06/12/2026
6/11: THE HOLY APOSTLES
BARTHOLOMEW & BARNABAS
Each year on June 11th, the Church commemorates the Holy Apostles Bartholomew and Barnabas (Άγιοι Απόστολοι Βαρθολομαίος και Βαρνάβας)...
https://www.goarch.org/chapel/saints?contentid=83
https://www.goarch.org/chapel/saints?contentid=2455
I. SAINT BARTHOLOMEW
Saint Bartholomew was a member of Lord’s inner circle, and is listed among the Twelve Disciples of Christ in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. He is not mentioned in the Gospel of John, who lists Nathaniel instead.
But the Church has agreed with Biblical scholarship since the mid-9th Century that the Holy Apostles Bartholomew and Nathaniel are the same person because the name “Bartholomew” is patronymic (i.e., a surname): Bar-Tolmai.
‘Bar’ means “son” in Aramaic, one of the three linguae francae (common languages) of people living in Judea and Galilee during the 1st Century.* And ‘Tolmai’ means plowman or farmer; symbolically, it also means brave and bold.
Bar-Tolmai is thus translated as ‘son of Tolmai,’ and because the Evangelists Matthew and Luke pair Saint Bartholomew with the Apostle Phillip (cf., Matthew 10.3, Luke 6.14) – and because the Evangelist John pairs Saint Philip with Nathaniel (cf., John 1.45-46) – it is likely, and indeed reasonable to infer, that Bartholomew was Nathaniel the son of Tolmai.
After the Acension and Pentecost, Saint Bartholomew’s missionary activities took him to Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Parthia (pre-Islamic Iran), Ethiopia, India and Armenia.
According to the Apostolic Father, Papias of Hierapolis in Ancient Phrygia (Ιεράπολις της Φρυγίας; present-day Pamukkale in the modern Turkish Province of Denizli), Saint Bartholomew took a copy of Saint Matthew’s Gospel, which was originally written in Aramaic, with him to Southwestern India’s Konkan coast near Mumbai (a.k.a., Bombay).**
After he left India, Saint Bartholomew made his way westward back to the Near East thru the Armenian highlands at Albanopolis (Αλβανόπολις; a.k.a., Ashad; present-day Albayrak, Turkey), where Armenian tradition maintains he exorcised a demon that had been tormenting the daughter of Polymius, the local ruler there. After this miracle, Polymius and members of his family converted to Christianity.***
At the time, however, Armenia was constantly caught between the rival pagan powers of Rome to the West and Parthia to the East; fearing a backlash from Rome – the Parthians were more tolerant of Christians than the Romans – Polymius’ enraged brother Astyages ordered that Saint Bartholomew be arrested, flayed alive and beheaded circa 70 AD. Christians subsequently removed the Apostle’s body and placed it in a led sarcophagus, around which a monastery and church were eventually erected.****
Numerous miracles of healing occurred at the Apostle’s tomb over the next 436 years, and the number of Christian visitors to Albanopolis increased. Over time, however, inter-religious tension between Christians and pagans in the area escalated, so Emperor Anastasios Dicoros (491-518 AD) had Saint Bartholomew’s coffin and relics transferred circa 506 AD to Anastasioupolis (Αναστασιούπολις) – a city that was rebuilt over the historic fortress city of Dara (Δάρα), where a Byzantine garrison was strategically stationed on the Empire’s northern Mesopotamian frontier – the ruins of which are located in the present-day Turkish province of Mardin a little less than 4.4 miles north of the Syrian border. A cathedral dedicated to Saint Bartholomew was built there to serve as a repository for his miracle-working relics.*****
FROM THE ARMENIAN
HIGHLANDS TO ITALY
Saint Bartholomew enjoyed only a brief repose in Anastasioupolis, however; Persian forces under Chosroes I (Χοσρόης; Khosrau) drove the Byzantines out of Dara in 573 AD, compelling its Christian residents to take the Holy Apostle’s sacred remains with them as they fled north to the Black Sea. When their pursuers apprehended them by the coast, pagan priests seized Saint Bartholomew’s sarcophagus and tossed it into the sea.
But by God’s Providence, the coffin did not sink; it floated and was carried off by the current, miraculously washing up seven years later on the shores of Meligounis (Μελιγουνίς; present-day Lipari; the largest of the seven Aeolian Islands), located about 26.1 miles northeast of Sicily in the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Bishop Agathon of Lipari foresaw the approach of Saint Bartholomew’s sacred relics in 580 AD. Accompanied by both the clergy and laity of Lipara, he went to Canneto Beach on the island’s eastern coastline, where they received the Apostle’s coffin from the sea with great joy. Many of the island’s sick and infirm were immediately healed by the Holy Spirit‘s action and operation thru the Apostle’s holy relics.
