St. Barbara

St. Barbara (died c. 200 ce; feast day December 4) was a legendary virgin martyr of the early Christian church. Venerated as one of the 14 Auxiliary Saints (Holy Helpers), she is invoked in thunderstorms and is the patron saint of artillerymen and miners. Because Barbara’s authenticity is uncertain, she was dropped from the General Roman Calendar in 1969. However, she remains a popular saint, and her feast day is still celebrated by many Roman Catholics.

According to legend, which dates to the 7th century, she was the beautiful daughter of a pagan, Dioscorus, who kept her guarded in a tower to protect her from harm. When she professed Christianity and refused marriage, her father became enraged and took her to the provincial prefect, who ordered her to be tortured and beheaded. It is said that Dioscorus himself performed the execution and, upon his return home, was struck by lightning and reduced to ashes.

Some accounts name the ancient Egyptian city of Heliopolis as the scene of her sufferings, while others claim Nicomedia or a town in Tuscany (Italy). The original Greek accounts of her martyrdom are lost, but Syriac, Latin, and other versions are extant. Her story, reproduced in great detail in Jacobus de Voragine’s Legenda aurea (1255–66; Golden Legend, 1483), was popular in the Middle Ages.