St Barbara

Virgin, Martyr (mid-3rd century)
Feast / Memorial: December 4
Patronage: Artillery gunners, armourers, architects, chemical engineers, firemen, mathematicians, miners, military engineers, tunnelers, prisoners; invoked against lightning, anyone who works at risk of sudden and violent death; Russian Missile Strategic Forces
Also known as Ἁγία Βαρβάρα, Ϯⲁⲅⲓⲁ Ⲃⲁⲣⲃⲁⲣⲁ, Великомученица Варва́ра Илиопольская, Great Martyr Barbara, Barbe

+ SHORT BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE:

William Caxton’s version of The Golden Legend tells Barbara’s story, which is probably entirely fictitious. She was not known prior to the seventh century. Her story spread in the ninth century, and by the Middle Ages, she was one of the most popular of all saints.

According to lore, Barbara was the daughter of a rich Greek man, Dioscorus. Because of her great beauty, he kept her imprisoned in a high tower. Princes still sought her hand in marriage, but she refused, saying she did not want to marry anyone. She spent her time in prayer and study.

While Dioscorus was away on a long trip, Barbara descended from the tower to look at a bathhouse her father had under construction. She was dismayed that it had only two windows and persuaded workmen to make a third window to honor the Trinity. Barbara lived in the bathhouse and was secretly baptized by a priest. She ate only honeysuckles and locusts, following the example set by St John the Baptist. She returned to the tower, where she received the Holy Ghost and other graces. She disfigured all the pagan idols in the tower.

Upon his return, her father was enraged. He tried to kill her with a sword, but she prayed (and perhaps became entranced) and was taken to a mountain, where two shepherds saw her fly. Dioscorus then seized her by the hair, drew her down from the mountain, and had her thrown in prison. He denounced her before the civil tribunal. She refused to recant and was severely scourged and beaten. She endured the torture with the help of comforting visions of the Lord. The judge ordered her killed by the sword.

Dioscorus took her to a mountain and killed her; she received her martyrdom along with St Juliana (perhaps Juliana of Cumae). Her father immediately was slain by fire from heaven (probably a lightning bolt), and his body was reduced to ashes.

A nobleman named Valentine buried the bodies of Barbara and Juliana in a little town where many miracles were then reported. Different versions of the legend of Barbara give various places and times of her martyrdom: Tuscany, Rome, Antioch, Heliopolis, and Nicomedia, where Juliana of Cumae reportedly was martyred. Despite her cult's suppression in 1969, she remains a legendary martyr of enduring popularity.