Saint Barnabas the Apostle

Saint Barnabas was a Levite from Cyprus and the companion of Saint Paul on his first missionary journey. He was not one of the Twelve, but the Acts of the Apostles call him an apostle, and the Church venerates him as one. His memorial is celebrated on June 11.

His name was Joseph. The apostles gave him the surname Barnabas, which the Acts of the Apostles translate as “son of encouragement.” He belonged to the first community in Jerusalem: he sold his field and laid the money at the feet of the apostles. He was a cousin of John called Mark. Scripture says of him that he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.

When the converted Saul came to Jerusalem, the disciples were afraid of him and did not believe that he had truly become a disciple. Barnabas took him in, brought him to the apostles, and vouched for his conversion. Later the community in Jerusalem sent him to Antioch in Syria, where many Gentiles were coming to the faith. From there he went to Tarsus, found Saul, and brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they taught there together, and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians. Barnabas was one of the prophets and teachers of that community, and during a famine he and Saul carried relief to the brothers in Judea.

At the command of the Holy Spirit, the community in Antioch, after fasting and prayer, laid hands on Barnabas and Saul and sent them on the first missionary journey: first to Cyprus, and then to cities of Asia Minor such as Antioch in Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. Benedict XVI pointed out that at the beginning it was Barnabas who led this mission, with Paul as his collaborator. Barnabas and Paul then went up to Jerusalem, where the apostles and elders ruled that Gentiles coming to the faith did not have to be circumcised.

Before the second journey Barnabas wanted to take Mark along again, though Mark had left them in Pamphylia during the first mission. Paul objected, a sharp disagreement arose between them, and they parted: Paul set out with Silas, and Barnabas, around the year 49, sailed with Mark to Cyprus. Paul still mentions him in the First Letter to the Corinthians, placing him beside himself as one who, like Paul, works for his own living. The rest of Barnabas’s life is not known; Benedict XVI said that after his return to Cyprus we lose track of him.

According to tradition, Barnabas died a martyr at Salamis in Cyprus; this is told in the apocryphal Acts of Barnabas, written in the fifth century. The date of his death is not known. According to an account, at the end of the fifth century Barnabas showed Anthemios, bishop of Salamis, the place of his tomb in a dream, and his remains were then moved to a basilica. Barnabas is named in the Roman Canon, and the collect of the Mass on his memorial asks that the Gospel he preached with unwavering courage may be faithfully proclaimed in word and deed. The Church has venerated him since antiquity.