Saint Barnabas, Apostle

Barnabas, whose given name was Joseph, was a Levite from Cyprus. The Acts of the Apostles tells that he sold a field and laid the money at the apostles’ feet, and that the apostles named him Barnabas, “son of encouragement.” When the Christians of Jerusalem feared the newly converted Saul, Barnabas brought him to them. He was sent to the young Church of Antioch, fetched Saul from Tarsus to help him, and with him set out on the first missionary journey, to Cyprus and Asia Minor.

Later they parted over Barnabas’s cousin Mark, and Barnabas sailed for Cyprus with him. Tradition holds that he died a martyr at Salamis in Cyprus, perhaps about 61, and that his tomb was found there in 488.