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Barnabas was born in
Cyprus. He was Jewish and a Levite and this would have brought
him to Jerusalem where he seems to have become a Christian
shortly after Pentecost. His real name was Joseph but his fellow apostles gave him the nickname 'Barnabas' meaning 'the encourager'. We know about him from Acts,
and Paul refers to him in two of his letters.
Barnabas played a key role in persuading a frightened church to
accept that the recently-converted Paul was genuine. Barnabas was
among the first to realise that non-Jews could also
become Christians, and he persuaded Paul to come and work with
him in Antioch.
This experience set them both off on their life-mission,
spreading the gospel to gentile communities throughout the
Mediterranean world. They worked extensively together, though
they did fall out over Barnabas' nephew, John Mark, who had
let them down on one occasion. Barnabas travelled to Cyprus while
Paul went back to work in the east. In the event, Barnabas was
vindicated and John Mark turned out well.
Nothing is known of Barnabas' later career, except that he
was still alive in 57 when Paul wrote 1 Corinthians.
Barnabas appears to have been one of the most esteemed of the
first generation of Christian leaders. He and Paul were both
called apostles, a title only otherwise given to the twelve. Luke
speaks of him as
"a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of
faith".
His feast day is 11th June.
How is it that this church is dedicated to St Barnabas? Currently
there are only 150 Anglican parishes in England with the name. We
haven't set much store by patron saints in our part of the
tradition but in the Victorian period it was universal for
churches to have one. Our forbears would have wanted a
New Testament saint but wouldn't have had many to choose
from.
Ours was the last Battersea parish to be created and the
favourite names were already in use elsewhere in Battersea and
Clapham. Maybe Barnabas was chosen because there was no one else
left.
The founders of the parish gave a more spiritual reason for their
choice. They had thought that St Matthew's - built nearby in
1877 - would become the parish church and were disheartened to be
told that it was not well-enough built. Faced with the prospect
of raising money and running two churches instead of one, they
needed plenty of encouragement. As Barnabas was the great encourager, he was the obvious saint to choose.
Ancient traditions say that Barnabas was martyred in 61 and that he went to his death carrying a copy of
St Matthew's Gospel which he had written out by hand. Whether that had anything to do with the decision, in the absence of records, nobody knows.
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