Robert Campin (1375/1379–1444), Saint Barbara in her tower, right panel of the Werl Triptych, 1438, 101 x 47, Museo del Prado
Sainte Barbe
Vierge et martyre (+ 235)
ou Barbara, illustre
martyre de Nicomédie dont le culte fut largement répandu dès le Ve siècle tant
en Orient qu'en Occident.
Sa vie est surtout faite
de traditions pour ne pas dire de légendes. Son bourreau aurait été frappé par
la foudre d'où l'origine de la dévotion populaire qui l'invoque contre les
dangers d'une mort subite provoquée par le feu ou l'électricité.
Il semble que cette
barbare (Barbara) fut introduite dans le cirque de Nicomédie sans que les
spectateurs, parmi lesquels se trouvaient des chrétiens, ne connaissent son
nom. Sommée une dernière fois de sacrifier l'encens à l'empereur, elle refusa.
Quand les chrétiens vinrent demander son corps, ils ne purent la nommer que
"une jeune femme barbare", Barbara.
Il en est d'ailleurs de
même pour beaucoup d'autres martyrs: René (rené par le baptême), Christian (un
chrétien), Christophe (un porte-Christ) etc..
Selon une autre légende,
comme elle était d'une grande beauté, son père l'enferme dans une tour. Elle y
devient chrétienne. Pour cela, son père la décapite lui-même, mais il meurt
aussitôt foudroyé.
Attributs: une tour (trois fenêtres) à la main, ciboire et hostie , ou
canon et barils de poudre.
Le père Rouillard, de Wisques a résumé ainsi sa biographie: Elle aimait Dieu,
beaucoup et trouvait inutile de se marier. Son père déçu lui coupa la tête,
mais tomba foudroyé. En Orient, on ne sait plus quand. Mais tout le monde sait
que sainte Barbe, à cause de la foudre, est patronne des artilleurs, des
artificiers, des mineurs et des carriers; et à cause de son nom, des brossiers,
des chapeliers et des tapissiers. On l'invoque même en Haute-Saône pour avoir
des enfants frisés.. (source: Saints
du Pas de Calais - diocèse d'Arras)
Le culte de la sainte est ancien. Son intercession protégeait de la mort subite. Elle était aussi invoquée contre la foudre et, très tôt, elle fut prise comme patronne par les arquebusiers (c'est le cas, façon attestée, à Florence, dès 1529), puis par les canonniers, et par tous ceux qui 'jouent' avec le feu et les explosifs. Les artilleurs contemporains, de même que les artificiers, les sapeurs et les pompiers* du Génie, n'ont fait que s'inscrire dans cette tradition. (Diocèse aux Armées françaises)
(*des internautes nous font remarquer que tous les pompiers ne sont pas
militaires, les pompiers de Paris et les marins-pompiers de Marseille sont
militaires.)
Hormis la légende de son
martyre qui en a fait la patronne des artilleurs, des artificiers, des mineurs
et des pompiers, on ne sait rien sur sainte Barbe. Cependant son culte est
répandu depuis un temps immémorial dans le pays messin dont elle est la patronne.
(Source: Diocèse
de Metz)
Des internautes nous
écrivent:
- "Constructeurs de
tunnels depuis plusieurs années l'AFTES, l'Association des travaux en souterrains
fête sa sainte patronne: Ste Barbe. Lors du creusement du tunnel sous la
Manche, il était travaillé 364/365 jours. Le seul jour non travaillé était le 4
décembre fête de Ste Barbe."
- "Sainte Barbe est
également fêtée le 3ème lundi de juillet à Roscoff en Bretagne; elle était la
patronne des Johnnies (ces hommes qui depuis 1825 vont vendre les oignons rosés
de la région dans le Royaume-Uni)"
- "Sa légende parle
d'une jeune fille très belle et très riche vivant au moyen-âge. Convertie au
christianisme contre la volonté de son père elle est emprisonnée dans une tour
du château. Elle s'obstine et persévère néanmoins dans sa foi. Furieux, le père
met le feu à la tour et, retrouvant sa fille indemne, la fait décapiter. Alors,
c'est le feu du ciel qui tombe sur lui et le consume intégralement. Sainte
Barbe est invoquée contre les morts violentes."
- "Sainte-Barbe est
Libanaise. Sainte-Barbe est de Baalbeck, au Liban. La Sainte-Barbe est une fête
nationale au Liban, avant qu'elle ne se répande dans le monde. A la
Sainte-Barbe au Liban, nous mangeons du blé cuit sucré en commémoration de
Sainte-Barbe qui s'est cachée de son père, dans les champs de blé, au Liban. De
plus, à la Sainte-Barbe, les grands et les petits se déguisent dans les rues,
et les enfants vont chercher des bonbons et des friandises dans les
maisons."
Commémoraison de sainte
Barbe, martyre à Nicomédie.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/213/Sainte-Barbe.html
%2C_KBS-FRB_47.jpg)
Santa
Barbara, van Reynegom Book of Hours, circa 15th century , parchment, leather and silver, King Baudouin Foundation
Sainte Barbe
Vierge et Martyre
(† 255)
Sainte Barbe naquit aux
environs de Nicomédie. Son père, nommé Dioscore, homme puissant et brutal, très
ennemi des chrétiens, s'aperçut qu'elle était chrétienne au moment où elle
refusa obstinément un riche mariage. Saisi de fureur, il se précipita sur elle
pour la transpercer; mais Barbe s'enfuit en pénétrant, par miracle, à travers
un rocher. Peu après, la courageuse vierge, découverte dans la retraite ou elle
s'était cachée, fut amenée à Dioscore, qui la conduisit lui-même à Marcien,
préteur de la ville.
Barbe fut frappée d'abord
à coups de nerfs, et bientôt son corps si tendre ne présenta qu'une plaie
sanglante. Jésus la visita la nuit suivante dans son noir cachot, guérit ses
plaies et lui promit Son assistance pour de nouveaux combats. Le lendemain, sa
fermeté la fit condamner à être déchirée avec des peignes de fer et brûlée avec
des torches ardentes. La douce victime endura tout, le sourire sur les lèvres,
toute ravie en son Sauveur. Tout à coup, du sein de la foule, une femme nommée
Julienne s'écria, à la vue de tant de constance: "Moi aussi, je suis
chrétienne!" et elle reçut sans tarder le sanglant Baptême du martyre.
La foule des païens
commençait à s'émouvoir d'un si étonnant spectacle. Le juge résolut donc de
tenter un supplice plus horrible que tous les autres pour la pudeur de la
vierge. Il la fit dépouiller complètement pour lui faire traverser avec
ignominie les rues de la ville, pendant que les bourreaux la fouetteraient
cruellement. Barbe leva les yeux sur le Seigneur et Le supplia de protéger son
corps contre les regards impudiques. Aussitôt un globe de feu descendit du ciel
et l'enveloppa d'un vêtement de lumière, qui la rendit invisible à tous les
regards. Le juge, saisi de terreur, ordonna de lui trancher la tête. Mais
Dioscore, son père, s'écria: "C'est à moi de la frapper!" et
saisissant son épée, il tranche la tête de l'innocente victime agenouillée
devant lui.
Sainte Barbe est la
patronne de tous les corps de métiers qui ont à redouter la foudre ou le feu;
on l'invoque aussi contre la mort subite et imprévue.
Abbé L. Jaud, Vie
des Saints pour tous les jours de l'année, Tours, Mame, 1950
SOURCE : http://magnificat.ca/cal/fr/saints/sainte_barbe.html
Attribué au « maître de St Goéry », actif à Metz vers 1437-1452. Sainte Barbe, Feuillet 231, verso. Heures de Toul (atelier messin). Velin. (Metz, deuxième quart du XVe siècle). Bibliothèques Médiathèques de Metz
Sainte Barbe
Vierge et martyre
(273-290)
Barbe naît aux environs
de Nicomédie. Son père, nommé Dioscore, s'aperçut qu'elle était chrétienne au
moment où elle refusa obstinément un riche mariage. Saisi de fureur, il se
précipita sur elle pour la transpercer ; mais Barbe s'enfuit. Peu après,
la courageuse vierge, découverte dans la retraite où elle s'était cachée, fut
amenée à Dioscore, qui la conduisit lui-même à Marcien, préteur de la ville.
Barbe fut frappée d'abord
à coups de nerfs. Le lendemain, sa fermeté la fit condamner à être déchirée avec
des peignes de fer et brûlée avec des torches ardentes. La douce victime endura
tout, le sourire sur les lèvres.
La foule des païens
commençait à s'émouvoir d'un si étonnant spectacle. Le juge résolut donc de
tenter un supplice plus horrible que tous les autres pour la pudeur de la
vierge. Il la fit dépouiller complètement pour lui faire traverser avec
ignominie les rues de la ville, pendant que les bourreaux la fouetteraient
cruellement. Puis le juge ordonna de lui trancher la tête. Mais Dioscore, son père,
s'écria : « C'est à moi de la frapper ! » et saisissant son
épée, il tranche la tête de l'innocente victime agenouillée devant lui.
Sainte Barbe est la patronne de tous les corps de métiers qui ont à redouter la foudre ou le feu ; on l'invoque aussi contre la mort subite et imprévue.
©Evangelizo.org
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
SOURCE : http://levangileauquotidien.org/main.php?language=FR&module=saintfeast&localdate=20151204&id=89&fd=0
Sainte Barbe, 1488, Illuminierte Seite aus dem Waldburg-Gebetbuch, WLB Stuttgart, Cod. brev. 12, fol. 49v
La prière de sainte Barbe
pour ceux qui sont persécutés
La
rédaction d'Aleteia - Publié le 03/12/20
Sainte Barbe, fêtée par
l’Église catholique le 4 décembre, est une des saintes les plus populaires de
France. On l'invoque pour demander la protection des personnes persécutées pour
leur foi.
Connue comme patronne des
pompiers, sainte
Barbe est invoquée pour être préservé d’une mort subite et aussi pour
avoir la grâce de ne pas mourir sans recevoir les derniers sacrements. Cette
Vierge martyre du IIIe siècle qui a refusé énergiquement de se sacrifier aux
faux dieux, a subit les supplices les plus horribles avant de mourir, dit-on,
décapitée par son propre père. Sa prière dite « sous la torture »
peut aider à trouver la force de rester fidèle à sa foi et suivre le Christ
chaque jour.
« Ô mon Sauveur, qui
connaissez le fonds des cœurs, qui savez que je ne désire que Vous, que je
n’aime que Vos saintes Lois et que je me suis totalement dédiée à Votre
Majesté, pour ne dépendre que de Votre divine Puissance, je Vous prie et Vous
conjure de ne me point abandonner, de me recevoir entre les bras de votre
Miséricorde, de me soutenir et de me fortifier, afin que je demeure victorieuse
dans ce combat. Mon Dieu ne détournez-pas votre Face de moi et ne me privez pas
de la Présence de votre Saint-Esprit. Ô mon Seigneur et mon Roi qui couvrez
quand il Vous plaît le ciel de nuages et la terre de ténèbres, cachez, je Vous
supplie, la nudité de mon corps afin que les yeux des infidèles ne le voyant
point, ils n’aient pas sujet de faire des railleries de Votre servante ».
