Barnabas

The Holy Apostle Barnabas was one of the Seventy Apostles, the fellow labourer of the Apostle Paul and, according to tradition, the founder of the Church of Cyprus. Born on the island of Cyprus into a Levite family, he died as a martyr at Salamis around the year 61. The Acts of the Apostles itself calls him an apostle.

Name and early life

At first he was called Joseph, or Joses, and the apostles gave him the name Barnabas, meaning 'son of encouragement' or 'of consolation'. Saint John Chrysostom says he was named so for his gift of consoling the sorrowful. His parents were Jews of the tribe of Levi who had settled on Cyprus; some sources say they owned great estates near Jerusalem. Early Church writers, among them Clement of Alexandria and Saint Epiphanius, say that as a young man he was sent to Jerusalem to study under Gamaliel, where he was a fellow student of Saul, the future Apostle Paul. Aristobulus, one of the Seventy, is held to be his brother, and Mark the Evangelist his relative, as cousin or nephew.

In Jerusalem he joined the first Christian community. When the apostles held their goods in common, Barnabas sold his field and laid the money at their feet. When Saul came to Jerusalem after turning to Christ and everyone feared him, Barnabas took him by the hand and brought him to the apostles, telling them how Saul had seen the Lord on the road.

Ministry with Paul

When word came that the Gospel was spreading at Antioch, the church in Jerusalem sent Barnabas there. Seeing how great the work was, he went to Tarsus to seek Paul and brought him back to Antioch, where they laboured together for a whole year. When a famine struck Judea, the two carried to Jerusalem the aid gathered by the Christians of Antioch.

Sent out by the Holy Spirit, Barnabas and Paul set out on the first missionary journey with John Mark. They travelled through Cyprus, Pamphylia, Pisidia and Lycaonia. At Paphos they brought the Roman governor Sergius Paulus to faith after the sorcerer Elymas was struck blind. At Lystra the crowd took Barnabas for Zeus and Paul, the speaker, for Hermes. Both took part in the apostolic council at Jerusalem on the admission of the Gentiles into the Church.

Later the two parted after a sharp disagreement over Mark. Paul left with Silas, while Barnabas returned to Cyprus with Mark, where, according to tradition, they strengthened the Church. The last mention of him in the New Testament is his sailing for Cyprus.

Martyrdom and the finding of his relics

According to tradition, at Salamis he met the opposition of Jews who had come from Syria and who stirred the people against him. Knowing that his end was near, Barnabas gave Mark the Gospel of Matthew, copied in his own hand, asking that it be laid in the tomb with him, and sent him to Paul. He was then stoned in the synagogue, around the year 61, and buried west of the city.

His grave remained unknown for several centuries, and the place came to be called the 'place of healing' because of the cures that happened there. In 478, in the days of Emperor Zeno, the Apostle appeared three times in three nights to Archbishop Anthemius of Cyprus and showed him where his relics lay. On his breast lay the Gospel of Matthew. The monastery of the Apostle Barnabas was later founded there, near Salamis.

Writings ascribed to him and veneration

Several works have been put under his name, though their authorship is uncertain: the Epistle of Barnabas, found in Codex Sinaiticus and probably written around 130 in Alexandria, and the Acts of Barnabas, from the fifth century. The so-⁠called Gospel of Barnabas, from the Middle Ages, has no connection with him.

The Church honours him as the founder of the Church of Cyprus and the patron of the island. His feast is on 11 June, and on 4 January the Synaxis of the Seventy Apostles is kept.