34. He is a thirty-year-old young man from the working-class district of Ophel, in Jerusalem. He appears to have no eyelids: the forehead meets the cheeks with no cavity, and it seems that underneath there are no eyeballs. Jesus spreads mud on his eyelids and asks him to go wash at the Fountain of Siloam: he is healed.
This healing, during the Sabbath, is a trap set up with the complicity of Judas. To foil it, Jesus does not immediately perform the miracle. The confession-gle, having seen nothing, cannot say anything, in all good faith.
This trap foiled, and Jesus gone, the anger of the Temple falls back on Sidonius (Sidonia) and his parents: they will be expelled from the synagogue and declared anathemas. In this turmoil, Sidonius keeps his faith:
"If God has loved me and you so much as to grant us the miracle", he said to his mother devastated by the condemnation, "will He not be able to defend us from a handful of men?"[1]
Later Sidonius encounters Jesus whom he has never seen before. He wants to know the Son of God and serve him.
"You have already seen Him, and there is no need for you to go to Him. He, Whom you see just now and Who is speaking to you, is the Son of God", Jesus replies.[2]
At these words, Maria Valtorta has the impression that a very brief Transfiguration occurs. Jesus becomes very radiant and shines.[2]
He turns to the persecutors lying in wait. They are blinder than Sidonius was. Jesus is the good Shepherd and his sheep know him.[3] Sidonius decides to follow Jesus.
During the Passion, his elderly mother, Anne, dies of pain seeing Jesus wounded and struck, He who had given back the eyes to her son.[4]
His name
Sidonius: possibly related to the city of Sidon. Bartholmai means "son of Tolmai," also a nickname of Bartholomew (Nathaniel) the Apostle (Barthélemy).
Where is he mentioned in the work?
Learn more about this character
Excerpts from the Dictionary of Characters of the Gospel According to Maria Valtorta (Msgr. René Laurentin, François-Michel Debroise, Jean-François Lavère, Éditions Salvator, 2012):
According to a tradition reported by Msgr. Gaume,[5] and attested by several other sources, Sidonius or Celoidonius embarked with the family of Bethany during their exile in Provence (Narbonese Gaul).
He became bishop of Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux (Ardèche) under the name of Restitut. This name means "he to whom sight has been restored."[6]
Saint Restitut is celebrated on November 7.
At the death of Maximin, he became bishop of Aix-en-Provence. He is buried in the crypt of Saint Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume. It was in his sarcophagus that the relics of Mary Magdalene had been hidden to protect them from the Saracens.[7]
Notes and references
- ↑ GRM 510.14.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 GRM 518.3.
- ↑ See John 9:35 through 10:21.
- ↑ GRM 630.11
- ↑ Msgr. Gaume, Biographies évangéliques, 1881, Volume I, pp. 300-301.
- ↑ Bernard Gui, Dominican and historian (early 14th century), Miroir Sanctoral, and Life of Saint Maximin.
- ↑ See Saints of Provence.