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St.
Barnabas
A Jew, born in Cyprus and named Joseph, he sold his property, gave the proceeds to the Apostles, who gave him the name Barnabas, and lived in common with the earliest converts to Christianity in Jerusalem. He persuaded the community there to accept St. Paul as a disciple, was sent to Antioch, Syria, to look into the community there, and brought St. Paul there from Tarsus. With St. Paul he brought Antioch's donation to the Jerusalem community during a famine, and returned to Antioch with John Mark, his cousin. The three went on a missionary journey to Cyprus, Perga (when John Mark went to Jerusalem), and Antioch in Pisidia, where they were so violently opposed by the Jews that they decided to preach to the pagans. Then they went on to Iconium and Lystra in Lycaonia, where they were first acclaimed gods and then stoned out of the city, and then returned to Antioch in Syria.
When a dispute arose
regarding the observance of the
Jewish rites, Saints Paul and
Barnabas went to Jerusalem,
where, at a council, it was
decided that pagans did not have
to be circumcised to be
baptized. On their return to
Antioch, St. Barnabas wanted to
take John Mark on another
visitation to the cities where
they had preached, but St. Paul
objected because of John Mark's
desertion of them in Perga. St.
Paul and St. Barnabas parted,
and St. Barnabas returned to
Cyprus with Mark; nothing
further is heard of him, though
it is believed his rift with
Paul was ultimately healed.
Tradition has St. Barnabas
preaching in Alexandria and Rome
and the founder of the Cypriote
Church. He was stoned to death
at Salamis about the year 61.
Saint of: hailstorms,
Cyprus. |
