Lives of the Saints – Episode 9 – St. Barnabas

This week The Lives of the Saints, First Series, turns to St. Barnabas, whose Feast Day/Holy Day in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer is June 11th.  St. Barnabas enters and leaves the New Testament in Acts of the Apostles.  Without St. Luke’s historical and spiritual-minded account in Acts, we would know nothing of the man from Cyprus who, with St. Paul, established what would become the See of Antioch, the second See of the Church Universal.    Watch the Video       Listen to the Podcast   Image copyright Alamy Stock Photo

As with all episodes in the series I have included material about the fate of St. Barnabas, the location of his relics, and reveal why he is always shown in icons holding the Gospel of St. Matthew.  The main illustration is a modern Greek Orthodox icon from the Monastery of St. Barnabas.  In the icon are numerous symbols important in Byzantine iconography, including the face of the Seraphim from the 6th C. Hagia Sophia, seen in the diamond-shaped device at the right knee of Barnabas.

The other illustration, from the same source, is an old photograph of the Tomb of St. Barnabas, also on Cyprus, which is the second tomb built on the site.  The first was destroyed by Arab raiders in the 9th Century.

In the series, only Episode Sixteen, the final episode in the First Series, focused on St. Simon and St. Jude. is not ready for the recording of the sound track.

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