Today more than 14 centuries later, this miraculous event – i.e., the Return of Venerable Relics of the Holy Glorious Apostle Bartholomew (Επάνοδος των Σεπτών Λειψάνων του Αγίου Ενδόξου Αποστόλου Βαρθολομαίου) – is still commemorated by the Churches of both East and West each year on August 25th.
The Apostle’s relics were placed in a church dedicated to him, which was built over the ruins of a pre-existing Ancient Greek temple. The Saint reposed in Lipari peacefully for the next 259 years until Saracen marauders attacked the island in 839 AD, slaughtering many of its residents. His relics, including his skin, were translocated to Benevento in Campania on the Italian mainland, where they are still housed in the Basilica di San Bartolomeo, and preserved by the enormous sanctity with which the Lord graced His Apostles during their lifetimes and after their deaths.
A large portion of the Holy Apostle’s skull also rests in a reliquary at the Frankfurt Cathedral in Germany (i.e., Kaiserdom Sankt Bartholomaeus; Imperial Dome of St. Bartholomew). First built during the Merovingian Dynasty in the 7th Century, this church has undergone several transformations since then, and was rededicated to Saint Bartholomew after receiving his skull as a gift from Pope Gregory IX in 1239.
One of the Saint’s arms was also gifted to the Canterbury Cathedral by Queen Emma of Normandy (consort of King C**t of England), who purchased it from a traveling bishop of Benevento in the 11th Century. Tragically, however, this sacred relic was lost during the upheavals of the Protestant Reformation.
ENDNOTES (Bartholomew)
* By the early 1st Century, Judea and Galilee were tri-lingual. Their inhabitants spoke Aramaic, Greek and, under Roman rule, Latin. Hebrew was at this point mainly a liturgical language for Jewish religious services.
** Modern scholarship confirms that the canonical Gospel of Matthew was written in Greek, but some early Christian apologists – notably Saints Irenaeus of Lyons (Άγιος Ειρηναίος, Επίσκοπος Λουγδούνου) and Jerome the Confessor of Stridon (Όσιος Ιερώνυμος ο Μέγας Τεθνηκότας της Στριδώνις), as well as the brilliant Alexandrine theologian and scholar, Origen (Ωριγένης) – also asserted that Saint Matthew’s Gospel was originally written in Aramaic, which is one of the languages Christ regularly spoke in His day-to-day dealings with the region’s Jewish denizens and residents. Theorized versions of the original text in Aramaic are no longer extant, but since the Gospel of Matthew as we know it today was recorded in Greek circa 85 AD (about 15 years after the Apostle Bartholomew was martyred), it’s not unlikely that the text of Saint Matthew’s Gospel, which Saint Bartholomew left behind in India, could have been an Aramaic one.
*** The Apostles Thaddeus and Bartholomew, who were both among the 12 Disciples of Christ, preached in Armenia circa 43-44 and 69-71 AD, respectively. They are credited with bringing Christianity to Armenia in the 1st Century. Along with Saint Gregory the Illuminator, who lived and preached during the 3rd and 4th Centuries, they are Armenia’s three patron saints.
**** The destruction of Saint Bartholomew's Monastery in Ashad was carried out in multiple stages by Turkish authorities as part of a broader, state-sponsored erasure of Asia Minor’s Armenian cultural heritage, and was a relatively recent development.
The Monastery was burned and looted by the Ottoman Army in 1915 during the Armenian Genocide, in which 1.5 million Armenians were massacred. In the 1960’s, the Turkish army used explosives to destroy large portions of this historic church, including its dome, as part of the Turkish Government’s then-ongoing ethnic cleansing policies targeting Asia Minor’s indigenous Armenian community.
The Monastery’s surviving ruins were turned into a military outpost surrounded by razor wire and sandbags in 1990, and civilian access was strictly forbidden. This restriction was essentially an anti-Armenian pretext implemented by the Turkish Military and Police to neutralize potential Kurdish insurgencies in the region at the time. The base was relocated in 2023, technically making the site accessible to visitors, but despite calls for restoration, the building remains heavily dilapidated.
***** St. Bartholomew’s Cathedral in Dara was erected over a large cistern that once held 2,000 cubic meters of water. Its construction was completed under Justinian the Great in 530 AD. But the city fell into gradual disrepair after repeated invasions by the Persians, Arabs, Artukid Turks and Mongols over the ensuing centuries.
