Barnabas

Saint Barnabas is counted among the venerable wonderworkers Barnabas and Hilarion, commemorated together on 21 October (new style, in the Church of Cyprus) and honoured especially at Peristerona in Cyprus. Little is known of them.

The chroniclers Leontios Machairas and Kyprianos reckon them among the 300 Alamanoi who came to Cyprus after the Second Crusade. The synaxarion of the saints, however, says something clearly different: they came from Cappadocia and lived in the time of the emperor Theodosius the Younger, in the first half of the fifth century. Both came from noble families and served in the emperor's army, where they stood out for their stature, courage and whole manner of life. The love of Christ led them to leave the army and its glory and to withdraw into the desert, to prayer, the reading of Scripture and ascetic labour.

Miracles took place daily at their dwelling, and the sick, the sorrowful and those in need found healing and comfort with them. The miracles did not cease after their death. According to tradition, their relics came to Cyprus by the power of God. A pious man named Leontios, of Soloi, saw them at night in a dream, and the saints told him to go to the place called Stomation, on the shore of Morphou where the river Serrachis flows into the sea. There he found a wooden chest that he could not move with his oxen. On the second night the saints showed him that they did not want the pair of oxen but his two sons. With them, after prayer, he lifted the chest and carried it to Peristerona, and inside it were found the relics of the two saints. Many miracles followed: the blind received sight, those troubled by unclean spirits were freed, and the paralysed walked. Soon a beautiful church was built for their relics, and it stands to this day.