Image: “Barnabas at the Archbishopric” (see below)
Clavis number: ECMA 171
Other descriptors: none
Location: Cathedral of St John, Nicosia
Category: frescoes
Related literature: Acts of Bartholomew and Barnabas, Encomium on Barnabas by Alexander Monachus
Featured characters and locations: Anthemios (bishop of Salamis), Barnabas, Cyprus, Zeno (emperor).
1. DESCRIPTION
Material: paint on plaster
Size: unspecified
Images: Barnabas appears to Archbishop Anthemios, the discovery of the saint’s relics, the presentation of the Gospel of Matthew found with Barnabas’s body to Zeno, the declaration of Cyprus as an autonomous church with its own patriarch.
Date: 1736
Provenance: attributed to the hieromonk Ioannikios and his workshop.
2. RELATION TO APOCRYPHAL LITERATURE
The Acts of Barnabas is the earliest account of the apostle’s death and internment. The end of the text reports that his remains were buried in a cavern with a copy of the Gospel of Matthew that Barnabas carried with him. The Encomium on Barnabas by Alexander Monachus continues the story (subsequently abbreviated in the Acts of Bartholomew and Barnabas), reporting that Barnabas appeared to Anthemios, the bishop of Salamis, revealing to him the location of his remains. Anthemios finds the coffin, the body, and the gospel. He gives the gospel to the Emperor Zeno, who commands Anthemios to build a church for Barnabas.
3. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cosby, M. R. Creation of History. The Transformation of Barnabas from Peacemaker to Warrior Saint. 2nd ed. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2021 (pp. 29, 146–47).
Huffman, Joseph P. “The Donation of Zeno: St Barnabas and the Origins of the Cypriot Archbishops’ Regalia Privileges.” Church History 84.4 (2015): 713–45. Also published in modified form as The Journal of Ecclesiastical History 66.2 (2015): 235–60 (esp. 238–39, 246–47).
Megaw, A. H. S. “Byzantine Architecture and Decoration in Cyprus: Metropolitan or Provincial?” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 28 (1974): 57–88.
Mouriki, Doula. “The Cult of Cypriot Saints in Medieval Cyprus as Attested by Church Decorations and Icon Painting.” Pages 237–77 in ‘The Sweet Land of Cyprus’: Papers Given at the Twenty-fifth Jubilee Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, Birmingham, England (March 1991). Edited by A. A. M. Bryer and G. S. Georghallides. Nicosia: Cyprus Research Centre, 1993.
Sophocleous, Sophocles. Icônes de Chypre: diocèse de Limassol, 12e–16e siècle. Nicosia: Centre du patrimoine culturel, 2006 (pp. 75, 409).
Sophocleous, Sophocles, ed. Cyprus, the Holy Island: Icons Through the Centuries. Nicosia: A. G. Leventis Foundation, 2000 (pp. 42–43).
4. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
“Barnabas at the Archbishopric.” The Legacy of Joseph Barnabas in Cyprus. Posted 27 October 2011.
“St John’s Cathedral, Nicosia.” Wikipedia.
“Saint Johns Cathedral, Nicosia – Cyprus.” Blue Travel Plus. Youtube.
Entry created by Tony Burke, York University, 3 August 2024.