After the Sassanids (pre-Islamic Persians) drove the Byzantines out of Dara in the late 6th Century, the Assyrian Church of the East assumed management of the Cathedral – by then stripped of Saint Bartholomew’s relics – which served as the central seat of the region’s Assyrian Metropolitan until the 14th Century.
Only the Cathedral’s western wall remains standing today. The rest of its structure, dome and roof collapsed long ago due to piecemeal looting, destruction, abandonment and weathering of Dara over time. The ancient city itself was repeatedly contested, conquered and sacked, which led to the gradual ruin of its monuments. Structures that weren’t actively destroyed during multiple historic conflicts were gradually reclaimed by the harsh Mesopotamian climate, landslides and earthquakes throughout the millennia.
II. SAINT BARNABAS
Clearly an instrumental player in the early Christian movement, Saint Barnabas was among the foremost Apostles of the Seventy (Ετέρους Εβδομήκοντα; cf., Luke 10.1-12) and a companion of Saint Paul, with whom he was clearly associated and identified (cf., Acts 15.12, Acts 15.25). Born Joses (Ιωσής), he was also a Levite,* whose name the Apostles changed to Barnabas, “which translated means ‘son of consolation and encouragement’ (ὅ ἐστι μεθερμηνευόμενον υιὸς παρακλήσεως; Acts 4.36).”
Identified as an Apostle in Acts 14.14, he evidently hailed from a well-to-do family that owned land on the prosperous island of Cyprus, which was a highly sought-after resort location in the 1st Century.
Because of his family’s wealth, he was able to afford a high-level education, and was sent to Jerusalem, where he studied under Gamaliel, one of the most renowned rabbinical scholars of that era (Γαμαλιήλ; cf., Acts 5.34). He was also a schoolmate of the Apostle Paul, who was then known as Saul.**
In the earliest days of the nascent Church, Saint Barnabas was also among those who sold their lands and gave the money to the Apostles so that they could distribute it to those in need (cf., Acts 4.34, 4.37). The sale of his own personal property and subsequent donation of the proceeds to benefit the poor demonstrated his single-minded devotion to the Church.
Having previously facilitated a meeting between the newly-converted Saul and the Disciples (cf., Acts 9.26-28), Saint Barnabas also participated in the Apostolic Council of Jerusalem with Saint Paul circa 49 AD (cf., Acts 15.6-29, Galatians 2.1-10), a pivotal gathering of the Apostles that demonstrated the willingness of Apostolic leaders to make compromises on certain secondary issues to maintain peace and unity within the Church: e.g., non-Jewish converts to Christianity were neither required to undergo circumcision, nor to strictly adhere to Mosaic Law, in order to be saved.***
Saint Barnabas then undertook missionary journeys with Saint Paul, evangelizing God-Fearing Gentiles (non-Jews) in the Hellenized cities of Asia Minor (e.g., Antioch), where many embraced the nascent Christian Faith (cf., Acts 11.19-26).
* The Levites were the landless tribe of Ancient Israelites descended from Levi, the third son of Jacob. Selected by God to be His ministers (cf., Numbers 3.5-12, Deuteronomy 18.1-7), they served as priests, ritual caretakers, teachers and musicians for the Hebrew Nation, and were supported entirely by tithes.
The Levitical priests (i.e., Kohanim; Cohens) were patrilineal descendants of Aaron, the brother of Moses, and they were exclusively responsible for offering sacrifices, burning incense and blessing the people.
The rest of the tribe helped manage operations of the Tabernacle and the Temple. During their wanderings in the wilderness, they packed, transported, and assembled the portable sanctuary. Later in Jerusalem, their duties included Temple maintenance, guarding its gates and playing music during worship.
** Before his encounter with the Risen & Ascended Lord on the road to Damascus, Saul (Paul) was a Pharisee and a murderous assailant of the Church. After he was blinded by the Lord’s Radiant Light, he went to Damascus as the Lord instructed, where he was baptized, recovered his sight and immediately started preaching the Gospel of Christ (cf., Acts 9.1-20). He spent an unspecified number of days in Damascus, and then went to Jerusalem to join the Disciples who, knowing of his fearsome reputation as a zealous persecutor of the Church, were initially apprehensive about him and reluctant to let him join their Apostolic ranks, until Barnabas introduced him to them.
*** From a Patristic perspective, the Apostolic Council of Jerusalem, which took place circa 49 AD, is considered the foundational paradigm for Church governance, and the definitive triumph of Grace thru faith over Old Testament legalism.
