Holy Apostle Barnabas

Life

One of the Seventy. Born on Cyprus of wealthy parents of the tribe of Levi, he studied together with Saul under Gamaliel. He was first called Joseph, but the apostles named him Barnabas, Son of Consolation, since he knew remarkably how to console human souls. After the conversion of Saul, he was the first to introduce him among the apostles; and then with Paul and Mark he preached the Gospel in Antioch and in other places. He suffered on the island of Cyprus at the hands of the Jews and was buried by Mark outside the western gate of the city of Salamis with the Gospel of Matthew on his chest, which he had copied with his own hand. His tomb remained unknown for several centuries, but since many received healing from diseases at that place, it was called "the place of health." In the time of Emperor Zeno and the Council of Chalcedon, the apostle appeared to Archbishop Anthimus of Cyprus, and this three times on three nights, and revealed to him his tomb. This appearance of the apostle happened just at the time when the ambitious Patriarch Peter of Antioch was seeking to bring the Church of Cyprus under the authority of the Antiochian throne. But after the finding of Barnabas, it was established that the Church of Cyprus, as an apostolic church, should be forever independent. Thus the autocephaly of the Church of Cyprus came into being.