Barnabas the Apostle
Martyrological notice
Generous companion of Paul and mediator in the early Church, remembered as a son of encouragement.
The lives of the saints · 6 · tivity of S. Barnabas the Apostle, whose precious body
At Toulouse on May 27th, is observed the feast of the invention of the body of S. Barnabas there, and Saussaye in his Gallican Martyrology says on June nth: "The Na- tivity of S. Barnabas the Apostle, whose precious body reposes at Toulouse, in the church of S. Saturninus, with the entire bodies of five other apostles (James the son of Zebedee, Philip, James son of Alphaeus, Simon and Jude) and the spoils of many other martyrs and confessors," and he adds, " the head is now exposed there to veneration, apart from the body, which reposes in its own shrine." This body is believed to have been brought from Con- stantinople, in the reign of Charlemagne, but this seems to be only conjecture. The head was examined and veri- fied in 1807, by Clement de Barbazan, Vicar General, and it is still at Toulouse. But the Church of Edna, in the district of Bergamo claims to possess the head of S. Barnabas; at Paviaare particles of bone from the head; in Genoa, in the cathedral, the head entire ; a jaw at Cremona ; some bones in the cathedral of Tournai ; the head entire, and a rib at Andechs in Bavaria, part of the head at Prague, the head entire also in the Jesuit Church at Naples, a leg at Florence. There is some strange error which
1 " Quomodo, uode et a quo fuerint tunc Mediolanum translata, equidem ignorare me dlzcrim libcntius, quam incertas Mediolanensium conjectures amplecti." D. Papebroecb. The translation to a new shrine was made in the year ijai, and an annual festiral instituted to commemorate it, to which the Pope attached an indulgence of a hnndred yean.
Martyrologium Romanum · Latin witness
Salaminae, in Cypro, natalis sancti Barnabae Apostoli, qui, natione Cyprius, cum Paulo Gentium Apostolus a discipulis ordinatus, multas regiones cum eo peragravit, injunctum sibi opus Evangelicae praedicationis exercens; postremo, Cyprum profectus, ibi Apostolatum suum glorioso martyrio decoravit. Ejus corpus, tempore Zenonis Imperatoris, ipso Barnaba revelante, repertum est, una cum codice Evangelii sancti Matthaei, ejusdem Barnabae manu descripto.