Sainte Barbe (273-308)
Lire aussi :
Activité
de l’Avent : le blé de la sainte Barbe
Part central del retaule de santa Bàrbara de Cocentaina. Fusta, segona meitat del segle XIV, procedent de l'ermita de Santa Bàrbara. Museu Municipal de Cocentaina
Cette sainte veille sur
une quantité impressionnante de professions
Rachel
Molinatti - Publié le 03/12/18
Connue du grand public
pour la dévotion que lui portent les pompiers, sainte Barbe est également la
sainte patronne de nombreuses autres professions.
Le 4 décembre, l’Église
catholique fête sainte Barbe, dont l’histoire oscille entre traditions et
légendes. Vierge martyre du IIIe siècle, on dit qu’elle était d’une grande
beauté. Apprenant qu’elle s’était convertie au christianisme, son père lui
trancha la tête dans le feu de l’action mais mourut aussitôt foudroyé par
retour express du Très-Haut. Encore un qui n’a pas fait long feu.
… et même sur l’école
Polytechnique
On la connaît comme la
patronne des pompiers, mais saviez-vous qu’elle est également celle des
artificiers, des artilleurs, des mineurs, des constructeurs de galeries et de
puits, des mathématiciens, des géomètres belges, des égoutiers, des
métallurgistes ? En effet, on l’associe à tous ceux qui pratiquent les métiers
souterrains et qui manient feu et étincelles, et par extension, à ceux dont les
métiers s’appliquent à l’art militaire (comme les mathématiciens et les
ingénieurs). Il semblerait même qu’elle veille sur l’élite intellectuelle
qui peuple l’école Polytechnique.
Dans un tout autre
registre, elle est également invoquée par les carillonneurs, brossiers
(fabricants de brosses en tous genres), chapeliers et tapissiers, ainsi que par
les Johnnies, ces marchands de Roscoff qui, depuis près de deux siècles,
traversent la Manche pour aller vendre leurs oignons rosés chez les Rosbifs
(n’y voyez pas là une allusion à une vedette du rock français) car ils
partaient traditionnellement après le pardon de sainte Barbe, qui était
célébré au mois de juillet. Le moins que l’on puisse dire, c’est qu’elle a
beaucoup de cordes à son arc.
Dionisius (1444–1502). Великомученица
Варвара
Barbara
la grande martyre
Sainte Barbe, vierge et
martyre
Martyre orientale, fêtée
le 4 décembre chez les Syriens, les Byzantins et le Coptes. Le premier témoin
de son culte en Occident est Raban Maur vers 849. Fête au XIIème siècle.
Dom Guéranger, l’Année
Liturgique
L’Église Romaine n’a
consacré qu’une simple Commémoration à sainte Barbe, dans l’Office de saint
Pierre Chrysologue ; mais elle a approuvé un Office entier à l’usage des
Églises qui honorent spécialement la mémoire de cette illustre vierge. La
Légende qui suit, quoique fort grave, n’a donc point l’autorité de celles qui
sont promulguées pour toute l’Église dans le Bréviaire Romain. Nous n’en devons
pas moins rendre nos hommages fervents à cette glorieuse Martyre, si célèbre
dans tout l’Orient, et dont l’Église Romaine a depuis longtemps adopté le
culte. Ses actes, pour n’être pas de la première antiquité, n’ont rien que de
glorieux à Dieu et d’honorable à la Sainte. Rendons hommage à la fidélité avec
laquelle cette Vierge attendit l’Époux, qui ne manqua pas à l’heure dite, et
qui fut pour elle un Époux de sang, comme parle l’Écriture, parce qu’il avait
reconnu la force de son amour.
On l’invoque dans
l’Église contre la foudre, en mémoire du châtiment que la justice divine
infligea à son détestable père. Sa qualité de protectrice du peuple chrétien
contre le feu du ciel a fait donner son nom aux magasins de poudre sur les
vaisseaux et l’a fait assigner pour patronne aux artilleurs, aux mineurs, et
généralement aux corporations dans lesquelles on emploie la poudre à canon. On
la prie aussi pour être préservé de la mort subite, tant a fait d’impression
sur les fidèles la fin terrible de Dioscore !
Nous nous bornerons à
extraire des livres liturgiques de nos églises cette gracieuse Antienne
composée dans les temps chevaleresques :
O Miséricorde immense de
la divine bonté, qui a glorifié Barbe par la splendeur de la seule véritable
lumière, et l’a rendue digne de s’unir à la Divinité, après qu’elle eût méprisé
les honneurs de la terre ! Elle a brillé comme un lis entre les épines ; elle a
lui comme la lumière dans les ténèbres. Alleluia.
L’Église grecque est
abondante sur les louanges de sainte Barbe.
Nous venons joindre notre
faible voix à celle de tant d’Églises, ô Vierge fidèle ! et vous offrir à la
fois nos louanges et nos prières. Voici que le Seigneur vient, et nous sommes
dans la nuit : daignez donner à notre lampe et la lumière qui doit guider nos
pas, et l’huile qui entretient la lumière. Vous savez que Celui qui est venu
pour vous, et avec qui vous êtes éternellement, s’approche pour nous visiter ;
obtenez que nul obstacle ne nous empêche d’aller au-devant de lui. Que notre vol
vers lui soit courageux et rapide comme fut le vôtre ; et que, réunis à lui,
nous ne nous en séparions plus : car Celui qui vient est véritablement le
centre de toute créature. Priez aussi, ô glorieuse Martyre, afin que la foi
dans la divine Trinité brille en ce monde d’un éclat toujours croissant. Que
Satan, notre ennemi, soit confondu, lorsque toute langue confessera la Triple
lumière figurée par les fenêtres de votre tour, et la croix victorieuse qui a
sanctifié les eaux. Souvenez-vous, Vierge chérie de l’Époux, qu’en vos mains
pacifiques a été remis le pouvoir, non de lancer la foudre, mais de la retenir
et de la détourner. Protégez nos navires contre les feux du ciel et contre ceux
de la guerre. Couvrez de votre protection les arsenaux qui renferment la
défense de la patrie. Entendez la voix de tous ceux qui vous invoquent, soit
qu’elle monte vers vous du sein de la tempête, soit qu’elle parte des
entrailles de la terre ; et sauvez-nous tous du terrible châtiment de la mort
subite.
Domenico Ghirlandaio (1448–1494). Santa Barbara Crushing her Infidel Father, with a Kneeling Donor, circa 1473, 68 x 74
Bhx Cardinal Schuster, Liber
Sacramentorum
Avant que la fête de
saint François Xavier, fixée au 3 décembre, renvoyât la solennité de saint
Pierre Chrysologue au lendemain, ce jour était dédié à sainte Barbe. La fête de
cette célèbre martyre orientale (probablement d’Héliopolis en Phénicie) a été
accueillie dans le calendrier romain au moins dès le XIIe siècle ; son culte à
Rome est toutefois beaucoup plus ancien, puisque Grégoire le Grand, Léon IV,
Etienne III et d’autres papes du haut moyen âge lui dédièrent des basiliques et
des oratoires au Clivus scauri, près du titre des Quatre-Saints-Couronnés, près
de l’église de Saint-Laurent in Agro Verano, près du théâtre de Pompée et
ailleurs encore. Son culte fut vraisemblablement importé par les Byzantins, et
de Rome il se répandit en d’autres parties d’Italie. Jean Diacre, dans sa vie
de saint Grégoire le Grand, nous apprend qu’étant encore moine et abbé du
monastère de Saint-André, in oratorio sanctae Barbarae... Gregorius laudes
Domino celebrare solebat [1].
Par conséquent, le culte
de sainte Barbe à Rome daterait au moins de la fin du VIe siècle.
La messe est celle du
Commun des vierges martyres, Loquébar.
Presque tous les
Orientaux célèbrent en ce jour la fête de sainte Barbe, à laquelle les
Byzantins donnent même le titre de Mégalomartyre L’authenticité de ses Actes
n’est pas assurée, mais à la gloire des fastes ecclésiastiques suffit bien
l’héroïque confession de la foi affirmée devant les tourments et scellée par le
sang. C’est le cas de répéter après saint Ambroise : Martyrem dixi, praedicavi
satis.
[1] L. IV, 89, P. L.,
LXXV, col. 234.
_Sainte-Barbe.JPG)
Statue de sainte Barbe au centre du hameau de Biver, dans la commune de Gardanne.
Dom Pius Parsch, le Guide
dans l’année liturgique
Jour de mort : (d’après
le martyrologe) le 4 décembre vers 300. Tombeau : d’après la tradition, dans le
diocèse de Torzello (Plaisance) ; d’après d’autres, à Kiev, dans le monastère
de Saint-Michel. Image : On la représente avec un calice et une hostie, avec
une tour munie de trois fenêtres, avec une épée. Sa vie (légendaire) : Barbe
était originaire de Nicomédie, fille d’un païen distingué adonné à l’idolâtrie.
A cause de sa beauté, son père l’enferma dans une tour afin de la soustraire
aux recherches des hommes. Barbe fit le vœu de virginité et pendant l’absence
de son père, elle fit ouvrir dans la tour une troisième fenêtre en l’honneur de
la Sainte-Trinité. Elle orna aussi sa salle de bain du signe de la croix. A son
retour, son père en fut si irrité qu’il tira l’épée et voulut la tuer ; elle ne
fut sauvée que par un miracle. Conduite devant le juge, elle dut endurer de
nombreux tourments ; enfin son propre père lui trancha la tête et fut puni par
Dieu qui le fit mourir sur-le-champ. Sainte Barbe est honorée dans l’Orient et
l’Occident comme la patronne des artilleurs et des mineurs. On l’invoque
spécialement pour être préservé de la mort subite.
Pratique : Nos pères
faisaient souvent cette prière :
O sainte Barbe, Ô vierge
pure,
Veille sur mon âme et mon
corps,
De mon vivant, comme à la
mort,
Protège-moi, je t’en
conjure ;
Obtiens qu’à mes derniers
moments,
Je reçoive les
sacrements.
Leçons des Matines
Là où un office propre a
été concédé, données par Dom Guéranger dans son Année Liturgique.
Barbe, Vierge de
Nicomédie, fille à Dioscore, noble personnage, mais attaché aux superstitions
païennes, parvint, à l’aide de la grâce divine, à connaître les choses
invisibles par la vue de ce monde visible : c’est pourquoi elle ne voulut plus
s’occuper que de Dieu seul et des choses divines. Son père voulant, à cause du
grand éclat de sa beauté, la soustraire aux regards des hommes, l’enferma dans
une tour, où la pieuse vierge vivait dans la prière et la méditation, ne
pensant qu’à plaire à Dieu seul, qu’elle avait choisi pour époux. Dioscore, à
diverses reprises, lui offrit de nobles alliances qu’elle dédaigna
généreusement. Pensant alors qu’en se séparant de sa fille, il pourrait plus
facilement adoucir ses résistances, il fit construire un bain dans la tour
qu’elle habitait, afin qu’elle eût toutes les commodités de la vie ; puis il
partit pour une contrée lointaine.
