11 June St Barnabas (1 st 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 (Third Century)
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 (First Century)
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.
29 June St Peter (First Century)
Liturgically, this is also the feast day of St Paul, but Paul is usually
commemorated on 25 January, the feast of his conversion. Peter’s story is told
in the New Testament up to the ‘Council of Jerusalem’ (50/51 AD). He came
from Bethsaida in Galilee and was the brother of Andrew. His name was
Simon, Jesus gave him the name Cephas (Greek for ’rock’, Petros is another
word for ‘rock’) He was given a leadership role in the texts, in artistic tradition
he is depicted as burly and bearded, contrasted to Paul who is shown as thin
and ascetic.
He was the first to address the crowds at Pentecost, performed the first
healing in the name of the Lord, faced up to the Sanhedrin and baptised the
18