St. Barnabasthe Apostle
The Story
He received the gift of the Holy Spirit in the upper room together with the disciples, and he bore witness to the Name of Christ with them. Showing the perfect detachment of the early Church, he sold a field that belonged to him and laid the price at the feet of the apostles, keeping nothing back for himself.
When Saul of Tarsus came to believe in the Lord, the disciples in Jerusalem feared him, but Barnabas took him and presented him to the apostles, telling how the Lord had appeared to him on the road to Damascus. He went down to Antioch to strengthen the believers there, where the disciples were first called Christians, and he brought St. Paul to labor at his side.
Sent forth by the Holy Spirit, Barnabas and Paul preached the Gospel through many cities and islands, enduring the hostility of those who opposed the word and rejoicing in the multitude who believed and were baptized.
In time the two were parted, and Barnabas took St. Mark and sailed to Cyprus, where they turned many to the faith. There his enemies seized him, beat him cruelly, stoned him, and cast his body into the fire, and so he completed his course and received the crown of martyrdom. St. Mark gathered his body, wrapped it, and laid it in a cave, then departed for Alexandria to preach.
The Coptic Church commemorates his martyrdom on the twenty-first of Kiahk. May his prayers and blessing be with us. Amen.