07 — The Martyrdom and the Tomb
The end of Barnabas’s life and the rediscovery of his body, both known to us not from Acts but from later Cypriot tradition. These files report the tradition of his martyrdom at Salamis — stoned to death by a hostile crowd, c. AD 57–61 — and the famous fifth-century tradition of the finding of his relics under Archbishop Anthemios (c. 478/488), buried beneath a carob tree with a copy of the Gospel of Matthew on his breast, a discovery that became the proof-text of Cypriot autocephaly. Both are presented as tradition, pinned to their sources.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Apostle)
The New Testament leaves Barnabas alive, sailing for Cyprus (Acts 15:39); everything about his death and burial comes from later sources, chiefly the fifth-century apocryphal Acts of Barnabas and the Byzantine notices of the relic-finding. This section handles that material with the care the methodology requires: the martyrdom by stoning at Salamis is reported as what the tradition attests, with its date given as a range and its earliest written attestation named; the finding of the relics — the vision granted to Anthemios, the carob tree, the Gospel of Matthew, the journey to Constantinople, and the audience with Zeno — is likewise reported as tradition, with the sources (Theodorus Lector and later historians) named and the historical questions flagged. The miraculous and the charter-serving elements are not certified as fact but set out as what the Church of Cyprus has remembered.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| The Martyrdom at Salamis | The tradition of Barnabas’s death: opposition from the synagogue at Salamis, his seizure, torture, and stoning (c. AD 57–61); the secret burial by John Mark; the earliest attestation in the Acts of Barnabas; and how an Orthodox reader holds a martyrdom known only from later tradition. |
| The Finding of the Relics | The fifth-century inventio: the vision granted to Archbishop Anthemios; the tomb beneath the carob tree; the Gospel of Matthew found on the apostle’s breast; the relics carried to Constantinople; the audience with Zeno; the sources (Theodorus Lector); and the scholarly assessment of the tradition. |
See Also
- The Apostle of Cyprus — the mission that the martyrdom crowned
- The Autocephaly of Cyprus — the independence the relic-finding secured
- The Acts of Barnabas — the apocryphon that is the earliest source for the martyrdom
- The Pre-Schism Church — the early-Byzantine world of the relic-finding
References
- The Acts of Barnabas. Trans. Alexander Walker, in Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 8. Buffalo: Christian Literature Company, 1886. (The earliest narrative of the martyrdom.)
- Theodorus Lector. Ecclesiastical History (epitome), on the finding of the relics under Anthemios and Zeno. In Patrologia Graeca 86.
- Hackett, John. A History of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus. London: Methuen, 1901.
- The Synaxarion of the Orthodox Church, June 11. (The commemoration of the apostle.)