St. Barnabas

Today we celebrate the feast day of St. Barnabas. St. Barnabas, was a Jew who lived in Cyprus, and during his life he was able to live a life very close to Christ just like the Twelve apostle did, however he did this without being a full-fledged apostle.

St. Barnabas was also extremely close to St. Paul. In fact he was the person who had introduced St. Paul to St. Peter and all the other apostles. St. Barnabas actually served as a kind of mediator between the former persecutor and the still suspicious Jewish Christians.

When one of the first Christian communities had developed in Antioch, St. Barnabas was actually sent as one of the official representative of the church of Jerusalem and he was able to incorporate them into the fold. St. Barnabas with the help and support from St. Paul was able to instruct in Antioch for about a year, after which they took relief contributions to Jerusalem.

Later on during their lives St. Paul and St. Barnabas, were clearly seen as very impactful charismatic leaders, and they were sent by Antioch officials to preach to many of the gentiles.

They were able to be extremely successful and they were crowned for their efforts. After a very nice miracle occurred in Lystra, the people wanted to offer sacrifice to them as gods. They decided that St. Barnabas was Zeus, and St. Paul, Hermes. However the two saints knew it was wrong and the two said, “We are of the same nature as you, human beings. We proclaim to you good news that you should turn from these idols to the living God” (see Acts 14:8-18).

But not everything was successful and peaceful. They were actually expelled from one town, and they had to go to Jerusalem to clear up some controversy that had arouse about circumcision, and even the best of friends had differences. When St. Paul wanted to revisit the places they had evangelized in the past, St. Barnabas wanted to take along his cousin who was John Mark, who was author of the Gospel, however, St. Paul kept insisting that since Mark had deserted them once in the past, he was not fit person to take along. The disagreement was so intense that St. Barnabas and St. Paul decided to separate: St. Barnabas took Mark to Cyprus, St. Paul decided to take Silas to Syria. Later on they were able to reconnect and be united again.

When St. Paul had stood up to St. Peter for his decision of not eating with gentiles for fear of his Jewish friends, we learn that “even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy” (see Galatians 2:1-13).

St. Barnabas’ feast day is celebrated on June 11 and he is the patron saint of Cyprus.

Prayer to St. Barnabas

St. Barnabas intercede that we may be able to deepen our devotion and intimacy with The Lord so that we may fulfill his will regardless of what we may encounter. Help us to guide more people to Christ and help us to care for everyone and serve others.

Amen

St. Barnabas pray for us

St. Joseph pray for us

May we continue to strengthen our journey to sainthood and keep others in our prayers.

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Works Cited

Information (read from, not taken):

Franciscan Media. "Saint Barnabas. ”Saint Barnabas | Franciscan Media. Accessed 11, June 2021.

Images:

Saint Barnabas. June 11, 2021. Saint Barnabas - Google Search.