The Church views this Council as the first true synod, which established Her conciliar tradition (συνοδική παράδοση; sobornost) – the theological and philosophical concept signifying spiritual community, conciliarity, unity and togetherness – whereby major doctrinal and practical issues are resolved collectively and sensibly by consensus, not by a specific individual’s ‘supreme decree.’
The Apostolic Council featured Apostles and Elders. The central participants at this Council were the Apostles Peter, John and James the Just, “Pillars” of the Church in Jerusalem (cf., Galatians 2.9); Paul and Barnabas, representing the Church in Antioch, where the Disciples were first called Christians (cf., Acts 11.26); and Silas and Judas Barsabbas, “leading men among the brethren (Acts 15.22),” who were also Apostles of the Seventy.
This Council was not simply about ‘who was there,’ however. It was also about Who was there: i.e., the Holy Spirit. From a Patristic point of view, this first synodic assembly of the Early Christian Movement was an expression of the Holy Spirit’s Active Presence & Operation in the Life of the Church.
Saint James the Just (a.k.a., James Adelfotheos; James the Brother of the Lord), the first Bishop of Jerusalem, presided over the Apostolic Council, and after hearing Saints Peter, Paul and Barnabas present their case about the Gentiles (non-Jewish converts to the Christian Faith), he summarized its unanimous determinations (cf., Acts 15.13-29).
The Council’s conclusions are succinctly characterized and defined by his famous articulation, “For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay no greater burden upon you other than certain necessary things (Acts 15.28),” which underscores the Church’s conviction that the Holy Spirit guides the bishops of the Church when they act in unity and continuity with its Apostolic Tradition, highlighting its pastoral authority to make compromises for the sake of peace and unity without altering essential dogma.
CLASH OVER SAINT MARK
Saint Barnabas had a temporary falling out with Saint Paul over the Evangelist Mark’s participation in their anticipated 2nd missionary journey to Asia Minor (cf., Acts 15.36-41).
Saint Mark (a.k.a., John Mark), an Apostle of the 70 who was also Barnabas’ younger cousin, had abandoned Paul and Barnabas midway thru their 1st missionary journey at Perga in Pamphylia (Πέργην της Παμφυλίας; present-day Aksu), which is today located in the modern Turkish province of Antalya, and went back to Jerusalem (cf., Acts 13.13).
Scripture does not specify the exact reason why Saint Mark backed out in Pamphylia, but it was likely due to a combination of reasons:
– Overwhelming hardship: The journey into the rugged, bandit-ridden terrain of the Anatolian highlands was physically grueling.
– Homesickness and fear: The young John Mark probably missed his mother and the creature comforts of home back in Jerusalem, and he may have been understandably apprehensive about the intense opposition the team had encountered earlier, and...
– Disagreements over direction: Mark was closely tied to the Church in Jerusalem, and may have been uneasy about the mission’s expanding focus on Gentiles; he may have also sided with his kinsman Barnabas over leadership changes when Paul began playing a more prominent role in spreading the Gospel.
RECONCILIATION
Saint Barnabas was determined to bring Saint Mark along for their 2nd missionary journey, but Saint Paul adamantly refused because he viewed Mark’s earlier desertion as a lack of maturity, discipline and reliability, so Paul went to Syria and Cilicia (Κιλικία; now a multi-province region in southeastern Turkey), while Barnabas traveled back to Cyprus with Mark.
The rift between them was resolved a few years later, however, and Saint Paul reconciled with both. He eventually came to regard Saint Mark as a highly trusted co-worker, asking the church in Colossae (present-day Honaz, Turkey) to welcome Mark, which indicated a healed relationship (cf., Colossians 4.10); and while languishing in a Roman prison near the end of his life, he sent for Mark, commending him as “profitable to me for the ministry (cf., II Timothy 4.11).”
And several years after they previously parted company, Paul also spoke of Barnabas respectfully as a fellow laborer, signaling that any friction between them had eased, and that he viewed Barnabas as a partner in ministry (cf., I Corinthians 9.6).
Saint Barnabas is traditionally identified as the founder of the Church in Cyprus.* According to Church tradition, he was martyred in Salamis (Σαλαμίς), which since 1974 is located on the east coast of Turkish-occupied Northern Cyprus, about 3.7 miles north of Famagusta (Αμμόχωστος, which means ‘hidden in the sand’).
Saint Barnabas was reportedly attacked by an enraged Jewish mob while preaching the Gospel in the local synagogue; they bound him with a rope, dragged him out of the temple and stoned him to death circa 61 AD. The Evangelist Mark recovered his body and buried him in an unmarked grave near the village.
* Saint Barnabas is officially the Patron Saint of Cyprus, and the Church of Cyprus draws its apostolicity from Barnabas, who was also a native of Cyprus.