Pendant l’absence de son
père, Barbe fit ajouter aux deux fenêtres de sa tour, une troisième en
l’honneur de la divine Trinité, et tracer l’image de la très sainte Croix sur
le bord de la baignoire. A son retour, Dioscore, ayant vu ces nouveautés et
connu leur motif, s’emporta contre sa fille au point de se jeter sur elle,
l’épée nue à la main ; peu s’en fallut même qu’il ne la tuât dans sa fureur ;
mais Dieu vint au secours de la vierge. Dans sa fuite précipitée, un énorme
rocher lui ouvrit un passage, par où elle parvint au sommet d’une montagne, et
se cacha dans une grotte. Peu après, ce père dénaturé, l’ayant découverte,
l’accabla de coups, la foula sous ses pieds, la traîna par les cheveux à
travers des sentiers âpres et rocailleux, et la livra lui-même au gouverneur
Marcien, pour être châtiée. Celui-ci employa, mais en vain, tous les moyens
pour l’ébranler. Il la fit battre nue à coups de nerfs de bœuf, et déchirer ses
blessures encore fraîches avec des débris de poterie, enfin jeter dans une
prison. Là, le Christ lui apparut, environné d’une grande lumière, et la
fortifia merveilleusement pour sa dernière passion. Témoin de ce prodige, une
dame, nommée Juliana, se convertit à la foi et partagea la palme de cette
vierge.
Barbe eut encore les
membres déchirés par les ongles de fer, les flancs brûlés avec des torches, la
tête battue à coups de maillets ; et, dans ces tourments, elle consolait sa
compagne et l’encourageait à combattre, sans faiblir, jusqu’à la fin. Enfin,
toutes les deux eurent les mamelles coupées, furent traînées nues à travers les
places publiques et décapitées. Ce fut un père abominable qui eut assez de
barbarie pour trancher de ses mains la tête de sa fille. Mais cette affreuse
cruauté ne fut pas longtemps impunie : à l’heure même et au même lieu, la
foudre l’étendit mort. Le corps de cette bienheureuse vierge fut transporté
d’abord, parles soins de l’Empereur Justin, de Nicomédie à Constantinople ;
puis, plus tard, les Vénitiens l’ayant obtenu des Empereurs Constantin et
Basile, l’enlevèrent de Constantinople, et le déposèrent solennellement dans la
basilique de Saint-Marc. Enfin, en dernier lieu, sur les instantes prières de
l’Évêque de Torcello et de sa sœur qui était Abbesse, on le transféra, l’an de
notre salut 1009, dans l’église des religieuses de Saint-Jean-l’Evangéliste, au
diocèse Torcello, où il fut honorablement enseveli, c’est présentement encore
l’objet d’une constante vénération.
SOURCE : http://www.introibo.fr/04-12-Ste-Barbe-vierge-et-martyre
Master of Frankfurt (circa 1460 –circa 1533 ). Saint Barbara, circa 1510-1520, Inner right wing of a triptych, the central panel of which is now at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, 158,7 x 70,8, Mauritshuis
Sainte-Barbe
Sainte-Barbe, née d'un
père païen – adorant les idoles – vers 235 à Nicomédie (en Turquie, aujourd'hui
Izmit), fut cependant de bonne heure instruite des vérités chrétiennes par ses
lectures, et fit de même tout son possible pour éviter le mariage. Dioscore,
son père, était un être d'une humeur bizarre et d'un naturel cruel ayant toutes
les inclinations d'un barbare. Celui-ci, voyant que sa fille, déjà parvenue à
l'adolescence, était d'une beauté très remarquable, et comprenant les dangers
auxquels ne tarderaient pas à l'exposer ses grâces jointes à une immense
fortune, imagina de l'enfermer dans une forteresse inaccessible. La célèbre
tour ressemblait plus à un palais magnifique qu'à une prison. Barbe profita de
l'absence de son père pour faire percer une troisième fenêtre en plus des deux
dont disposait sa prison dorée, pour symboliser la Trinité : le Père, le Fils
et le Saint Esprit. De même elle y traça des signes de croix. Son père, à son
retour, lui demanda l’explication de ces signes. Elle lui dit qu’elle avait
voulu représenter un Dieu en trois personnes et la mort du fils de Dieu sur la
croix. Dioscore entra dans une grande colère en voyant que sa fille embrassait
"les rêveries" des chrétiens : elle fut obligée de fuir. Il la
poursuivit longtemps et, l’ayant enfin atteinte, il l’accabla de coups, la prit
par les cheveux et la ramena à sa maison où il la tint enfermée dans la tour et
la traita comme une esclave. Il la mena ensuite au tribunal de Marcien,
gouverneur de la Province où, l’ayant accusée d’être chrétienne, il demanda
qu’elle fut châtiée selon la rigueur des édits que les empereurs avaient
promulgués contre les chrétiens (elle n'avait que 16 ans).
Marcien s’efforça d’abord de la faire fléchir par de belles paroles mais, la
voyant insensible à ses remontrances, il changea cette feinte douceur en
cruauté. Après une horrible flagellation, il la fit ramener en prison en
attendant d'avoir inventé quelque nouveau supplice pour la punir. La même nuit,
le Seigneur lui apparut dans une lumière admirable, l’exhorta à la
persévérance, lui promit de l’assister dans tous les combats qu’elle allait
soutenir pour la gloire de son nom. Et pour lui donner des marques sensibles de
protection, il la guérit parfaitement de toutes ses plaies.
Le lendemain, le gouverneur la fit comparaître une seconde fois devant son
tribunal, et, la voyant guérie des blessures dont son corps avait été tout
couvert, il attribua ce miracle à ses faux dieux et tâcha de la persuader de
leur offrir quelques sacrifices en actions de grâces. Mais la jeune fille lui
affirma qu’elle avait été guérie par Jésus-Christ, fils du Dieu vivant. Le
juge, irrité par sa hardiesse, commanda au bourreau qui était présent de lui
déchirer les flancs avec des peignes de fer, et quand ils seraient entre
ouverts, de les lui brûler avec des torches ardentes, et, enfin, de lui
décharger sur la tête de grands coups de marteau. Pendant qu’on exécutait cet
arrêt, elle avait les yeux élevés au ciel et priait. A ces tourments en succéda
un plus douloureux : la sainte eut les mamelles coupées ; mais l’amour qu’elle
portait à Dieu et le désir de souffrir pour lui, faisaient que ces douleurs lui
étaient agréables. Marcien, se voyant vaincu par la constance de Sainte-Barbe,
s’avisa d’un autre genre de supplice, qui était le plus sensible qui put faire
souffrir une vierge : il commanda qu’on lui ôta ses habits, et qu’en cet état
elle fût chassée à coups de fouet par les rues de la ville. Alors la sainte,
levant les yeux au ciel, fit cette prière à Dieu : "Ô mon Seigneur et mon
Roi, qui couvrez quand il vous plaît le ciel de nuages et la terre de ténèbres,
cachez, je vous en supplie, la nudité de mon corps, afin que les yeux des
infidèles ne le voyant point, ils n’aient pas sujet de faire des railleries de
votre servante". Sa prière fut aussitôt exaucée et Dieu lui apparut,
remplit son cœur de consolation et la couvrit d’un vêtement lumineux qui ôta
aux idolâtres la vue de son corps.
Enfin, Marcien perdant tout espérance de faire ébranler le cœur de notre
sainte, qui avait parut invincible au milieu de tant de supplices, la condamna
à avoir la tête tranchée. Dioscore, qui s’était trouvé à tous les tourments de
sa fille, semblait n’attendre que cette sentence pour se baigner dans son sang
virginal et achever d’assouvir sa rage contre elle ; car dès qu’elle fut
prononcée, il se présenta pour en être lui-même le bourreau (afin qu’elle ne
mourût point dans d’autres mains que les siennes).
Cette cruelle demande lui ayant été accordée, Barbe fut menée hors de la ville,
en haut d’une montagne où, étant arrivée, elle se mit à genoux pour remercier Dieu
de la grâce qu’il lui faisait de l’honorer du martyre. Elle le pria aussi
d’exaucer ceux qui demanderaient quelque chose par son intercession. A l’heure
même, on entendit une voix céleste l'assurant que sa requête était exaucée, et
l’invitant à venir recevoir la couronne qui lui était préparée au ciel. Son
père inhumain ne lui laissa pas plus de temps pour faire sa prière : il lui
coupa la tête le 4 décembre, sous l’empire de Maximin Ier (et non de Maximien).
C'est alors que, se retournant à la Cour, triomphant et fier de son zèle à
servir les idoles de l'état, il fut, par le ciel, frappé d'un coup de foudre
qui réduisit son corps en cendres. Plus tard, le corps de Sainte-Barbe fut
exhumé solennellement et ses reliques transportées en divers pays. Par cette
intervention divine contre son père, elle s'était révélée puissance de feu.
Elle eut pour compagne de son martyre une vertueuse femme appelée Julienne,
convertie par son exemple.
SOURCE : http://www.stebarbe.com/stebarbe.php
Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472–1553), Santa Barbara in a wooded landscape, circa 1530, oil on beech wood, 73 x 56,5, Johanniterhalle
Le 4 décembre, mémoire de
la Sainte et Grande Martyre BARBARA
Fille d'un riche païen d'Héliopolis (Hélénopont) nommé Dioscore, Sainte Barbara
vivait sous le règne de l'empereur Maximien (284-305). Jaloux de sa remarquable
beauté, Dioscore, sur le point de partir pour un lointain voyage, fit enfermer
sa fille en haut d'une tour élevée de son palais, afin qu'aucun homme ne la
vît. Il avait pris soin de la combler de tous les biens et de lui donner une
éducation raffinée, mais il n'avait pu empêcher la jeune fille d'exercer sa
fine intelligence de manière conforme à l'image de Dieu déposée en chaque
homme. D'elle-même, en contemplant le reflet de la présence de Dieu dans la
nature, elle était parvenue à la connaissance du Dieu Un dans la Trinité et, se
détournant des vanités, elle ne sentait son coeur s'émouvoir que pour le
Christ, l'Epoux céleste. Dioscore avait fait entreprendre la construction d'un
bain au pied de la tour et avait ordonné d'y faire seulement deux fenêtres. En
voyant la construction pendant l'absence de son père, Barbara commanda aux
ouvriers d'en ouvrir une troisième, pour que la salle soit éclairée par une
triple lumière, symbole de la triple lumière du Père, du Fils et du
Saint-Esprit, qui illumine tout homme venant en ce monde. Lorsque Dioscore
rentra de son voyage avec des propositions d'un riche mariage, il s'opposa au
refus de la jeune fille qui désirait consacrer au Christ sa virginité.
