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Saint Barbara (; ; ; ), known in the Eastern Orthodox Church as the Great Martyr Barbara, was an early Christian Syrian Greek saint and martyr. Kirsch, Johann Peter. "St. Barbara." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907
Saint Barbara is often portrayed with miniature chains and a tower to symbolize her father imprisoning her. As one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, Barbara is a popular saint, perhaps best known as the patron saint of , artillerymen, military engineers, miners and others who work with explosives because of her legend's association with lightning.
She is also a patroness saint of mathematicians. A 15th-century French version of her story credits her with thirteen miracles, many of which reflect the security she offered that her devotees would not die before getting to make confession and receiving extreme unction.Harry F. Williams, "Old French Lives of Saint Barbara" Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 119.2 (16 April 1975:156–185), with extensive bibliography.
Legends detailing her life do not appear until the 7th century. Veneration of her was common, especially in the East, from the 9th century. Because of doubts about the historicity of her legend,Medieval historian Norman F. Cantor referred to Barbara in passing as "entirely mythical', in In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World It Made 2002:84Kirsch, Johann Peter "St. Barbara." The Catholic Encyclopedia] Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907 she was removed from the General Roman Calendar in the 1969 revision, though not from the Catholic Church's list of saints. Martyrologium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2001 ), p. 621
Before departing on a journey, Barbara's father commanded that a private Bathroom be erected for her use near her dwelling, and during his absence, she had three windows put in it as a symbol of the Holy Trinity, instead of the two originally intended. When her father returned, she acknowledged herself to be a Christian. Dragged before the prefect of the province, Martinianus, who had her cruelly tortured, Barbara held true to her Christian faith. During the night, the dark prison was bathed in light and new miracles occurred. Every morning, her wounds were healed. Torches that were to be used to burn her went out as soon as they came near her. Finally, she was condemned to death by Decapitation. Her father himself carried out the death sentence; however, as punishment, he was struck by lightning on the way home and his body was consumed by flame. Barbara was buried by a Christian, Valentinus, and her tomb became the site of miracles. Old French accounts include many additional colorful interpretations of these events.
According to the Golden Legend, her martyrdom took place on 4 December "in the reign of emperor " ( 286–305).
Her legend is included in Vincent of Beauvais' Speculum historiale (xii.64) and in later versions of the Golden LegendB. de Gaiffier Analecta bollandiana 77 (1959)5–41, suggests that the Legenda Aurea version was inspired by one from the late 15th-century Augustinian Jean de Wackerzeele, also known as Jean de Louvain (noted by Williams 1975:1758 note 17). (and in William Caxton's version of it).
Various versions, which include two surviving , differ on the location of her martyrdom, which is variously given as Tuscany, Rome, Antioch, Baalbek, and Nicomedia.Bulfinch, (2001). One Hundred Saints. Boston, Massachusetts: Little, Brown and Company.
Saint Barbara is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. Her association with the lightning that killed her father has caused her to be invoked against lightning and fire; by association with explosions, she is also the patroness of artillery and mining.
Her feast, 4 December, was introduced in Rome in the 12th century and included in the Tridentine calendar. In 1729, that date was assigned to the celebration of Saint Peter Chrysologus, reducing that of Saint Barbara to a commemoration in his Mass. Calendarium Romanum (Libreria Editrice 1969) In 1969, it was removed from that calendar, because the accounts of her life and martyrdom were judged to be entirely fabulous, lacking clarity even about the place of her martyrdom. However, she is still mentioned in the Roman Martyrology, Martyrologium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2001 ) which, in addition, lists another ten martyr saints named Barbara.
In the 12th century, the relics of Saint Barbara were brought from Constantinople to the St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery in Kiev, where they were kept until the 1930s, when they were transferred to St. Volodymyr's Cathedral in the same city. In November 2012, Patriarch Filaret of The Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kiev Patriarchate transferred a small part of St. Barbara's relics to St. Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral in Bloomingdale, Illinois.
Her feast day for Catholic Church and most Anglicans is 4 December.
