BARNABAS , apostle.

First century; f.d. 11 June.

Barnabas, “a good man, full of the Holy Ghost and of faith” (Acts xi, 24), is styled ‘apostle’, though he was not one of the Twelve. He was a Cypriot Jew, and is remembered for his close association with the work of St Paul, from the time that he vouched for Paul to the nervous Christians of Jerusalem until the disagreement over John Mark (St Mark). It was Barnabas who was sent to the growing Christian centre at Antioch, and he fetched Paul from Tarsus to help him; later the teachers there, prompted by the Holy Spirit (Acts xiii, 2), sent Barnabas and Paul on the first missionary journey, beginning with Cyprus, of which church St Barnabas is esteemed the founder. He was still at work when St Paul wrote his first letter to the Christians at Corinth, but probably died not long after. He is said to have been martyred at Salamis, the Cypriot port, but the New Testament says nothing of this. The ancient work called the Epistle of Barnabas was not written by him.