L'étonnement du méchant homme se changea en une violente colère lorsqu'il
apprit l'ouverture de la troisième fenêtre sur l'ordre de sa fille. Comme il
lui en demandait la raison, Barbara fit devant lui le signe de la Croix et, lui
montrant ses trois doigts réunis, elle lui dit: «Le Père, le Fils et le
Saint-Esprit, c'est par cette unique lumière que toute la création est
illuminée, et c'est par ce signe que les hommes sont sauvés». Ne contenant plus
sa fureur, Dioscore saisit son épée et voulut lui trancher immédiatement la
tête; mais, heureusement, la jeune vierge s'échappa et se réfugia dans la
montagne, où un rocher se fendit miraculeusement pour l'abriter.
A la suite d'une dénonciation, son père finit par la découvrir. Il s'en empara
et la livra au gouverneur de la province, devant lequel la Sainte confessa
ardemment le Christ et méprisa les idoles. Elle fut alors cruellement frappée,
sa chair fut déchirée à coups d'épingles, ses côtés brûlés et sa tête meurtrie
par de grosses pierres, de sorte que, jetée dans un sombre cachot, son corps
n'était plus qu'une plaie sanglante. Or, la nuit venue, le Seigneur
Jésus-Christ lui apparut entouré d'une radieuse lumière et, après avoir guéri
toutes ses plaies, Il lui promit de l'assister jusqu'à la fin dans son combat.
Le lendemain, Barbara comparut une seconde fois devant le tyran stupéfait de la
voir si soudainement rétablie. On la soumit à de nouveaux supplices, et le juge
ordonna de la dépouiller de ses vêtements et de la livrer nue à la risée
publique. Mais le Seigneur ne laissa pas les regards impudiques outrager la
pureté de Sa vierge, et un globe de feu descendit soudain du ciel, recouvrant
la jeune Martyre d'un vêtement de lumière.
Devant le spectacle de l'endurance de la Sainte et des Miracles par lesquels
Dieu manifestait Sa faveur, une jeune femme du nom de Julienne se déclara elle
aussi Chrétienne et résolue à partager le sort de Barbara. On se saisit d'elle
aussitôt et on lui fit partager les supplices de sa compagne. Le tyran décida
finalement de faire décapiter les deux jeunes filles. A la prclamation de la
sentence, Dioscore, qui avait assisté impitoyable à toutes les tortures de sa
fille, proposa au gouverneur de lui trancher la tête de ses propres mains. Une
fois rendues au sommet de la montagne où devait avoir lieu l'exécution,
Julienne et Barbara offrirent en même temps leurs âmes au Seigneur: la première
décapitée par un bourreau et la seconde par celui-là même qui lui avait donné
le jour. Mais la vengeance divine ne tarda pas, dès qu'il prit le chemin du
retour, le cruel Dioscore fut soudain frappé par un coup de foudre et fut
réduit en cendres.
SOURCE : http://calendrier.egliseorthodoxe.com/sts/stsdecembre/dec04.html
36.
St. Barbara. The 140 Saints of the Colonnade. St. Barbara. Died - Late third
century. Statue carved - c. 1667-1668. This is one of 16 statues that were
installed between May 1667 and July 1668.. Sculptor - Unknown
This work, though overall quite modest, reveals a certain finesse with the
treatment of the drapery. This style is not reflected in other statues of
the colonnade, nor in the works of other sculptors who were employed during
this time period.. Height - 3.1 m. (10ft 4in) travertine. St Barbara is shown
here with traditional attributes. The tower she leans against
commemorates the place where she was imprisoned by her father. Her left
hand holds lightning, which refers to her father being struck by lightning
after he had her beheaded.. St Barbara became a popular saint, but the
historical existence of the details concerning the tower and lightning are
questionable. The Roman Martyrology states that, by tradition, she was a virgin
and martyr at Nicomedia. SOURCE : https://stpetersbasilica.info/Exterior/Colonnades/Saints/St%20Barbara-36/StBarbara.htm
Also
known as
Barbe
formerly 16 December
limited to local
calendars in 1969
Profile
A beautiful maiden imprisoned in
a high tower by
her father Dioscorus
for disobedience. While there, she was tutored by philosphers, orators and poets.
From them she learned to think, and decided that polytheism was
nonsense. With the help of Origen and
Valentinian, she converted to Christianity.
Her father denounced
her to the local authorities for her faith, and
they ordered him to kill her.
She escaped, but he caught her, dragged her home by her hair, tortured her,
and killed her.
He was immediately struck by lightning,
or according to some sources, fire from heaven.
Her imprisonment led
to her association with towers, then the
construction and maintenance of them, then to their military uses. The lightning that
avenged her murder led to asking her protection against fire and lightning,
and her patronage of firefighters,
etc. Her association with things military and with death that falls from the
sky led to her patronage of all things related to artillery, and her image
graced powder magazines and arsenals for years; the gun-room and powder-room on
Mediterranean ships were called “La Sainte Barbe”. One of the Fourteen
Holy Helpers.
While there were
undoubtedly beautiful converts named
Barbara, this saint is
legend, and her cultus developed
when pious fiction was mistaken for history.
beheaded by
her father c.235 at
Nicomedia during the persecution of Maximinus of Thrace
some relics in
the Cathedral of
Saint Vladimir, Kiev, Ukraine
some relics at
the Church of Saint Blaise,
Vodnjan, Grad Vodnjan, Istarska, Croatia
artillerymen (traditional
and proclaimed for Italian artillerymen on 4 December 1951 by Pope Pius XII,
for French artillerymen on 25 January 1952 by Pope Pius XII,
and for Belgian artillerymen on 16 May 1961 by Pope XXIII)
military
engineers (traditional; proclaimed for Belgian engineers on 16 May 1961 by Pope John
XXIII, for Italian engineers on 4 December 1951 by Pope Pius XII,
and for French engineers by Pope Pius XII on 25 January 1952)
in Belgium
in Brazil
in Italy
cannon, its attack
being reminiscent of the lightning that
struck her father
catapult, its
attack being reminiscent of the lightning that
struck her father
princess in
a tower with
either the palm of martyrdom or chalice of happy death
woman trampling
a Saracen
Storefront
medals
and pendants, page 1
medals
and pendants, page 2
medals
and pendants, page 3
medals
and pendants, page 4
Additional
Information
A
Garner of Saints, by Allen Banks Hinds, M.A.
Book
of Saints, by Father Lawrence
George Lovasik, S.V.D.
Book of
Saints, by the Monks of
Ramsgate
Legends
of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, by Father Bonaventure
Hammer
Lives
of the Saints, by Father Alban
Butler
Lives
of the Saints, by Father Francis
Xavier Weninger
Roman
Martyrology, 1914 edition
Saints
and Their Symbols, by E A Greene
Short
Lives of the Saints, by Eleanor Cecilia Donnelly
The
Liturgical Year, by Father Prosper
Gueranger
books
1001 Patron Saints and Their Feast Days, by Australian
Catholic Truth Society
Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
Oxford Dictionary of Saints, by David Hugh Farmer
Saints
and Their Attributes, by Helen Roeder
Sea Phantoms: Legends and
Superstitions of the Sea and of Sailors, by Lt Fletcher S Bassett
other
sites in english
Defense Video and Imagery Delivery System
Patron Saints and Their Feast Days, by the Australian Catholic
Truth Society
Saint Charles Parish, Boutte, Louisiana
images
video
sitios
en español
Martirologio Romano, 2001 edición
sites
en français
Plouguerneau
d’Hier et d’Aujourd’hui
fonti
in italiano
Martirologio Romano, 2005 edition
websites
in nederlandse
nettsteder
i norsk
MLA
Citation
“Saint
Barbara“. CatholicSaints.Info. 5 May 2024. Web. 6 January 2026.
<https://catholicsaints.info/saint-barbara/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-barbara/
Quadre de santa Bàrbara a la casa Orduña, el Castell de Guadalest. Oli sobre tela, 119 x 80
Article
(Saint) Virgin Martyr
(Dec. 4) (3rd century) A popular Saint, both in the Eastern and in the Western
Church. She is looked upon as the Patron Saint of certain dangerous crafts and
professions, such as those of firework makers, artillerymen, etc. There is no
reliable account extant of her life and martyrdom. Some authors contend that
she suffered at Nicomedia in Asia Minor under the Emperor Maximian I, about
A.D. 235; while others have it that she was a victim like so many thousands of
other Christians of the savage cruelty of Galerius, colleague of Diocletian,
and that she was done to death at Heliopolis in Egypt as late as A.D. 306.
MLA
Citation
Monks of Ramsgate.
“Barbara”. Book of Saints, 1921. CatholicSaints.Info. 18 August 2012.
Web. 6 January 2026. <http://catholicsaints.info/book-of-saints-barbara/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/book-of-saints-barbara/
Lattanzio Gambara (1530–1574). Saint Barbara, 1558, 275 x 173, Santa Maria in Silva, Brescia
St. Barbara
Virgin and Martyr.
There is no reference to St. Barbara contained in
the authentic early historical authorities for Christian antiquity,
neither does her name appear in the original recension of St.
Jerome's martyrology. Veneration of
the saint was
common, however, from the seventh century. At about this date there
were in existence legendary Acts of her martyrdom which
were inserted in the collection of Symeon
Metaphrastes and were used as well by the authors (Ado, Usuard,
etc.) of the enlarged martyrologies composed
during the ninth century in Western Europe.
According to these narratives, which are essentially the same,
Barbara was the daughter of a rich heathen named Dioscorus.
She was carefully guarded by her father who kept her shut up in a tower in
order to preserve her from the outside world.
An offer of marriage which was received through him she
rejected. Before going on a journey her father commanded that a bath-house be
erected for her use near her dwelling, and during his absence Barbara 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;
upon this she was ill-treated by him and dragged before
the prefect of the province, Martinianus, who had her cruelly
tortured and finally condemned her to death by beheading. The father
himself carried out the death-sentence, but in punishment for this he was
struck by lightning on the way home and his body consumed. Another Christian named Juliana suffered
the death of a martyr along
with Barbara. A pious man called Valentinus buried the
bodies of the saints;
at this grave the sick were healed and the pilgrims who
came to pray received
aid and consolation. The emperor in whose reign the martyrdom is
placed is sometimes called Maximinus and sometimes Maximianus;
owing to the purely legendary character of the accounts of
the martyrdom,
there is no good basis for the investigations made at an earlier date
in order to ascertain whether Maximinus Thrax (235-238)
or Maximinus Daza (of the Diocletian persecutions),
is meant.
The traditions vary as to the place of martyrdom,
two different opinions being expressed: Symeon
Metaphrastes and the Latin legend given
by Mombritius makes Heliopolis in Egypt the
site of the martyrdom,
while other accounts, to which Baronius ascribes
more weight, give Nicomedia. In the "Martyrologium Romanum
parvum" (about 700), the oldest martyrology of
the Latin
Church in which her name occurs, it is said:
"In Tuscia Barbarae virginis et martyris", a statement
repeated by Ado and others, while later additions of the martyrologies of St.
