Barnabas the Apostle Greek Orthodox Icon
Commemorates on: December 4
Saint Barnabas, one of the Seventy, was from Cyprus, of the tribe of Levi, and
a fellow disciple with Paul under Gamaliel. He was called Joses, but was
renamed Barnabas, which means "son of consolation," perhaps to
distinguish him from the Joses called Barnabas and surnamed Justus. Saint
Barnabas had a field, which he sold and brought the money to the Apostles.
Before the conversion of Saul to Paul, it was Barnabas who was the leader of
the Seventy Apostles, the first in preaching and chief spokesman. After Saul’s
vision on the road to Damascus, it was Barnabas who joined him to the Apostles
when the others, because of Saul’s reputation as a persecutor of the Church,
still feared him; again it was Saint Barnabas who conscripted Paul as a
preacher, bringing him from Tarsus to Antioch after the stoning of Stephen, to
assist in spreading the Gospel. Saint Barnabas preached the Gospel in many
places, traveled together with Paul, and finally was stoned to death by the
Jews in his native Cyprus. During the reign of Zeno, in the year 478, his
sacred relics were found, having on his chest the Gospel according to Matthew
written in Greek by Barnabas own hand. This Gospel was brought to Zeno. Because
of this the Church of Cyprus received the right of autonomy, and its archbishop
was given the privilege, like the emperor, of signing his decrees and
encyclicals in vermilion.