St Barnabas

Barnabas was born around the same time that Jesus was born. He was named Joseph when he was born. He was St. Mark’s cousin and he became a Christian after the great event of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came down on the Apostles and helped them preach in many languages. The Apostles gave Joseph a new name, Barnabas, to symbolize that he was starting a new life in Jesus. He gave everything he owned to the community of early Christians and truly gave his whole life to spreading the Good News of Jesus to everyone he could. He joined St. Paul (who was first called Saul) in many missions to foreign lands, to tell everyone they could that Jesus lived to save us from sin and then He rose from the dead so we could be with Him and God the Father in Heaven! Barnabas was able to return to his home country of Cyprus to share the gospel with them and He was overjoyed to see so many of the people in his country become believers in Jesus. Barnabas died a martyr; he was stoned because he believed in Jesus and he was not afraid to share the Good News.