Ann_St.Timothy

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St. Timothy
Feastday: January 26

Born at Lystra, Lycaenia, Timothy was the son of a Greek father and Eunice, a
converted Jewish lady. He joined St. Paul when Paul preached at Lystra, replacing
Barnabas, and became Paul's close friend and confidant. Paul allowed him to be
circumcised to placate the Jews, since he was the son of a Jewish mother, and
he then accompanied Paul on his second missionary journey.

When Paul was forced to flee Berea because of the enmity of the Jews there, Timothy
remained, but after a time was sent to Thessalonica to report on the condition of the
Christians there and to encourage those under persecution, a report that led to
Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians when he joined Timothy at Corinth.

Timothy and Erastus were sent to Macedonia in 58, they went to Corinth to
remind the Corinthians of Paul's teaching, and then accompanied Paul
into Macedonia and Achaia.

Timothy was probably with Paul when the Apostle was imprisoned at Caesarea
and then Rome, and was himself imprisoned, but then freed.

According to tradition, he went to Ephesus, became its first bishop, and was
stoned to death there when he opposed the pagan festival of Katagogian in honor
of Diana. Paul wrote two letters to Timothy, one written about 65 from Macedonia
and the second from Rome while he was in prison awaiting execution.
His feast day is January 26.

St. Barnabas
Feastday: June 11

All we know of Barnabas is to be found in the New Testament. A Jew, born in Cyprus
and named Joseph, he sold his property, gave the proceeds to the Apostles, who gave
him the name Barnabas, and lived in common with the earliest converts to
Christianity in Jerusalem. He persuaded the community there to accept Paul as
a disciple, was sent to Antioch, Syria, to look into the community there,
and brought Paul there from Tarsus.

With Paul he brought Antioch's donation to the Jerusalem community during a
famine, and returned to Antioch with John Mark, his cousin. The three went on a
missionary journey to Cyprus, Perga (when John Mark went to Jerusalem), and
Antioch in Pisidia, where they were so violently opposed by the Jews that they
decided to preach to the pagans. Then they went on to Iconium and Lystra in
Lycaonia, where they were first acclaimed gods and then stoned out of the city,
and then returned to Antioch in Syria.

When a dispute arose regarding the observance of the Jewish rites, Paul and
Barnabas went to Jerusalem, where at a council, it was decided that pagans
did not have to be circumcised to be baptized.

On their return to Antioch, Barnabas wanted to take John Mark on another visitation
to the cities where they had preached, but Paul objected because of John Mark's
desertion of them in Perga. Paul and Barnabas parted, and Barnabas returned
to Cyprus with Mark; nothing further is heard of him, though it is believed his
rift with Paul was ultimately healed.

Tradition has Barnabas preaching in Alexandria and Rome, the founder of the
Cypriote Church, the Bishop of Milan (which he was not), and has him stoned to
death at Salamis about the year 61. The apochryphal Epistle of Barnabas was
long attributed to him, but modern scholarship now attributes it to a Christian in
Alexandria between the years 70 and 100; the Gospel of Barnabas is probably by
an Italian Christian who became a Mohammedan; and the Acts of Barnabas once
attributed to John Mark are now known to have been written in the fifth century.
His feast day is June 11.