St. Barnabas, whose feast we
celebrate today was a great friend of St. Paul, and accompanied him on many of
his missionary journeys he did after his conversion. He was born in Cyprus and
was originally named Joseph. But when he joined the apostles and became a
beloved disciple, they gave him the name Barnabas, which means ‘Son of
Encouragement.’ In fact he was the person who introduced Paul to the other
apostles. He joined them in his mission of preaching and baptizing new
Christians. On some of his journeys they even had St. Mark with them. But on
his journey to Rome, when St Paul being shipwrecked on Malta, he had St Luke
with him. But Paul and Barnabas worked very well together and many people used
to call them Hermes and Zeus, referring to two Greek Gods. It is said that
Barnabas could be the author of the letter to the Hebrews, because it has a completely
different style from the other letters which Paul wrote. He took part in the
Council of Jerusalem and was influential in introducing the Orthodox church in
Cyprus, where he was unfortunately martyred there in 61 AD. Barnabas worked
close to sailors and cloth merchants while in Cyprus, and in Famagusta, there
is a big monastery dedicated to him. He is of course the patron saint of
Cyprus. His life teaches us to be companions to each other, especially those
who are gifted with similar talents. There are people who are gifted to work
with young children, others to work with youth, yet others to work with the
elderly. And then there are others like myself, who always worked well with the
young and the old.
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