Jerome and Bede say
"Romae Barbarae virginis" or "apud Antiochiam passio
S. Barbarae virg.". These various statements prove,
however, only the local adaptation of the veneration of the saintly martyr concerning
whom there is no genuine historical tradition. It is certain that
before the ninth century she was publicly venerated both
in the East and in the West, and that she was very popular with
the Christian populace.
The legend that her father was struck by
lightning caused her, probably, to be regarded by the common people
as the patron
saint in time of danger from thunder-storms and fire, and
later by analogy, as the protector of artillerymen and miners. She was
also called upon as intercessor to assure the receiving of
the Sacraments of Penance and Holy
Eucharist at the hour of death. An occurrence of the year 1448 did
much to further the spread of the veneration of the saint.
A man named Henry Kock was nearly burnt to death in a fire
at Gorkum; he called on St. Barbara, to whom he had always shown
great devotion. She aided him to escape from the burning house and kept
him alive until he could receive the last sacraments.
A similar circumstance is related in an addition to the "Legenda
aurea". In the Greek and present Roman calendars the feast of St.
Barbara falls on 4 December, while the martyrologies of
the ninth century, with the exception of Rabanus
Maurus, place it on 16 December. St. Barbara has often been depicted
in art; she is represented standing in a tower with three windows,
carrying the palm of a martyr in
her hand; often also she holds a chalice and sacramental wafer;
sometimes cannon are displayed near her.
Sources
Passio, in SYMEON METAPHRASES (Migne, P.G., CXVI, col.301 sqq.);
MOMBRITIUS, Vitae sanctorum (Venice, 1474), I, fol.74, SURIUS, Deprobatis
sanctorum historiis (Cologne, 1575), VI, 690, a work relating the incident
at Gorkum; WIRTH, Danae in christlichen Legenden (Vienna, 1892);
VITEAU, Passions des saints Ecaterine, Pierre d'Alexandrie, Barbara et
Ansyia (Paris, 1897); Legenda aurea des Jacobus a Voragine, ed.
GRÄSSE (Leipzig, 1846), 901; Martyrologies of BEDE (Migne, P.L.,
XCIV, col. 1134), ADO (Migne, op. cit., CXXIII, col.415), USUARDUS (ibid.,
CXXIV, col.765 and 807), RABANUS MAURUS (ibid., CX, col. 1183); GALESINO, S.
Barbarae virg. et mart., ed. SURIUS, loc. cit., 690-692; CÉLESTIN, Histoire
de S. Barbe (Paris, 1853); VILLEMOT, Histoire de S. Barbe, vierge et
martyre (Paris, 1865); PEINE, St. Barbara, die Schutzheilige der
Bergleute unde der Artillerie, und ihre Darstellung in der Kunst (Freiburg,
1896).
Kirsch, Johann
Peter. "St. Barbara." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol.
2. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 4 Dec.
2016 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02284d.htm>.
Transcription. This
article was transcribed for New Advent by Michael T. Barrett. Dedicated to
his sister Barbara J. Barrett.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2020 by Kevin
Knight. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02284d.htm
The Golden Legend
The Life of Saint Barbara
here beginneth the Life of Saint Barbara.
In the time that Maximian reigned there was a rich man, a paynim, which adored
and worshipped the idols, which man was named Dioscorus. This Dioscorus had a
young daughter which was named Barbara, for whom he did do make a high and
strong tower in which he did do keep and close this Barbara, to the end that no
man should see her because of her great beauty. Then came many princes unto the
said Dioscorus for to treat with him for the marriage of his daughter, which
went anon unto her and said: My daughter, certain princes be come to me which
require me for to have thee in marriage, wherefore tell to me thine entent and
what will ye have to do. Then Saint Barbara returned all angry towards her
father and said: My father, I pray you that ye will not constrain me to marry,
for thereto I have no will ne thought. After this he departed from her and went
into the town where there was one making a cistern or a piscine, for he had
many workmen to perform this work, and also he had tofore ordained how he
should pay unto each of them their salary, and after this he departed thence
and went into a far country where he long sojourned.
Then Saint Barbara, the ancille of our Lord Jesu Christ, descended from the
tower for to come see the work of her father, and anon she perceived that there
were but two windows only, that one against the south, and that other against
the north, whereof she was much abashed and amarvelled, and demanded of the
workmen why they had not made no more windows, and they answered that her
father had so commanded and ordained. Then Saint Barbara said to them: Make me
here another window; they answered: Dame, we fear and dread to anger your
father, which commanded us to make no more ne we dare not therefore make no
more. The blessed maid said: Do and make that I command you, and I shall
content my father, and shall excuse you against him.
Then did they that she commanded to them, by of the manner that she enseigned
and showed them. When the holy Saint Barbara walked and came unto the cistern,
she made with her finger toward the orient, a cross with her thumb in the stone
of marble, the which cross is there yet unto this day, which every man may see
that cometh thither by devotion. And when she came unto the side whereas the
water descended into the said cistern, she blessed it, and made the sign of the
cross, and incontinent the water was hallowed, in which all they that were sick
received health, if they had perfect belief in God and in the blessed maid. In
this same cistern was this holy maid baptized of a holy man, and lived there a
certain space of time, in taking only for her refection honeysuckles and locusts,
following the holy precursor of our Lord, Saint John Baptist.
This cistern or piscine is semblable to the fountain of Siloe in which he that
was born blind recovered there his sight. It is also like to the piscine named
Robatyoa, in which the impotent by the word of God was made whole. These
piscines or pecines be fountains perpetual in which all manner sick men, in
whatsomever malady they were grieved or tormented, that went therein received
fully their health. In this fountain is living water, and it is the water that
the Samaritan required of our Lord to have of the holy piscine.
On a time this blessed maid went upon the tower, and there she beheld the idols
to which her father sacrificed and worshipped, and suddenly she received the
Holy Ghost and became marvellously subtle and clear in the love of Jesu Christ,
for she was environed with the grace of God Almighty, of sovereign glory and
pure chastity. This holy maid Barbara, adorned with faith, surmounted the
devil, for when she beheld the idols she scratched them in their visages in
despising them all, and saying: All they be made like unto you which have made
you to err, and all them that have affiance in you, and then she went into the
tower and worshipped our Lord. And when the work was full performed, her father
returned from his voyage, and when he saw there three windows, he demanded of
the workmen: Wherefore have ye made three windows? And they answered: Your
daughter hath commanded so. Then he made his daughter to come afore him, and
demanded her why she had do make three windows, and she answered to him, and
said: I have done them to be made because three windows lighten all the world
and all creatures, but two make darkness. Then her father took her and went
down into the piscine, demanding her how three windows give more light than
two. And Saint Barbara answered: These three fenestres or windows betoken
clearly the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, the which be three persons and
one very God, on whom we ought to believe and worship. Then he being
replenished with furor, incontinent drew his sword to have slain her, but the
holy virgin made her prayer and then marvellously she was taken in a stone and
borne into a mountain on which two shepherds kept their sheep, the which saw
her fly. And then her father, which pursued after her, went unto the shepherds
and demanded after her. And that one, which would have preserved her, said that
he had not seen her, but that other, which was an evil man, showed and pointed
her with his finger, whom the holy Saint Barbara cursed, and anon his sheep
became locusts, and he consumed into a stone. And then her father took her by
the hair and drew her down from the mountain and shut her fast in prison, and
made her to be kept there by his servants unto the time that he had sent to the
judge for to deliver her to the torments. And when the judge was advertised of
the faith and belief of the maid he did her to be brought tofore him. Her
father went with her, accompanied with his servants threatening her with his sword,
and delivered her unto the judge, and conjured him, by the puissance of his
gods that, he should torment her with horrible torments. Then sat the judge in
judgment, and when he saw the great beauty of Saint Barbara, he said to her:
Now choose whether ye will spare yourself and offer to the gods, or else die by
cruel torments. Saint Barbara answered to him: I offer myself to my God, Jesu
Christ, the which hath created heaven and earth and all other things, and fie
on your devils, which have mouths and cannot speak, they have eyes, and cannot
see, they have ears, and hear not, they have noses, and smell not, they have
hands, and may not feel, and they have feet, and may not go, they that make
them, be they made semblable to them, and all they that have fiance and belief
in them. Then became the judge all wood and angry, and commanded to unclothe
her and beat her with sinews of bulls, and frot her flesh with salt, and when
she had long endured this, that her body was all bloody, the judge did do close
her in a prison unto the time that he had deliberated of what torments he might
make her die. And then at midnight descended a great light and clearness into
the prison in which our Lord showed him to her, saying: Barbara, have
confidence. and be firm and steadfast. for in heaven and in the earth thou
shalt have great joy for thy passion, therefore, doubt not the judge, for I
shall be with thee, and I shall deliver thee from all thy pains that any shall
make thee suffer, and incontinent she was all whole. And then, when our Lord
had said thus, he blessed her and remounted into heaven. Then Saint Barbara was
greatly rejoiced by the great comfort of our Lord. And on the morn, the judge
commanded that she should be brought tofore him, and when she was come he saw that
her wounds appeared not but she was all whole, and he said to her: Behold,
Barbara, the bounty of our gods, and how much they love thee, for they have
healed thy wounds. Then the blessed Barbara, martyr of Jesu Christ, answered to
the judge: Thy gods be semblable to thee, without entendment how may they heal
my wounds. They may not help themselves. He that healed me is Jesu Christ, the
Son of God, the which will not have thee because thy heart is so indurate and
hard with the devils. Then the judge, replenished of ire, commanded that she
should be hanged between two forked trees, and that they should break her reins
with staves, and burn her sides with burning lamps, and after he made her
strongly to be beaten, and hurted her head with a mallet. Then Saint Barbara
beheld and looked upward to heaven, saying: Jesu Christ, that knowest the
hearts of men, and knowest my thought, I beseech thee to Ieave me not. Then
commanded the judge to the hangman that he should cut off with his sword her
paps, and when they were cut off, the holy saint looked again towards heaven,
saying: Jesu Christ, turn not thy visage from me. And when she had long endured
this pain, the judge comnnanded that she should be led with beating through the
streets, and the holy virgin the third time beheld the heaven, and said: Lord
God, that coverest heaven with clouds, I pray thee to cover my body, to the end
that it be not seen of the evil people.
And when she had made her prayer, our Lord came over her, and sent to her an
angel which clad her with a white vestment, and the knights led her unto a town
called Dallasion, and there the judge commanded to slay her with the sword. And
then her father all araged took her out of the hands of the judge and led her
up on a mountain, and Saint Barbara rejoiced her in hasting to receive the
salary of her victory. And then when she was drawn thither she made her orison,
saying: Lord Jesu Christ, which hast formed heaven and earth, I beseech thee to
grant me thy grace and hear my prayer, that all they that have memory of thy
name and my passion, I pray thee that thou wilt not remember their sins, for
thou knowest our fragility. Then came there a voice down from heaven saying
unto her: Come, my spouse Barbara, and rest in the chamber of God my Father,
which is in heaven, and I grant to thee that thou hast required of me. And when
this was said, she came to her father and received the end of her martyrdom
with Saint Julian. But when her father descended from the mountain, a fire from
heaven descended on him, and consumed him in such wise ehat there could not be
found only ashes of all his body. This blessed virgin Saint Barbara received
martyrdom with Saint Julian the second nones of December. A noble man called
Valentine buried the bodies of these two martyrs, and laid them in a little
town in which many miracles were showed in the louing and glory of God
Almighty. And Saint Barbara, the holy martyr suffered passion in the time of
Maximian, emperor of Rome, and Marcian the judge. Whom we pray and beseech to be
our advocatrix unto Almighty God, that by her merits he bring us after this
short and transitory life into his glory perdurable. Amen.
