Barnabas

Who they were

Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus whom the apostles called Barnabas, 'son of encouragement', sold his field in the first days of the Jerusalem Church and laid the money at the apostles' feet. Tradition, reported by Eusebius from Clement of Alexandria, counts him among the seventy-two disciples.

It was Barnabas who vouched for the newly converted Saul to the apostles and brought him to Antioch, and the two made the first great missionary journey together. Tradition has him preaching in Rome and northern Italy, where Milan honours him as its first bishop. The fifth-century Acts of Barnabas say he was stoned to death at Salamis in Cyprus in the year 61; his tomb is still there.

The miracles

There was never a formal cause: Barnabas has been honoured as an apostle since the earliest Church, though he was not one of the Twelve.

Why that counted as sanctity

Barnabas gave everything he owned to the Church and lived up to his name: he encouraged, trusted and brought others forward, above all Paul, when no one else would.

Connected on this site

• Aristobulus of Britannia Saint
  “Orthodox tradition holds that Aristobulus of Britannia, one of the Seventy Disciples, was the brother of Barnabas.” — Wikipedia
• Clement of Alexandria Saint
  “The Epistle of Barnabas was ascribed to him by Clement of Alexandria and others in the early church and the epistle is included under his name in Codex Sinaiticus, the earliest extant manuscript of the complete New Testament.” — Wikipedia
• Mark the Evangelist Saint
  “Barnabas is usually identified as the cousin of Mark the Evangelist on the basis of the term "anepsios" used in Colossians 4, which carries the connotation of "cousin".” — Wikipedia
• Paul the Apostle Saint
  “He undertook missionary journeys as a companion of Paul the Apostle, evangelizing among the "God-fearing" Gentiles who attended synagogues in some of the Hellenized cities of Anatolia.” — Wikipedia