In 2022, Barbara was officially added to the Episcopal Church liturgical calendar with a feast day she shares with Catherine of Alexandria, and Margaret of Antioch on 24 November.
The Spanish word santabárbara]], the corresponding Italian word santabarbara, and the obsolete French Sainte-Barbe, signify the naval magazine of a ship or fortress. It was customary to have a statue of Saint Barbara at the magazine to protect the ship or fortress from suddenly exploding. Saint Barbara is the patroness of the Italian Navy.
Within the tunneling industry, as a long-standing tradition, one of the first tasks for each new tunnelling project is to establish a small shrine to Santa Barbara at the tunnel portal or at the underground junction into long tunnel headings. This is often followed with a dedication and an invocation to Santa Barbara for protection of all who work on the project during the construction period.
Saint Barbara was also the Patroness saint of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps of the British Army, a church being dedicated to her, initially at Hilsea Barracks Portsmouth, and later being moved to Backdown in Surrey, when the Corps moved its training establishment there.
Saint Barbara's Day, 4 December, is celebrated by the British (Royal Artillery, RAF Armourers, Royal Engineers), Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm Armourers, Australian (Royal Regiment of Australian Artillery, RAAF Armourers), Canadian (Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technicians (EOD), Canadian Ammunition Technicians, Canadian Air Force Armourers, Royal Canadian Artillery, Canadian Military Field Engineers, Royal Canadian Navy Weapons Engineering Technicians), and New Zealand (RNZN Gunners Branch, RNZA, Royal New Zealand Army Ordnance Corps, RNZAF Armourers) armed forces.
The Irish Army venerates her as the patroness saint of the Artillery Corps where she appears on the corps insignia, half dressed, holding a harp, sitting on a field cannon.
Saint Barbara is recognized as the patroness saint of the field artillerymen of the Marine Corps 1st Marine Division, who commemorate Saint Barbara's Day with a dinner and the traditional preparation artillery punch. Saint Barbara is the patroness saint of the United States Field Artillery Association. To recognize the vital roles spouses and families play in the lives of field artillery soldiers and marines, the units celebrate Saint Barbara's Day with military balls or dinners and other activities. Although they do not celebrate her saint's day, she is also the patroness saint of US Navy and Marine Corps Aviation Ordnancemen. It is celebrated by the Norwich University Artillery Battery with a nighttime fire mission featuring multiple M116 howitzers.
Several mining institutions also celebrate it, such as some branches of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. The West Australian Mining Club celebrate Saint Barbara's Day and use it to remember those people who have died working in the mining industry during the year.
In the mining town Kalgoorlie, Australia, as patroness saint of miners she is venerated in the annual St. Barbara's Day parade. In New Zealand the Moawhango Tunnel on the Tongariro Power Scheme was built by Italian tunnellers and commissioned on 4 December 1979.
In the Czech Republic, a statue of Saint Barbara is placed near the future tunnel portal during the groundbreaking ceremony of most major tunneling projects, owing to her being the patroness saint of miners. In the town of Kutná Hora, a former silver mining center, the cathedral is dedicated to Saint Barbara.
In Poland, the salt mine at Wieliczka honours Saint Barbara in Saint Kinga's chapel. Ancient salt-works. Wieliczka see: carving by Jozef Markowski, late 19th century. (Internet Archive)
In France, due to the historic link between the firefighters and the military sappers, Saint Barbara is also the patroness of firefighters and has thus been celebrated by fire services throughout the country on December 4 since the Third Republic.
Other Spanish and Portuguese settlements named Santa Barbara were established in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, Venezuela, and the Philippines. Hammond Atlas of the World. 1997.
In the Afro-Cuban religion of Santería, Barbara is Syncretism with Shango, the deity of fire, lightning, and thunder.Rodriguez, Omar. Afrocuban Religion and Syncretism with the Catholic Religion. University of Miami.
Veneration
The name of Saint Barbara was known in Rome in the 7th century; her cult can be traced to the 9th century, at first in the East. Since there is no mention of her in the earlier martyrology, her historicity is considered doubtful.Alexander Joseph Denomy, "An old French life of Saint Barbara", Medieval Studies 1 (1939:148–78) publishes a 13th- or 14th-century poem in octasyllabic couplets; Wilhelm Weyh, Die syrische Barbara-Legende (Schweinfurt, 1912), concludes that the first legenda was in Greek.