Jesus’ dear friend, Lazarus of Bethany in Israel, who Christ brought back to life after he was four days dead (cf., John 11.1-44), is also a much beloved saint in Cyprus.
Lazarus, a contemporary of Barnabas, fled to Cyprus to escape the wrath of the Lord’s enemies, who were conspiring to kill him because of the miracle Christ wrought in him. In Cyprus, Lazarus served as the bishop of Kition (Κίτιον; present-day Larnaca), one of the island nation’s ancient ten city kingdoms, of and is the patron saint of that city.
SAINT BARNABAS’ RELICS
When the non-Chalcedonian Patriarch of Antioch,* Peter the Fuller (471-88 AD), tried to abolish the Church of Cyprus’ autocephalous status in the late 5th Century, Archbishop Anthemios of Cyprus (Αρχιεπίσκοπος Κύπρου Ανθέμιος), who resisted Antioch’s efforts, had a vision circa 478 AD and found the Apostle Barnabas’ long-lost relics with a copy of Saint Matthew’s Gospel on his chest, proving that the Church of Cyprus was indeed of Apostolic foundation.
Anthemios notified Byzantine Emperor Zeno (Ζήνων; 474-91 AD), who in turn reaffirmed the 3rd Ecumenical Council’s decision in 431 AD to confirm the Church of Cyprus as an independent Church (cf., Ephesus I, 8th Canon), blocking Peter the Fuller’s attempt to assert Antioch’s patriarchal authority over the Cypriot Church.
The majority portion of Saint Barnabas’ relics rest in the crypt of a chapel at the St. Barnabas Monastery complex near Salamis, which was originally built around the spot where Saint Mark buried him. The monastery is today situated in Cyprus’ Turkish-occupied northern territory, where it currently functions as a museum, though the Apostle Barnabas’ tomb is accessible to the public at a separate site on the Monastery’s grounds.
Some of his relics are also preserved at the Church of the Annunciation in Vasa Kilianiou (Βάσα Κοιλανίου), a well-known winemaking village (κρασόχοργιο) about 21.7 miles northeast of Limassol (Νέμεσσος; Λεμεσός).
* Non-Chalcedonian Christians are those who accept the decrees of the first three Ecumenical Councils of Nicaea (325 AD), Constantinople (381 AD) and Ephesus (431 AD). They do not accept the determinations of the 4th Ecumenical Synod in Chalcedon (451), nor do they accept those of the 5th, 6th and 7th Ecumenical Councils in 553 (Constantinople II, 680-81 (Constantinople III) and 787 AD (Nicaea II), respectively.
APOLYTIKION (3rd Tone)
Θεία ὄργανα, τοῦ Παρακλήτου, καὶ ἐκφάντορες, τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγου, ἀνεδείχθητε θεόπται Ἀπόστολοι, Βαρθολομαῖε τῶν Δώδεκα σύσκηνε, καὶ Βαρνάβα ὡς υἱὸς παρακλήσεως. Ἀλλὰ αἰτήσασθε, Χριστὸν τὸν Θεὸν πανεύφημοι, δωρήσασθαι ἠμὶν τὸ μέγα ἔλεος.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdKXBNY7as0
O Divine Instruments of the Paraclete and Exponents of God’s Word, you have proven to be God-Seeking Apostles. O Bartholomew, who dwelt among the Twelve, and Barnabas, a son of exhortation, both renowned of the Lord, please entreat Christ our God to grant His Great Mercy to us all.
READINGS
Matins: Mathew 5.14-19...
https://www.goarch.org/chapel/lectionary?type=G&code=402&event=83
Apostolic Lesson: Acts 11.19-30...
https://www.goarch.org/chapel/lectionary?type=E&code=9&event=83&date=06/11/2026
Gospel Lesson: Luke 10.16-21...
https://www.goarch.org/chapel/lectionary?type=MG&code=372&event=83
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/acts-of-bartholomew-and-barnabas
PHOTO/OrthodoxTimes.com
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SOURCES: The information posted on St. Catherine GOC of Ithaca, NY’s FB page concerning Church History, Greek Orthodox Theology and Biographies of Orthodox Christian Saints is drawn from multiple sources online, and synthesized from general information, which is meticulously cross-referenced, compiled and presented (i.e., written) in a streamlined manner by the administrator/editor, a graduate of high distinction from Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Boston (Class of 1998), and is updated on a regular basis to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible. All the information posted here can be verified with standard general searches on the Internet, or by contacting St. Catherine GOC of Ithaca, NY directly.
