St., a Christian festival, celebrated on the 11th of June. St Barnabas was born in Cyprus, and descended of the tribe of Levi, whose Jewish ancestors are thought to have retired thither to secure themselves from violence during the troublesome times in Judaea. His proper name was Joses, to which, after his conversion to Christianity, the apostles added that of Barnabas, signifying either "the son of prophecy" or "the son of consolation;" the first respecting his eminent prophetic gifts, the other his great charity in selling his estate for the comfort and relief of the poor Christians. He was educated at Jerusalem under the great Jewish doctor Gamaliel; which probably laid the foundation of that intimate friendship that afterwards subsisted between this apostle and St Paul. The time of his conversion is uncertain; but he is generally esteemed one of the seventy disciples chosen by our Saviour himself.

At Antioch Paul and Barnabas had a contest which ended in their separation; but what followed it with respect to Barnabas is not related in the Acts of the Apostles. Some say that he went into Italy and founded a church at Milan. It is generally believed that he suffered martyrdom at Salamis, where some Jews, having come out of Syria, set upon him as he was disputing in the synagogue, and stoned him to death. He was buried by his kinsman Mark, whom he had taken along with him, in a cave near that city. The remains of his body are said to have been discovered in the reign of the emperor Zeno, together with a copy of St Matthew's gospel, written with his own hand, and lying on his breast.

St Barnabas's Epistle, an apocryphal work ascribed to Barnabas, and frequently cited by Clement of Alexandria and by Origen. It was first published in Greek, from a copy of Father Hugh Ménard, a Benedictine monk. An ancient version of it was found in a manuscript of the abbey of Coebey, near a thousand years old. Vossius published it, in the year 1656, together with the epistles of St Ignatius.

St Barnabas's Gospel, another apocryphal work, ascribed to Barnabas the apostle, wherein the history of Jesus Christ is related in a manner very different from the account given us by the four evangelists. The Mahomedans possess this gospel in Arabic, and it corresponds very well with those traditions which Mahommed followed in his Koran. It was probably a forgery of some nominal Christians, and afterwards altered and interpolated by the Mahomedans, the better to serve their purpose.