Patronage
Saint Barbara is venerated by Catholics who face the danger of sudden and violent death at work. She is invoked against thunder and lightning and all accidents arising from explosions of gunpowder. She became the patroness saint of artillerymen, armourers, military engineers, gunsmiths, and anyone else who worked with cannon and explosives. Following the widespread adoption of gunpowder in mining in the 1600s, she was adopted as the patroness of miners, tunnellers, and other underground workers. As the geology and mine engineering developed in association with mining, she became patroness of these professions.
In English-speaking countries
The church at (also known as Whale Island) Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, the former Gunnery School of the Royal Navy, is called St. Barbara's.
(1998). 9780908912988, Electricity Corporation of New Zealand. ISBN 9780908912988
Central Europe
In Germany, Barbarazweig is the custom of bringing branches into the house on December 4 to bloom on Christmas. Saint Barbara is revered as a patroness saint of miners and in extension, the geosciences in general, including the tunneling industry. (2013). 9781118665398, American Geophysical Union. ISBN 9781118665398 This connection is particularly strong in the Catholic areas of Germany, as for example Bavaria. Some university geology departments hold annual 'Barbarafests' if not on the 4th then the closest Friday, or within Baden-Württemberg, see University of Tübingen, University of Freiburg or University of Bonn or applied geosciences of the Technische Universität Darmstadt in Hesse.
Spain, Portugal and former colonies
The Spanish military artillerymen, mining engineers and miners also venerate her as patroness saint. Parades, masses, dinners and other activities are held in her honour.
The City of Santa Barbara, California, got its name from the early Spanish navigator Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo. On December 4, the explorer stopped at a particular place on the California coast. He chose to name the spot after the patron of that day, Saint Barbara. A Catholic missionary church, the Mission Santa Barbara, was founded there on her feast day in 1786, and is one of the twenty-one such churches that were operated by the Franciscan Order and collectively known as the California missions. The Presidio of Santa Barbara was built in 1782, with the mission of defending the Second Military District in Spanish California. Santa Barbara County was one of the twenty-seven original counties of California, formed in 1850 at the time of statehood.1850 California Stats., Chap. 15, § 4. The county's territory was later divided to create Ventura County in 1873.
Eastern Europe, Eastern Orthodox Church
In
False Kyiv relics of "St. Barbara" by Микола Жарких relics of Saint Barbara are kept in St. Michael'
"Eastern Christian relics in Ukraine in the late 17th and 18th centuries", page 77, in the last paragraph: "St Barbara's relics were kept in Saint Michael's Cathedral in Kyiv."
Orthodox Church in America, "Transfer of the Relics of Saint Barbara": "The hand of Saint Barbara is kept in a special shrine at Saint Michael's Monastery in Kiev, on the left side of the church." A church of the Great Martyr Barbara (Храм великомучениці Варвари) of Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) is located near Kyrylivskyi Hai (Кирилівський Гай) park in Kyiv. In 2019 the 19th Missile Brigade of the Ukrainian Ground Forces received the honorary title "Saint Barbara"
DECREE OF THE PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE №883/2019 "...1. To assign to the 19th missile brigade of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine the honorary title "Saint Barbara" and further to name it – the 19th missile brigade "Saint Barbara" of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine."
In Georgia, Saint Barbara's Day is celebrated as on December 17 (which is December 4 in the old style calendar). The traditional festive food is , bread baked with a bean stuffing.
In Greece and Cyprus, the day is celebrated by the Artillery Corps of the Greek Army and the Cypriot National Guard. Artillery camps throughout the two countries host celebrations in honor of the saint, where loukoumades, a traditional sweet, are offered to soldiers and visitors, supposedly because they resemble cannonballs. Saint Barbara is also the patroness saint of the northern Greek city of Drama, where a sweet called , which resembles a more liquid form of koliva, is prepared and consumed on her feast day.
