Saint Barnabas Monastery

The monastery and museum of St Barnabas, is close to the ancient Greek city Salamis. The monastery is very significant to the Orthodox Church, and is considered a place of pilgrimage.

St Barnabas has exceptional position in the Christianity because he introduced the religion to the island. As a follower of Jesus, he went on missionary tours to Cyprus and Asia Minor with Apostle Paul. The saint accomplished to affect the Roman governor of the island, Sergius Paulus, and he convinced him to adopt the faith. Therefore, Cyprus turned into the first country in the world with a Christian ruler. St. Barnabas’ behaviour infuriated the Jewish community in Salamis, and in 75AD he was arrested and imprisoned in a synagogue in Salamis, where a crowd of Syrians stoned him to death.

Barnabas' remains were wrapped in a piece of cloth and obscured in a secret catacomb. John Mark and some converted slaves buried Barnabas’ body in this tomb, beneath a carob tree, while John Mark placed a copy of Mathew's Gospel on his cousin's chest. In 477AD, Bishop Anthemios dreamed the location of the Barnaba’s long-lost grave. This dream motivated Bishop to open the tomb, where he found the Barnaba’s body. The identification that the body belongs to Barnabas occurred, because of the Gospel of St Mathew which was lying on his chest. The head of the Cyprus church deemed his dream as a miracle and he requested from the Byzantine Emperor, Zeno, the right to autocephalous status and the benefits of self-governorship, a request that was accepted, with the consequence the Orthodox Church of Cyprus to have its place in the hierarchy of the Christian churches and its own Patriarch, Barnabas (Kokkinoftas,2009).

Although the monastery was almost damaged during the Arab raids in the 7th century, the church was rebuilt in 1756 by the Archbishop Philotheos With the passage of the time, fewer resident monks remained in the monastery, and by the 1950 just three monks, Chariton, Stephanos, and Barnabas remained in the religious place. They were three brothers who were dedicated to the church from 1917 onwards. They contributed for the preservation of the church, painting many of the frescoes and icons, and they took the initiative to build the church bell in 1958. (Kokkinoftas, 2009 and Stylianou-Lambert and Alexandra Bounia, 2012).

After 1974, the three monks forced to leave the church and to the south part of the island. Near to the monastery, a small mausoleum was built on the spot where the saint's carcasses were revealed.

In 1991, the rooms of the monastery, which once accommodated monks and pilgrims, have been transferred into an archaeological museum. (Kokkinoftas, 2009 and Stylianou-Lambert and Alexandra Bounia, 2012).

The Emperor Zeno is credited with building his tomb-house now known as St. Varnavas in Enkomi.

Bibliography Kokkinoftas, C. (2009). The Holy Basilica and stauropegion monastery of Apostle Barnabas. The Life of Apostle Barnabas - The history of the monastery - The architectual form. Nicosia-Cyprus.

Stylianou-Lambert, T. and Bounia, A. (2012). ‘Reluctant Museums’: Between a Church and a Museum.Displaying Religion in Cypriot Museums. National Museums and the Negotiation of Difficult Pasts (Conference). Retrieved 1st of March, 2018 from: ttp://www.ep.liu.se/ecp/082/004/ecp12082004.pdf