SOURCE : http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/golden308.htm
December 4
St. Barbara, Virgin and
Martyr
THIS holy virgin and
martyr is honoured with particular devotion in the Latin, Greek, Muscovite, and
Syriac calendars, but her history is obscured by a variety of false acts.
Baronius prefers those who tell us, that she was a scholar of Origen, and suffered
martyrdom at Nicomedia, in the reign of Maximinus the First, who raised the
sixth general persecution after the murder of Alexander Severus, in 235. But
Joseph Assemani shows the acts which we have in Metaphrastes and Mombritius to
be the most exact and sincere. By these we are informed that St. Barbara
suffered at Heliopolis in Egypt, in the reign of Galerius, about the year 306.
This account agrees with the emperor Basil’s Menology, and the Greek Synaxary.
There stood an old monastery near Edessa, which bore her name. 1 See
Jos. Assemani in Calend. Univ. t. 5, p. 408.
Note 1. Jos.
Assemani, Bibl. Orient. t. 1. p. 63. [back]
Rev. Alban
Butler (1711–73). Volume XII: December. The Lives of the
Saints. 1866.
SOURCE : http://www.bartleby.com/210/12/042.html
A Garner of Saints
– Saint Barbara
Article
(French Barbe) The daughter
of a Pagan noble named Dioscorus, who lived at Nicomedia in the time of the
Emperor Maximian. Dioscorus built a lofty tower in which he put his lovely
daughter, so that no one should see her, and although many desired her in
marriage, she refused them all, being inspired by the spirit of Christianity.
In the bath constructed in the tower Dioscorus ordered two windows to be made,
but Barbara caused a third to be pierced; and when she went to the bath she
made the sign of the Cross with her finger, and it immediately appeared as if
it had been graven in the marble. Descending into the water she prayed and
baptized herself, and when she came out she spat in the faces of the false
idols. When her father returned and asked why she had made three windows, she
replied that there are three lights which illuminate the world, the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit. Hearing this her father drew his sword and pursued
her, but she prayed to God, the walls opened, and she was carried to a mountain
where two shepherds were grazing their sheep. When the father came there he
asked the shepherds if they had seen his daughter, and one denied with an oath,
hoping to save her, but the other pointed her out with his finger, and
immediately he and his sheep were turned into stones. Meanwhile Dioscorus
dragged his daughter by the hair before the praetor. Here she declared that the
idols were nothing but demons, so that the praetor ordered her to be stripped
and lashed with thongs. He then sent her to prison, where Christ appeared to
her and exhorted her to be of good courage. Brought before the proconsul the
following morning, she persisted in her faith, so that he ordered flaming
torches to be applied to her sides, had her breasts cut off, and caused her to
be dragged naked through the city. But as she was being led she prayed, and an
angel appeared, who clothed her in a white garment and healed her breasts and
wounds. Then the proconsul commanded that she should be beheaded, but her
father carried her off to the mountain where he had first taken her, and cut
off her head with his own hand. No sooner had he accomplished this impious act
than fire from heaven consumed him. The body of Barbara was buried by a
Christian of Nicomedia named Valentianus. She is the patroness of gunners. 4th
December.
Attributes
Most frequently carries
or stands beside a tower with three windows, though the number of these is not
invariable.
Sometimes holds a cup
with the host, or stands beside a piece of artillery.
MLA
Citation
Allen Banks Hinds, M.A.
“Saint Barbara”. A Garner of Saints, 1900. CatholicSaints.Info.
15 April 2017. Web. 4 December 2020.
<https://catholicsaints.info/a-garner-of-saints-saint-barbara/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/a-garner-of-saints-saint-barbara/
Santa Barbara, Galeria de Sant Romà. Cercs mining museum.
Legends
of the Fourteen Holy Helpers – Saint Barbara, Virgin and Martyr
Legend
Nicomedia, a city in Asia
Minor, was Saint Barbara’s birthplace. Her father Dioscurus was a pagan.
Fearing that his only child might learn to know and love the doctrines of
Christianity, he shut her up in a tower, apart from all intercourse with
others. Nevertheless Barbara became a Christian. She passed her time in study,
and from her lonely tower she used to watch the heavens in their wondrous
beauty. She soon became convinced that the “heavens were telling the glory of
God,” a God greater than the idols she had been taught to worship. Her desire
to know that God was in itself a prayer which He answered in His own wise way.
The fame of Origen, that
famous Christian teacher in Alexandria, reached even the remote tower, and
Barbara sent a trusty servant with the request that he would make known to her
the truth. Origen sent her one of his disciples, disguised as a physician, who
instructed and baptized her. She practised her new religion discreetly while
waiting for a favorable opportunity of acquainting her father with her
conversion.
This opportunity came in
a short time. Some workmen were sent by Dioscurus to make another room in the
tower, and when they had made two windows she directed them to make a third.
When her father saw this additional window, he asked the reason for it. She
replied, “Know, my father, that the soul receives light through three windows,
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and the three are one.” The father
became so angry at this discovery of her having become a Christian, that he
would have killed his daughter with his sword, had she not fled to the top of
the tower. He followed her, and finally had her in his power. First he wreaked
his vengeance on her in blows, then clutching her by the hair he dragged her
away and thrust her into a hut to prevent her escape. Next he tried every means
to induce her to renounce her faith; threats, severe punishments, and
starvation had no effect on the constancy of the Christian maiden.
Finding himself powerless
to shake his daughter’s constancy, Dioscurus delivered her to the proconsul
Marcian, who had her scourged and tortured, but without causing her to deny the
Faith. During her sufferings, her father stood by, exulting in the torments of
his child. Next night, after she had been taken back to prison, Our Lord
appeared to her and healed her wounds. When Barbara appeared again before him,
Marcian was greatly astonished to find no trace of the cruelties that had been
perpetrated on her body. Again she resisted his importunities to deny the
Faith, and when he saw that all his efforts were in vain, he pronounced the
sentence of death. Barbara was to be beheaded. Her unnatural father claimed the
privilege to execute it with his own hands, and with one blow severed his
daughter’s head from her body, on December 4, 237.
At the moment of the
saint’s death a great tempest arose and Dioscurus was killed by lightning.
Marcian, too, was overtaken by the same fate.
Lesson
Since early times Saint
Barbara is invoked as the patroness against lightning and explosions, and is
called upon by those who desire the sacraments of the dying in their last
illness, and many are the instances of the efficacy of her intercession.
We all wish for a happy
and blessed death. To attain it, we must make the preparation for it the great
object of our life; we must learn to die to the world and to ourselves, and
strive after perfection in virtue. There is no greater comfort in adversity, no
more powerful incentive to withdrawing our affections from this world, than to
remember the blessing of a happy death. Well prepared, death may strike us in
any form whatsoever, and however suddenly, it will find us ready.
We can be guilty of no
greater folly than to delay our preparation for death, repentance, the
reception of the sacraments, and the amendment of our life, from day to day,
from the time of health to the time of illness, and in illness to the very last
moments, thinking that even then we can obtain pardon. Saint Augustine
observes: “It is very dangerous to postpone the performance of a duty on which
our whole eternity depends to the most inconvenient time, the last hour.” And
Saint Bernard remarks: “In Holy Scripture we find one single instance of one
who received pardon at the last moment. He was the thief crucified with Jesus.
He is alone, that you despair not; he is alone, also, that you sin not by
presumption on God’s mercy.” If you, therefore, wish for a happy death, prepare
for it in time.
Prayer of the Church
O God, who among the
wonders of Thy might didst grant the victory of martyrdom also to the weaker
sex, graciously grant us that we, by recalling the memory of Thy blessed virgin
and martyr Barbara, through her example may be led to Thee. Through Christ our
Lord. Amen.
– from Legends of the Fourteen Holy Helpers by
Father Bonaventure Hammer, 1908
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/legends-of-the-fourteen-holy-helpers-saint-barbara-virgin-and-martyr/
Rubens, Sir Peter Paul (1577 - 1640), Saint Barbara fleeing from her Father, circa 1620, oil on panel , 326 x 462, Dulwich Picture Gallery
Weninger’s
Lives of the Saints – Saint Barbara, Virgin and Martyr
Article
The holy virgin and
martyr, Saint Barbara, who, from the most ancient times, has been celebrated in
the whole Christian world, was born of heathen parents in Nicomedia, of
Bithynia. She was much beloved by her father, Dioscorus, on account of her
unusual intelligence. He appointed a tower as a special place, well fitted up,
for her dwelling, and chose the best masters to instruct her in art and
science, but especially in paganism, as he feared she might be induced to unite
herself to one not agreeable to him, or be seduced by the Christians, of whom
he was a great enemy. But just this solicitude of her father gave her cause to
think, and thus to arrive at the knowledge of the true God. She contemplated
the heavens, the sun, moon and stars, in their regular course; she meditated on
the changing of the seasons; looked on the wonderful creation of the world and
its inhabitants, and justly concluded from it that there must be a Creator –
that He alone must be the true God, and that the gods she worshipped had no
power. To these contemplations she united prayers, and also led a most
blameless life. The Almighty, who forsakes not one who aids himself, gave her
opportunity to become instructed in the Christian religion, and to receive holy
baptism, without the knowledge of her father. Meanwhile, a suitor for her hand
came to her father and asked his consent. Dioscorus was not unwilling to grant
the wish, as the young man was his equal in rank and wealth; but he would make
his daughter acquainted with the offer he had received for her before he gave
his word. Barbara had a great many objections; and her father, who did not
desire that she should hastily give her consent, and would not coerce her,
urged her no further; and as he was about to set out on a long journey, he
thought it but right to give her some time for consideration. Barbara requested
to have, for her greater comfort, a bathing-room added to her dwelling, which
Dioscorus gladly granted her. The object of the holy virgin was, to have a
special apartment where, with those who, like herself, were secretly
Christians, she could pray to the true God. The father ordered two windows for
the new room; Barbara, however, had a third added, in honor of the three Divine
Persons in the mystery of the Holy Trinity. The room was, by the pagan’s order,
adorned with idolatrous statues, with which the holy virgin would gladly have
dispensed. Looking at them, she wept over the blindness of her father, who
desired that she should worship them as gods. Going from one to another, she
spat upon them, saying: “Those who honor you as gods are worthy to be turned
into what you are made of – wood and stone.” After this, she went to a column
of marble, and with her fingers pressed the sign of the cross upon it, as if it
had been wax. After her death, the health of many infirm, who devoutly kissed
this miraculous cross, was restored.
