Paul and Barnabas had great success in bringing the Gospel to the Gentiles in Antioch. While they were in prayer, the body of Christians seemed to hear that Paul and Barnabas were to bring the Faith to new lands.
The two of them, accompanied by a young St. Mark, took the seventy mile voyage out to Cyprus, addressing the Gentiles along the hundred mile length of the island.
From there, they sailed forty miles north to the town of Perga, (half way across the southern coast of today’s Turkey.)
At that point, St. Mark, homesick for his family in Antioch, deserted them. Two years later, when Mark wanted to accompany Paul and Barnabas on another journey, Barnabas wanted to let him come, but Paul refused; and Paul and Barnabas broke up over that.
Mark was to become Peter’s most reliable companion, and he awas to write the first of the four Gospels.