Artigo do dia · 11 de June
Saint Barnabas
At Salamis on the island of Cyprus, Saint Barnabas, apostle, a Levite native to that land. A companion of Saint Paul in proclaiming the Gospel to the Gentiles, he was called by the apostles “son of consolation” for the goodness of his heart: he sold his possessions for the sake of the poor, presented Paul to the Church of Jerusalem, and carried the faith to Antioch and Asia Minor. Christian tradition venerates him as a martyr and the founder of the Church of Cyprus.
Roman Martyrology
About the saint
Saint Barnabas carried a nickname that said everything about him: “son of consolation.” It was the apostles themselves who gave him that name, because wherever he arrived, encouragement, confidence, and courage sprang up. In a time when the newborn Church lived caught between fear and suspicion, Barnabas was the man who believed in people — he opened his purse, opened his arms, and opened the way for the Gospel. Let us get to know the story of this generous apostle and see how his whole life was one long encouragement, to the point of betting on the very people others had already given up on.
Life
Saint Barnabas’s public life is well documented in the Acts of the Apostles and the letters of Saint Paul. The account of his martyrdom at Salamis, however, comes down to us through Christian tradition and cannot be confirmed historically; we present it as the Church has preserved it.
He was born in Cyprus in the first century, into a Jewish family of the tribe of Levi, and his parents named him Joseph. We know almost nothing of his childhood, but the New Testament already presents him as one of the first members of the Christian community in Jerusalem — and right away through a gesture that would forever shape his reputation: he sold a field he owned and handed all the money over to the apostles, to be shared out. It was because of that big-hearted generosity that the apostles began to call him Barnabas, which means “son of consolation” or “son of encouragement” (Acts 4:36).
When Saul of Tarsus — the future Saint Paul — was converted, no one in Jerusalem trusted him: after all, not long before he had been hunting Christians to the death. It was Barnabas who took him by the hand and presented him to the apostles, vouching for him. That same gaze that could spot the good in others shone again when the community at Antioch began to grow: sent to look after those people, Barnabas found the work too great for one man alone and went all the way to Tarsus to fetch Paul. The two worked side by side for a whole year in that city — and it was precisely at Antioch that, for the first time, the disciples of Jesus were called “Christians.”
Saint Luke tells us that in the year 44, Barnabas and Paul brought to Jerusalem the offerings the Church of Antioch had gathered to relieve the poor brethren of Judea. Soon afterward, the two were sent out as missionaries, taking with them young John Mark, Barnabas’s cousin. They traveled through Cyprus and several cities of Asia Minor proclaiming Christ; at Lystra the people even mistook them for gods, taking Barnabas for Zeus and Paul for Hermes. Around the year 49, both took part in the Council of Jerusalem where, together with the apostles Saint Peter and Saint John, it was decided that converted pagans could enter the Church without the burden of the entire ancient Law.
Not even among saints is getting along easy. When they were planning a new journey, Paul refused to take John Mark again, since the young man had deserted them on the previous mission; Barnabas, true to his way of believing in people, insisted on giving his cousin a second chance. The two parted ways: Paul went on with Silas, and Barnabas set sail for Cyprus, taking the young man with him — the same John Mark who would become the evangelist Saint Mark. The New Testament does not tell us how Barnabas’s life ended, but Christian tradition holds that he went on preaching and that he finished his life as a martyr, around the year 61, at Salamis, in his native land. He is venerated as an apostle and regarded as the founder of the Church of Cyprus.
Why we celebrate today
The Church celebrates Saint Barnabas on June 11, a date fixed centuries ago for his memorial — today an obligatory memorial in the Roman calendar. Tradition links this day to his death, his “birth into heaven” (dies natalis), which according to the ancient accounts would have taken place at Salamis, in Cyprus. It is the day on which the whole Church gives thanks for this apostle who, though not one of the Twelve, was granted by Scripture the title of “apostle” alongside Saint Paul.
For our life
I imagine we have much to learn from Saint Barnabas, who became a light for our path precisely through a virtue the world is so badly short of: that of encouraging and believing in people. How often, at work, at home, or in our community, are we quick to point out another’s failing and slow to see the good that might still come to life in him? Barnabas bet on a converted persecutor when no one else would, and gave a second chance to a young man who had failed — and that is how the Church gained Saint Paul and Saint Mark. We can ask for the grace to be, in our everyday lives, that “son of consolation” for the person beside us: a word that lifts up, a trust that takes a chance, a generosity that gives without counting the cost. And when we are tempted to give up on someone — or on ourselves — let us remember that God tends to write beautiful stories with the very people who seemed cast aside. Let us give thanks to God for letting us come to know the lives of these saints, who cheer us on to keep moving forward, one step at a time, along the road of our faith.
For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith. And a great multitude was added to the Lord.
At 11:24 (Douay-Rheims)
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