Come and join us at our Morning Prayer and Holy Rosary at 10.00 a.m. as we celebrate this great feast. Barnabas was a Jewish Cypriot and a Levite (The Levites were the tribe of Israelites descended from Levi, one of the twelve sons of Jacob. The priests of Israel were a group of qualified men from within the tribe of the Levites who had responsibility over aspects of tabernacle or temple worship) , and an early Christian disciple though not one of the Twelve. He introduced Paul to the other apostles; together they were sent to Antioch and began their first missionary journey in Cyprus. At the council of Jerusalem he supported the Gentile Christians; eventually he and Paul had a falling out, and Barnabas returned to Cyprus and evangelised it. Legend has it that he was martyred at Salamis in 61 AD. He was a major contributor to the Christian Church at its very beginnings.