No sooner had her father
returned from his journey, than he desired to know his daughter’s resolution.
Already prepared by prayer for the approaching struggle, she said,
unhesitatingly, that she would never consent to marry a pagan, as, being a
Christian, she had chosen a much more noble spouse, Christ the Lord. Her father
was speechless at this unexpected answer, and, when able to control himself,
told her either to renounce Christ, or prepare herself for the most cruel
death. The greater the wrath of the blind Dioscorus became, the more fearless
was Barbara. This enraged him so greatly, that he seized his sword to take her
life on the spot. Barbara, to escape his rage, fled, while her father, sword in
hand, pursued her out of the city. According to an ancient legend, the fugitive
virgin came to a rock, which miraculously opened, thus offering her a passage,
and shielded her, for the moment, against her father’s wrath. The latter,
however, was not touched by this visible miracle, but passed over the mountain
and pursued the maiden, as the hound pursues the deer. Barbara had, meanwhile,
taken refuge in a cave, and would not have been found had not two shepherds
informed the infuriated father of her retreat Hastening towards the place, he
found her praying. No tiger could assail his prey with more rage than this
tyrant assailed his innocent child. He threw her on the ground, stamped upon
her with his feet, beat her, and finally dragged her by the hair into the hut
of a peasant, where he locked her up, until he had her brought back to his
house by soldiers. Now began her martyrdom, which was so severe, that what she
had before suffered was as nothing in comparison; for Dioscorus was determined
to force her to deny Christ Seeing, at last that all was in vain, he gave her
up to the governor, Martian, that she might be dealt with according to the laws
of the land.
Martian at first showed
compassion for the Saint, in consideration for her youth, and endeavored to win
her by flattery and kind words. Not succeeding in this, he had recourse to
severity, and had her whipped with scourges, until her whole body seemed to be
but one great wound. After this, she was dragged to a dungeon, where she was
left to die. The Almighty, however, who had destined her to still more glorious
combats, sent an Angel during the night, who healed all her wounds, and
encouraged her to perseverance, with the promise that she would overcome all
tortures by Divine assistance. The following day she was again brought before
Martian, who, not comprehending how Barbara had been healed, ascribed it to his
gods. The virgin, however, said: “No, no, Martian! Wood and stone, of which
your idols are made, have not this power. It is the work of the God of heaven
and earth, whom I worship as the only true God, and for whose honor I am
willing to die.” Martian, full of anger at these words, ordered her to be
tormented more cruelly than on the previous day. After her body was all bruised
and wounded, she was barbarously burned with torches, and at last both her breasts
were cut off. The torture was very great, but the eagerness of Barbara to
suffer for Christ’s sake was still greater. She gave no sign of pain, but
turning her eyes to heaven, said: “Let not thy hand, O Lord, forsake me! In
Thee I am full of strength; without Thee, I am powerless!” A new martyrdom
followed after this. The tyrant commanded her to be scourged in public through
all the streets of the city. This was more terrible to her than all her
previous tortures; hence she turned to the Almighty, praying humbly that she
might not be exposed to the eyes of the heathen. She was immediately surrounded
by a bright lustre, that veiled her form from all eyes. The barbarous Dioscorus
was present at the martyrdom of his holy daughter, from beginning to end, and
not only looked with satisfaction at the whipping, burning, and cutting, but
animated the executioners in their cruelties; and when Martian, at last,
sentenced Barbara to be beheaded, he asked, as a favor, to be allowed to take
the place of the executioner, and behead his daughter. Having obtained his
request, Dioscorus took her to a neighboring mountain, followed by a great
crowd of people. Barbara rejoiced to be thought worthy to die for Christ’s
sake; and no sooner had she reached the mountain, than she again thanked God
for all the graces that He had bestowed upon her, and begged Him to assist her
to the end. A voice was heard from on high, which invited the undaunted martyr
to come and receive the crown that awaited her. Kneeling down, she bared her
neck, and received from her father the fatal stroke. She was hardly twenty
years of age.
Juliana, a pious woman,
who had been present at the martyrdom, burned with the holy desire to give her
life, also, for Christ, and was beheaded on the same day, after she had
suffered great torments. Her body was laid beside the body of Saint Barbara;
but her soul followed the soul of the fearless virgin into heaven.
Quite different was the
end of the inhuman father. Whilst he was descending from the mountain, with the
blood of his innocent child still on his hands, a terrible thunder-storm arose,
during which he was struck by lightning, and sank dead upon the ground. Thus
the father went to hell on the same day on which his daughter ascended
triumphantly to heaven. We must not omit to remark that Saint Barbara is
especially invoked in the whole Christian world for the grace of receiving the
last sacrament before death; and many facts have shown that this invocation has
the desired effect.
Practical Considerations
• Saint Barbara was
executed by her own father, because she would not obey him, and deny the
Christian faith. Dioscorus, the father, became the murderer of his own
daughter. Saint Barbara was right in not obeying her father; for when parents
command anything that is against God, as the wicked Dioscorus did, children are
not obliged to obey. In such circumstances, we must obey God, not our parents.
Dioscorus’s deed in beheading his own daughter, because of her constancy in the
Christian faith, was most wicked; and as he, to all appearances, died in his
wickedness, he now justly suffers in hell. Still greater punishment shall those
parents suffer in hell, who deprive their children of their eternal life, and
kill their soul by preventing them from doing good, and tempting them, by words
and by examples, to do evil: for the spiritual, the eternal life is so much
more to be valued than that of the body. Parents, therefore, should take good
care that they do not become spiritual murderers of their children; as, otherwise,
the precious blood which ransomed those souls will cry for vengeance against
them before the Judgment-seat of the Most High. “The wickedness of others has
been our ruin; our parents have been our murderers. Thus, according to Saint
Cyprian, will those children cry, standing before the eternal Judge. Children
also, should be on their guard, and not allow their parents to lead them to
sin, and consequently to destruction. To say before the Judgment-seat of the
Almighty: “Our parents brought us to the path of sin,” will not be sufficient
to excuse them, for, their own conscience will answer: “You knew that obedience
was not required, when your parents commanded you to act contrary to the laws
of God.”
• Saint Barbara is the
special patroness of the dying. Her intercession has obtained for many, the
grace not to die suddenly, or without having received the holy Sacraments. Try
to obtain this grace, by honoring her and begging earnestly for it. But while
doing this, do not neglect anything that you are obliged to do to obtain what
you desire. Prepare yourself in time for death, and keep yourself in such a
manner, that if anything should happen to you, you may not die unhappily; for,
God has nowhere promised that these who ask the intercession of Saint Barbara,
will be saved from a sudden death; but He has commanded you to keep yourself
prepared for death, if you desire that your last hour should be calm and happy.
It is the greatest folly to postpone preparation for death, penance,
reformation of life, or perhaps even the confession of certain sins, from one
day to another, from one year to another, from health to sickness, and in
sickness to the very last hour of life, in the thought that we can always
obtain pardon. Of those who act in such a manner, Saint Augustine says: “They
seduce themselves, they deceive themselves, and play with death. It is highly
dangerous, extremely foolish, and a horror to God, if we postpone anything on
which our whole eternity depends, until the last convenient opportunity.” “If
you tell me,” says Saint Chrysostom, “that God has given many sinners time to
convert themselves at the end of their lives, then I will ask you: Will He give
it also to you? where is your assurance of it?” And of how many do we know with
certainty that they obtained pardon in their last hour? Saint Bernard says: “In
the entire Scripture, only one is mentioned, the thief who was crucified with
our Lord; one, that you may not despair; only one, that you may not presume.”
Thinking of this one, think also of the other, who was crucified with Christ,
but did not obtain pardon on that account.
It was on Good-Friday,
and he hung next to the Heart of Jesus on the Cross, yet he obtained no grace,
no mercy. It is true that he did not seek it; but who knows if you will seek
it? A sudden death may deprive you of the privilege of seeking it. Confusion
and despair may overwhelm you in such a manner that you may not desire to seek
it. If you wish to be sure, prepare yourself in time. “Tarry not in the error
of the ungodly; give glory before death. Praise perisheth from the dead as
nothing.” (Eccl. 17) Confess before you are in danger of death, or before this
danger is imminent. The confession of him who is half-dead, who has almost lost
his consciousness, can not be trusted.
MLA
Citation
Father Francis Xavier
Weninger, DD, SJ. “Saint Barbara, Virgin and Martyr”. Lives
of the Saints, 1876. CatholicSaints.Info.
2 June 2018. Web. 4 December 2020.
<https://catholicsaints.info/weningers-lives-of-the-saints-saint-barbara-virgin-and-martyr/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/weningers-lives-of-the-saints-saint-barbara-virgin-and-martyr/
Anonymous Brazilian painter, Saint Barbara, 18th century - 19th century, tempera on glass, 35.9 x 28.6, Museu da Inconfidência
The
Liturgical Year: Saint Barbara, Virgin and Martyr
Although, in the Roman
Liturgy, Saint Barbara is merely commemorated in the Office of Saint Peter
Chrysologus, yet the Church has approved an entire Office for the use of those
Churches which honour the memory of this illustrious Virgin in a special
manner. The Legend which follows, although of considerable weight, has not,
consequently, the authority of those which are promulgated for the use of the
whole Church, in the Roman Breviary. Let us not, on this account, be the less
fervent in honouring this glorious Martyr, so celebrated in the East, and whose
feast has been for so many ages admitted, with more or less solemnity, into the
Roman Church. The Acts of her martyrdom, though not of the highest antiquity,
contain nothing in them but what redounds to the glory of God and the honour of
the Saint. We have already shown the liturgical importance which attaches to
Saint Barbara in the season of Advent. Let us admire the constancy wherewith
this Virgin waited for her Lord, who came at the appointed hour, and was for
her, as the Scripture speaks, a Spouse of blood, because he put the strength of
her love of him to the severest of all tests.
About Saint Barbara
Barbara, a Virgin of
Nicomedia, the daughter of Dioscorus, a nobleman, but a superstitious pagan,
came readily, by the assistance of divine grace, from the contemplation of the
visible things of creation to the knowledge of the invisible. Wherefore, she devoted
herself to God alone and to the things of God. Her father, desirous to preserve
her from all danger of insult, to which he feared her great beauty might expose
her, shut her up in a tower. There the pious virgin passed her days in
meditation and prayer, studying to please God alone, whom she had chosen as her
Spouse. She courageously rejected several offers of marriage, which were made
to her, through her father, by rich nobles. But her father hoped, that by
separating himself by a long absence from his child, her intentions would
easily change. He first ordered that a bath should be built for her in the
tower, so that she might want for nothing; and then he set out on a journey
into distant countries.
During her father’s
absence, Barbara ordered that to the two windows already in the tower a third
should be added, in honour of the blessed Trinity; and that on the edge of the
bath the sign of the most holy Cross should be drawn. When Dioscorus returned
home, and saw these changes, and was told their meaning, he became so incensed
against his daughter, that he went in search of her with a naked sword in his
hand, and, but for the protection of God, he would cruelly have murdered her.
