 St. Barbara
Name: St. Barbara
Date: 4 December
Saint Barbara was brought up by a pagan father, Dioscorus. With the intention of protecting herbeauty, he kept her jealously secluded in a lonely but very luxurious tower which he built for thatpurpose; for in his own way he loved her. In her forced solitude, this very gifted young girlundertook to study religion, and soon saw clearly all the vices and absurdities of paganism; herclear mind realized that there could be only one supreme Creator-God, and that He is entitled tothe worship of His reasonable creatures. Divine Providence by its wonderful ways contrived toobtain for her the means to send a message to Origen, the famous exegete, asking for knowledgeof the Christian faith. That teacher of Alexandria immediately sent to her, at Nicomedia, adisciple named Valentinian. Soon she was baptized, and Our Lord appeared to her, as He wouldappear to others such as Saint Catherine of Alexandria and Saint Teresa of Avila, to tell her Hehad chosen her to be His spouse. Saint Barbara, rejoicing, hoped to be able to communicate herprecious new faith to her father, but would soon discover that hope was vain. When she was of an age to marry, many requests for her hand came to her wealthy father. Shewas his only heiress, and he rejected her expressed wish not to accept any such offer, although shesaid she wished to remain his consolation for his declining years. When she continued to refuseevery suitor’s demands, and when Dioscorus returned from a journey to find all the idols he hadplaced in her tower broken in pieces and scattered about, he was furious. Discovering hisdaughter’s conversion, he was beside himself with rage. She escaped and dwelt for a time in acavern, where she was concealed by the vegetation growing at the entrance. But finally herfather’s threats of chastisement, which he made known during his searches, for anyone who mightbe concealing her, caused some local shepherds who knew of her whereabouts, to reveal herretreat. Her father denounced her to the civil tribunal, and Barbara was horribly tortured twice, and finallybeheaded. Her own father, merciless to the last, asked to deal her the fatal blow himself. God,however, speedily punished her persecutors. While her soul was being borne by the Angels toParadise, a flash of lightning struck Dioscorus and Marcian, the civil prefect, and both weresummoned in haste to the judgment-seat of God. Saint Barbara is beloved of the Spanish-speaking peoples. She is the special protectress of theregion of Metz in France, where a magnificent church, later destroyed, was built in her honor inthe 1500's. She is invoked against sudden and unprovided death, and invariably answers allrequests for the favor of receiving the Last Sacraments. A famous instance of her intervention onbehalf of a Saint who was on the verge of death, can be read in the life of Saint Stanislaus Kostka. |
