Saint Barbara

Once upon a time, back in the 4th. century, a fanatical pagan named Dioscorus lived at Heliopolis in Syria at the time of the Emperor Maximinus Daia. He grew fearful that his daughter was becoming friendly with some Christians, and to protect her from the contagion of Christianity, he kept her shut up, with only her servants to care for her, in a lonely but very luxurious tower which he built for that purpose. A wise man would have known that this was the worst thing he could do. Barbara had already heard of the teachings of Christ. From the windows of her tower she looked out upon the surrounding countryside and marvelled at the growing things; the trees, the animals and the people. She decided that all these must be part of a master plan, and that the idols of wood and stone worshipped by her parents must be condemned as false. Gradually she came to accept the Christian faith.

Shortly before embarking on a journey, Dioscorus commissioned a sumptuous bathhouse with two windows to be built for his daughter, approving the design before he departed. While her father was gone Barbara spent much time in contemplation. As her belief became firm, she directed that the builders redesign the bathhouse her father had planned, adding another window so that the three windows might symbolise the Holy Trinity.

When her father returned, he was enraged at the changes and infuriated when Barbara acknowledged that she was a Christian and had been baptised. She managed to escape and she lived for a time in a cavern, where she was concealed by the vegetation growing at the entrance. But finally her father's threats of punishment, which he made known during his searches, for anyone who might be concealing her, caused some local shepherds who knew of her whereabouts, to reveal her retreat.

Dioscorus dragged Barbara before the prefect of the province, who decreed that she be tortured and put to death by beheading. Dioscorus, merciless to the last, carried out the death sentence himself. He took her up on to a mountain and there beheaded her. On his way home both Dioscorus and Marcian, the civil prefect, were struck by lightning and killed on the spot.

The legend of the lightning bolt which struck down her persecutors caused Barbara to be regarded as the protecting saint in time of danger from thunderstorms, fires and sudden death. When gunpowder made its appearance in the Western world, Saint Barbara was invoked for aid against accidents resulting from explosions - since some of the earlier artillery pieces often blew up instead of firing their projectile. As a consequence, Saint Barbara became the patroness of artillerymen. She is usually represented standing by a tower with three windows, carrying the palm of a martyr in her hand. Often, too, she holds a chalice and a sacramental wafer and sometimes cannon are displayed near her. In the present calendars, the feast of Saint Barbara falls on December 4th.

Bill Hutchings