Editor,

The seed of wisdom is self knowledge. As a community, the key to our collective identity lies largely in myth and folklore. With that in mind it may be useful to examine the history behind one of our city’s most unusual architectural wonders.

St. Bart’s Church at the corner of East Main Street and Silver Street, with its Romanesque features, blue stone exterior, clay tile roof and stunning bell tower, rings out a message of hope and salvation from another land and another age. Originally built by hoards of immigrants from the Island of Lipari, just north of Sicily, it testifies to the power and the glory of a martyr who was skinned alive for his commitment to Divine Illumination.

St. Bartholomew, totally without guile, might today be heard reiterating the idiom, “It is what it is.” His faith transcended mere belief. It was rather a mystic certainty born not from whimsical momentary communion with Divinity but total permanent absorption into the ecstasy of oneness with the universe. For him horrifying death was a ticket to joyous eternity.