Saint Barbara of Nicomedia

Saint Barbara (1473)
by Ghirlandaio

Feast Day: December 4

Edited by Peter Y. Chou
WisdomPortal.com

Saint Barbara
Holy Card

SAINT BARBARA OF NICOMEDIA
d. circa 238, Nicomedia, Turkey

According to legend, Barbara was the beautiful daughter of a wealthy merchant named Dioscorus who shut her up in a tower to keep her away from Christian influences. The only visitors he allowed were a series of brilliant philosophers and tutors who were supposed to educate Barbara about the pagan gods. All his efforts were undone at night, however, when Barbara stared at the stars and understood that they could not have been made by her father's gods. She managed to contact the Christians, received instruction, and was baptized.
When Barbara revealed her conversion to her father, he denounced her to the governor. The governor tried to persuade Barbara to honor his gods, and when she refused, he had her whipped. The whip turned into peacock feathers, and her wounds were miraculously healed. The governor then commanded that Barbara be beheaded. The executioner moved slowly, so Dioscorus seized the ax himself and cut off his daughter's head, then boasted that the emperor should honor him for this service. At that point, a thunderbolt fell from heaven and reduced him to a pile of ashes.
There is a legend that when Barbara was on her way to prison, a cherry branch clung to her robe. She kept it in her jail cell and watered it from here drinking cup until it blossomed on the day of her execution. This has given rise to the Advent tradition of the Barbarazweig, when branches are cut from a fruit tree, brought into the house, kept in water, and, if all goes well, blossom in time for Christmas.
Barbara is a patron of architects and engineers, firefighters, the artillery, and ballplayers, as well as a protector against lightning and explosions.

The Genius of Barbara:
Even shut away from the world, Barbara could see
the truth as plainly as the stars in the sky.

Reflection:
"For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare, not for woe! plans to give you a future full of hope. When you call me, when you go to pray to me, I will listen to you. When you look for me, you will find me."
— Jeremiah 29:11-13

Sarah Gallick, The Big Book of Women Saints
HarperSanFrancisco, 2007, p. 364

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Saint Barbara (1437)
by Jan van Eyck
Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp
Rosa Giorgi, Saints: A Year in Faith and Art (2006)
282.0922Giorgi (pp. 712-713)

Barbara lived between the 3rd and 4th centuries. According to apocryphal sources, she was the daughter of Dioscorus, king of Nicomedia, who locked her away in a tower so that no man could have her. She became a Christian and decided to live as a hermit, but when the king learned of this he denounced her to the prefect, who condemned her to death. She was beheaded with her own father's sword, and he in fact then perished, incinerated by a bolt of lightning.

Barbara has been worshipped since the 7th century. She is depicted as a young girl with a palm branch or peacock feathers. Her attribute is the tower; she is invoked against lightning.

PROTECTOR: Architecta, gunners, weapons maker, miners, masons,
firemen, bell-founders, and those at risk of sudden death.

NAME: Barbara is from the Greek and means "foreigner".

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Santa Barbara, Fresco (1471)
by Domenico Ghirlandaio
Church of Sant' Andrea,
Cecina, Tuscany Edward & Lorna Mornin, Saints: A Visual Guide (2006)
282.0922Mornin (pp.126-127)

Barbara is one of those saints whose stories fascinate but who probably never existed, though she was supposedly executed during the Roman persecution of Christians about 303. Her legendary life was not written until the 7th century. According to her story, Barbara was a beautiful maiden who was confined in a tower by her heathen father to safeguard her from the attention of men. During one of his absences, she became a Christian and withdrew as a hermit to a little two-windowed bath-house, to which she added a third window in honour of the trinity. Enraged at her conversion, her father handed her over for punishment to a Roman magistrate, who, after a number of unsuccessful attempts to kill her, ordered her father to cut off her head with a sword. The father himself was then struck dead by a bolt of lightning.
Barbara is most commonly represented with her tower, usually three-windowed. Alternatively, she may be shown with a chalice and host, representing her turning to Christianity, as in a celebrated painting by Hans Holbein the Elder in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich. Because of her association with the death by lightning of her father, she became the patron saint of those in danger of sudden death by lightning, fire or explosion-- notably of artillerists and miners. This merited her inclusion among the Fourteen Holy Helpers.
Branches from a fruit tree or flowering shrub cut on St. Barbara's Day (4 December) and kept in water in a warm room will flower by Christmas. This is known as a "St. Barbara's bouquet" in Germany. Though Barbara, as fictitious, was struck from the Roman calendar of saints in 1969, one can still make such a bouquet successfully today.

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Santa Barbara (1438) by Robert Campin
The Werl Altapiece, Prado, Madrid Rosemary Ellen Guilley, Encyclopedia of Saints (2001)
282.0922Guilley2001 (pp. 37-38)

St. Barbara (Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division)

Saint Barbara (d. 4th century)—
Legendary martyr of enduring popularity,
despite the suppression of her cult in 1969.

Name meaning: Stranger

William Caxton's version of The Golden Legend tells Barbara's story, which is probably entirely fictitious. She was not known prior to the 7th century. Her story spread in the 9th 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 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.

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Web Sites on Saint Barbara

Wikipedia: Saint Barbara
Bio with Campin's 1438 painting "Saint Barbara" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Barbara)
(Life, Veneration, Patronage, Order of Saint Barbara, In modern pop culture, In art, links)
The Golden Legend: Life of Saint Barbara
Catholic Forum Biography with no photos (http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/golden308.htm)
Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/St. Barbara
By Johann Peter Kirsch (http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclopedia_(1913)/St._Barbara)
History of Saint Barbara
City of Santa Barbara (http://www.oldspanishdays-fiesta.org/new/index.php/history/history_of_saint_barbara)
(Old Spanish Days in Santa Barbara: Barbara as Patron Saint, St. Barbara Protectress)
A Day to Honor Saint Barbara
By Jonathan Young / Feast Day: December 4 (http://www.folkstory.com/articles/stbabs.html)
St. Barbara's Day
German Culture: Barbarazweig (http://www.germanculture.com.ua/library/weekly/aa120100d.htm)
Saint Barbara
By Terry Jones (http://saints.sqpn.com/saint-barbara/)
(Memorial, Profile, Patronage, Representation, Images, More Info)
Saint Barbara, Virgin and Martyr
(Female Saints, St. Barbara Stories, Statue in Rome, Her martyrdom, Hagiography)
Here Beginneth the Life of St. Barbara
William Caxton 1483's Edition (http://www.aug.edu/augusta/iconography/goldenLegend/barbara.htm)
Saint Barbara: Martyr of the Lord
Coptic Orthodox Church (http://www.copticchurch.net/topics/synexarion/barbara.html)
Saint Barbara: Patron Saint of Thunder & Lightning
By Catherine Yronwode (http://www.luckymojo.com/saintbarbara.html)
(Prayers & Invocation to Saint Barbara, African Faces of Saint Barbara, Holy Cards)