St. Barnabas 19. Ordaining Lazarus as Bishop.
Last week we left St. Barnabas, St. Paul (Saul), and St. Mark on the Island of Cyprus, traveling on their first missionary journey.
According to a tradition of the Eastern Church, when the missionaries were “going through the whole island” of Cyprus (Ac 13:6), they traveled along the southern coastal region still called Larnaca today, and came to a town then called Kition, where St. Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead (Jn 11:38-44) was then living. According to Scripture and the tradition of the Cypriot Church, St. Lazarus was compelled to seek refuge away from Jerusalem to avoid the anger of the high priests and the Pharisees, who wanted to kill him (Jn 12:9-11). Like other believers (Ac 11:19), Lazarus would have had to leave Judea to seek refuge in another country, and apparently made his way to the town of Kition on Cyprus (cf., Ac 11:19). When the Apostles Saul/Paul and Barnabas then came to Kition, the tradition of the Cypriot Church says they ordained Lazarus as the first Bishop of Kition. And so to today, all episcopal thrones in Larnaca have the icon of St. Lazarus instead of the usual icon of Christ. [1]
How many other believers who had fled Jerusalem for Cyprus (Ac 11:19) might Barnabas and Saul have sought out or encountered during their travels on Cyprus?
And last week we related how Barnabas and Saul had arrived in Paphos, a town on the southwestern coast of Cyprus, where they had preached, and through the Holy Spirit (Ac 13:9) Saul had done a miracle which converted the Proconsul, Paulus Sergius, who was “astonished at the teaching of the Lord!” (Ac 13:12.)
There is also an interesting back story to Paulus Sergius. Apparently he had prominent family connections in Antioch of Pisidian (atop a high mesa in southern Galatia, today’s Turkey, not to be confused with Antioch of Syria where the missionary trip originated). It may be, as was the custom of the day, that Paulus Sergius wrote a letter of recommendation for Paul and Barnabas to aid them in their travels and upon their arrival at Antioch of Pisidian.
One scholar has written, “The contact with Sergius Paulus is the key to the subsequent itinerary of the first missionary journey. From Cyprus Paul and Barnabas struck east to the newly founded colony of Pisidian Antioch, miles away from any Cypriot’s normal route.” Paulus Sergius’ influence was due to his family’s ownership of a great estate nearby in central Anatolia. This explains “very neatly why Paul and Barnabas left the governor’s presence and headed straight for distant Pisidian Antioch. He directed them to the area where his family had land, power and influence. The author of Acts saw only the impulse of the Holy Spirit, but Christianity entered Roman Asia on advice from the highest society.” [2]
Which may also explain why Saul now took on his Roman name, Paul (Acts 13:9). Furthermore, when Luke next speaks of the missionaries’ departure from Paphos to sail toward Perga (Ac 13:13), a town 12 miles inland from the coast of Pamphylia (a Roman province in today’s southern Turkey), and then traveling on to Antioch of Pisidia (Ac 13:14), he does not speak, as before, of Barnabas, Saul, and Mark, but now it is “Paul and his company” (Ac 13:13). Paul clearly is now in charge.
This change coincides with John Mark leaving Paul and Barnabas once they reached Perga (Ac 13:13). Might Mark have been upset that Paul had surpassed his Uncle Barnabas as leader? Might Mark have been upset that Paul was now openly speaking and acting in Gentile ways? Might Mark have disagreed with a mission to Gentiles, no longer to Jews?
But Barnabas stayed with Paul and continued on. And, in humility, apparently just as content at now being No. 2.
Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church is located in California City, CA. Visit our website at ollcalcity.org.
Dibby Allan Green has a BA in Religious Studies (Westmont College, 1978) and MA in Theology (Augustine Institute, 2019), is a lay Catholic hermit, and a parishioner of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish.