11 June St Barnabas (1st century)
His story is told in Acts (4: 34-35) He was a Levite from Cyprus, originally
named ‘Joseph’, but renamed Barnabas = ‘son of encouragement’ by the
apostles. Sent by them to Antioch to instruct Greek coverts, he went on to
Tarsus to meet Paul and accompany him back to Antioch. There he worked
with Paul, taking the message to the Gentiles and raising funds to relieve
famine in Jerusalem. He went with Paul on missionary voyages in Asia
Minor and to Jerusalem for the ‘Council of Jerusalem’, to persuade the
church to accept un-circumcised members. From there he went on a
separate missionary journey with John Mark, his cousin. He obviously
played a major part in the missionary expansion of the early church. A later
apocryphal ‘Acts’, supposedly written by John Mark, gives an account of his
later life, but is not historical.
22 June St Alban, First Martyr of Britain
There were probably Christians in the British Isles already in the first
century, but Alban is the first recorded Martyr. The traditional date of his
death is 304, under Diocletian, but now many date it around 209 during
persecutions under Emperor Septimus Severus.
Alban was a pagan soldier in the Roman army. He sheltered a persecuted
Christian priest and converted to Christianity. He is said to have dressed up
in the priest’s cloak and was arrested instead of him, was tried and
beheaded.
He thus became the first Christian martyr in Britain, the second was his
executioner (who had converted on the spot), the third was the priest who
gave himself up. The place of their deaths is near the site of St Alban’s
Cathedral today.
24 June St John the Baptist
He is the only saint, whose saint’s day
is his birthday, not the day of his
death, which is supposed to be the 29
August.
According to the Church’s calendar his
birth marks the 6 months before Jesus’
birth.
Thus the Church could take over a
pagan festival at Midsummer night. In
Germany on that night fires are lit
called ‘Johannisfeuer’, but were
originally a pagan mark of summer
solstice.
StOM Page 8