In North Macedonia Saint Barbara's day is celebrated by the Eastern Orthodox, as Варвара on 17 December. Some Macedonians celebrate with their closest family and friends at home, while others refrain, believing that people who step in their house on Saint Barbara's day will give them either good or bad luck for the rest of the year.
In Armenia, a cave shrine to Saint Barbara (Kuys Varvara) is located on the slopes of Mount Ara and lit candles and flower garlands are used as tribute.
Many churches in Russia are dedicated in her name, including one in Moscow, next to Saint Basil's Cathedral, and in Yaroslavl.
The event takes place annually on 3, 4, 5 and 11 December, 27 May and 27 July. 4 December represents the date of the martyrdom of the saint, 27 May is the feast of the patronage of Santa Barbara during which the miracle of the stopping of the eruption of Mount Etna in 1780 is remembered, while 27 July is the feast of the arrival of the relics that were brought to Paternò in 1576.
Eid il-Burbara or Saint Barbara's day is celebrated in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, and Hatay Province among Arab Christians annually on December 4, in a feast day similar to that of North American Halloween. (1990). 9780888448095, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies. ISBN 9780888448095 (1999). 9780415865364, Routledge. ISBN 9780415865364 The traditional food for the occasion is Burbara, a bowl of boiled wheat, barley, pomegranate seeds, raisins, anise and sugar. Shredded Coconut, or can be added. The general belief among Lebanese Christians is that Saint Barbara disguised herself in numerous characters to elude the Romans who were persecuting her, and the tradition states that when the saint was escaping from the army of the pagan king in Baalbek, she passed in a field of wheat, and the wheat grew miraculously in order to hide her footprints from the soldiers, and this is the reason of serving the traditional wheat dessert on the feast day. In the Christian village of Aboud in the West Bank, there is a shrine in a cave that the saint reportedly took refuge in. It may also be celebrated on December 17 (which is December 4 in the Julian Calendar).
St. Faustina wrote that St. Barbara appeared to her on 22 August 1937. "This morning, Saint Barbara, Virgin, visited me and recommended that I offer Holy Communion for 9 days on behalf of my country and thus appease God's anger. This virgin was wearing a crown made of stars and was holding a sword in her hand...With her white dress and her flowing hair, she was so beautiful that if I had not already known the Virgin Mary I would have thought that it was she. Now I understand that each virgin has a special beauty all her own; a distinct beauty radiates from each of them."
Saint Barbara is mentioned in Thomas Pynchon's novel Against the Day. The December fourth holiday is compared to the Fourth of July, as being more celebrated by the Dynamiters. She is also mentioned in Federico García Lorca's play La Casa de Bernarda Alba (1936). According to this drama, a popular Spanish phrase regarding this saint in the early 20th century was:"Blessed Santa Barbara, your story is written in the sky, with paper and holy water."
The first Spanish-language telenovela filmed in colour for TV in the US was the 1973 production of Santa Bárbara, Virgen y Mártir, filmed entirely on location in Hialeah, Florida.
G. K. Chesterton wrote the Ballad of Saint Barbara, interweaving the Legend of the Saint with the contemporary account of the huge artillery barrages that turned the First Battle of the Marne.
Major Barbara is a play by George Bernard Shaw in which the title character, an officer in the Salvation Army, grapples with the moral dilemma of whether this Christian denomination should accept donations from her father, who is an armaments manufacturer.
In "Time Bomb", an episode of The Closer, the LAPD deploy a bomb-squad robot named Babs, after St. Barbara in her role as patroness saint of artillery and explosives personnel.
Saint Barbara's story is mentioned in a live version of The Hold Steady's song "Don't Let Me Explode" from Lollapalooza.
The original play "Hala and the King" هالة والملك of the Rahbani brothers starring Fairuz is based on the traditional celebrations of the Saint Barbara Feast in Lebanon, the songs of the first act use the same musical rhyme used by the children until today during the feast, and the concept of costumes in the play is based on the local practices during the feast.
Sylvia Rivera, the co-founder of the homelessness relief organization Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, would lead prayers to Saint Barbara among members of STAR and felt a strong connection to the saint.
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