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St. Barnabas, Our Patron
St. Barnabas, Apostle to the Gentiles, has
traditionally been regarded as an equal to the original twelve
disciples. A Jew and a Levite, he was born on Cyprus, but later
moved to Jerusalem (Acts 4:36-37) and converted to Christianity in about
29 or 30 A.D. After St. Paul's own dramatic
conversion from persecutor to adherent of the Faith, St. Barnabas persuaded
the understandably suspicious disciples in Jerusalem to receive him
(Acts 9:27). Later, St. Barnabas was
sent by the Church in Jerusalem to inquire into the fact that Gentiles in Antioch
had heard the Gospel and were being converted. What Barnabas
discovered in Antioch convinced him that the grace of God was at work
among the Gentiles of that city, and he recruited St.
Paul to join him in giving these new converts proper instruction in the
Faith. The work prospered there, and Antioch became a base from
which St. Barnabas and St. Paul conducted a number of missionary journeys. At the Council of
Jerusalem, their work among the Gentiles was endorsed by the original
disciples and the mother church (Acts 14:27-15:30). Of the later work
of St. Barnabas, little is known for certain--there being a number of
traditions--but he was certainly among the most eminent men of the
Church's first century.
For more information, see the article
by John F. Fenlon in The Catholic Encyclopedia from which
this brief account is abstracted. |