Barbara had taken to flight: an immense rock opened before her, and she found a
path by which she reached the top of a mountain, and there she hid herself in a
cave. Not long after, however, she was discovered by her unnatural father, who
savagely kicked and struck her, and dragging her by the hair over the sharp
rocks, and rugged ways, he handed her over to the governor Marcian, that he
might punish her. He, therefore, having used every means to shake her
constancy, and finding that all was in vain, gave orders that she should he
stripped and scourged with thongs, the wounds to be then scraped with potsherd,
and so dragged to prison. There Christ, surrounded by an immense light,
appearing to her, strengthened her in a divine manner for the sufferings she
was yet to endure. A matron, named Juliana, who witnessed this, was converted
to the faith, and became her companion in the palm of martyrdom.
At length Barbara had her
body torn with iron hooks, her sides burnt with torches, and her head bruised
with mallets. During these tortures she consoled her companion, and exhorted
her to fight manfully to the last. Both of them had their breasts cut off, were
dragged naked through the streets, and beheaded. The head of Barbara was cut
off by her own father, who in his excessive wickedness had hardened his heart
thus far. But his ferocious cruelty was not long left unpunished, for
instantly, and on the very spot, he was struck dead by lightning. The Emperor
Justinus had the body of this most holy virgin translated from Nicomedia to
Constantinople. It was afterwards obtained by the Venetians from the Emperors
Constantine and Basil; and having been translated from Constantinople to
Venice, was deposited with great solemnity in the Basilica of Saint Mark.
Lastly, at the earnest request of the Bishop of Torcello and his sister, who
was abbess, it was translated in the year of grace 1009, to the Nuns’ Church of
Saint John the Evangelist, in the diocese of Torcello; where it was placed in a
worthy sepulchre, and from that time has never ceased to be the object of most
fervent veneration.
Such is the account of
the life and martyrdom of the courageous Virgin of Nicomedia. She is invoked in
the Church against lightning, on account of the punishment inflicted by divine
justice on her execrable father. This same incident of the Saint’s history has suggested
several Catholic customs: thus, her name is sometimes given to the hold of
men-of war where the ammunition is stowed; she is the Patroness of
Artillery-men, Miner Such is the account of the life and martyrdom of the
courageous Virgin of Nicomedia. She is invoked in the Church against lightning,
on account of the punishment inflicted by divine justice on her execrable
father. This same incident of the Saint’s history has suggested several
Catholic customs: thus, her name is sometimes g s, etc; and she is invoked by
the faithful against the danger of a sudden death. Of the Liturgical pieces,
used in our Western Churches, in honour of Saint Barbara, we will content
ourselves with the following beautiful Antiphon, composed in the days of
chivalry.
Antiphon
O immeasurable mercy of
divine goodness, which did enlighten Barbara with the brightness of the true
light, making her worthy, by her contempt for what was dazzling in earthly
grandeur, to be admitted to a union with God! As the lily among thorns, as light
in darkness, so shone Barbara. Alleluia.
Antiphon
The Greek Church is
profuse in its praises of Saint Barbara. We will take from the Menaea a few out
of the many Strophes which are sung in honour of the holy Martyr.
Hymn of the Greek Church
When welcome death came
before you, O venerable Martyr Barbara! joyously and nimbly did you run your
course, and being immolated by the wicked hands of an impious parent, you wast
offered a victim to God. Now, therefore, are you in the choir of the truly wise
Virgins, and contemplate the beauty of your Spouse.
This lamb of yours, O
Jesus, cries to you with a loud voice: You, O my Spouse, do I desire, you do I
seek by my combat; I am immolated and buried in your baptism; I suffer for you,
that I may reign with you; I die for you, that I may live in you; receive me,
therefore, as an unreserved sacrifice lovingly sacrificed to you. Save our
souls, O merciful Jesus, by her prayers.
Glorious Barbara! most
sacred rose grown from a thorny stem, sweetly perfuming the Church, and ruddy
by the blood of your battle! we this day most fervently proclaim you blessed.
Neither the sweetness of
luxury, nor the flower of beauty, nor riches, nor the pleasures of youth, could
rob you of your energy, O glorious Barbara, most fair Virgin, espoused to
Christ.
All stood in amazement at
witnessing your combat; for you didst endure the tortures, and chains, and
cruelties, of your persecutors, O Barbara, of wide-world fame! Therefore, did
God give you the crown you did covet; you did run your course with courage, and
he healed you.
Full of love for Jesus
your Spouse, your bright lamp was well trimmed, and your virtues shed forth
their splendour, O Virgin, worthy of praise! Therefore didst you enter in with
Christ to the marriage-feast, and he wreathed you with the crown of your
combat. We celebrate your memory, O Barbara! Deliver us from danger.
By those three apertures,
which you would have to your bath, you did symbolise, O Barbara, the mystery of
Baptism, which, by the light of the Trinity, imparts to our souls a cleansing
that illuminates.
Fleeing the terrible
violence of her father, a rock immediately opened a reception of safety to
Barbara, as happened heretofore to the illustrious Protomartyr of her sex,
Thecla, for whom Christ worked a like miracle.
O Martyr Barbara! you
wast sacrificed with a sword, by your father, like in this to Abraham; but his
devotedness was to the devil.
Jesus appeared to you, O
Barbara, in your prison: he was surrounded by light inaccessible, but he came
to animate your confidence, heal your wounds and make you glad: this gave wings
to your love of your Lord.
When for Christ’s sake
you were stripped of your garments, O venerable Barbara! a bright Angel clothed
you, as a bride, with a splendid robe, which covered your wounds; for you have
put on the stole which gives creatures a divine transformation.
Your prophecy, Christ,
has been evidently fulfilled: for the father delivers his daughter up to death,
nay himself becomes her murderer; but this cruel parent of your Martyr is, in a
wonderful manner, consumned by fire from heaven.
You, most honoured
Virgin, having entered the path of combatants, did resist your father’ demands
and, as a wise virgin bearing her lamp, you went into the mansion of your Lord:
he gave you, O generous Martyr, the power to drive away pestilence; pray to God
for us who hymn your praises, and deliver us from our spiritual diseases.
Antiphon
To this the voice of so
many Churches we join ours, O faithful Virgin! and though we are unworthy, yet
do we offer you our praise and our prayers. Behold! our Lord cometh, and the
darkness of the night is upon us; give to our lamp both the light which will
guide us, and the oil which will keep in the light. You know that he who came
for love of you, and with whom you are now united for all eternity, is coming
to visit us too; pray for us that nothing may keep us from receiving him. May
we go towards him courageously and swiftly as you did, and being once with him,
may we never be separated from him again, for he is the centre where we
creatures find our only rest. Pray also, glorious Martyr, that the faith in the
Blessed Trinity may be ever increasing in this world. May our enemy, Satan, be
confounded by every tongue’s confessing the Threefold light, and the triumphant
Cross which sanctifies the waters of Baptism. Remember, O blessed Barbara, you
Spouse of Jesus, that he has put in your gentle hands the power not of hurling
but of staying and averting the thunderbolt. Protect our ships against the
fires of heaven and of war. Shield by your protection the arsenals where are placed
the defence of our country. Hear the prayers of them that invoke you, whether
in the fierceness of the storm, or in the dark depths of the earth; and save us
all from the awful chastisement of a sudden death.
– from the book The Liturgical Year: Advent, by the Very
Reverend Dom Prosper Gueranger, Abbot of Solesmes, translated from the French
by the Revered Dom Laurence Shepherd, Monk of the English-Benedictine
Congregation, 2nd edition; published in Dublin Ireland by James Duffy, 15
Wellington-Quay, 1870
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/the-liturgical-year-saint-barbara-virgin-and-martyr/
Paternò (Sicilia), Reliquiaro a busto di santa Barbara, argento
Santa Barbara Vergine
e martire
sec. III
Nacque a Nicomedia nel
273. Si distinse per l'impegno nello studio e per la riservatezza, qualità che
le giovarono la qualifica di «barbara», cioè straniera, non romana. Tra il
286-287 Barbara si trasferì presso la villa rustica di Scandriglia, oggi in provincia
di Rieti, al seguito del padre Dioscoro, collaboratore dell'imperatore
Massimiano Erculeo. La conversione alla fede cristiana di Barbara provocò l'ira
di Dioscoro. La ragazza fu così costretta a rifugiarsi in un bosco dopo aver
distrutto gli dei nella villa del padre. Trovata, fu consegnata al prefetto
Marciano. Durante il processo che iniziò il 2 dicembre 290 Barbara difese il
proprio credo ed esortò Dioscoro, il prefetto ed i presenti a ripudiare la
religione pagana per abbracciare la fede cristiana. Questo le costò dolorose
torture. Il 4 dicembre, infine, fu decapitata con la spada dallo stesso
Dioscoro, che fu colpito però da un fulmine. La tradizione invoca Barbara
contro i fulmini, il fuoco e la morte improvvisa. I suoi resti si trovano nella
cattedrale di Rieti. (Avvenire)
Patronato: Architetti,
Minatori, Moribondi, Fucili e polvere da sparo, Vigili del Fuoco
Etimologia: Barbara =
straniera, dal greco
Emblema: Palma, Torre
Martirologio Romano: A
Nicomedia, commemorazione di santa Barbara, che fu, secondo la tradizione,
vergine e martire.
Esistono molte redazioni in greco e traduzioni latine della passio di Barbara; si tratta, però, di narrazioni leggendarie, il cui valore storico è molto scarso, anche perché vi si riscontrano non poche divergenze. In alcune passiones, infatti, il suo martirio è posto sotto l’impero di Massimino il Trace (235 – 38) o di Massimiano (286 – 305), in altre, invece, sotto quello di Massimino Daia (308 –13). Né maggiore concordanza esiste sul luogo di origine, poiché si parla di Antiochia, di Nicomedia e, infine, di una località denominata “Heliopolis”, distante 12 miglia da Euchaita, città della Paflagonia. Nelle traduzioni latine, la questione si complica maggiormente, perché per alcune di esse Barbara sarebbe vissuta nella Toscana, e, infatti, nel Martirologio di Adone si legge: “In Tuscia natale sanctae Barbarae virginis et martyris sub Maximiano imperatore”. Ci si trova, quindi, di fronte al caso di una martire il cui culto fino all’antichità fu assai diffuso, tanto in Oriente quanto in Occidente; invece, per quanto riguarda le notizie biografiche, si possiedono scarsissimi elementi: il nome, l’origine orientale, con ogni verisimiglianza l’Egitto, e il martirio. La leggenda, poi, ha arricchito con particolari fantastici, a volte anche irreali, la vita della martire: si tratta di particolari che hanno avuto un influsso sia sul culto come sull’iconografia.
Il padre di Barbara, Dioscuro, fece costruire una torre per rinchiudervi la bellissima figlia richiesta in sposa da moltissimi pretendenti. Ella, però, non aveva intenzione di sposarsi, ma di consacrarsi a Dio. Prima di entrare nella torre, non essendo ancora battezzata e volendo ricevere il sacramento della rigenerazione, si recò in una piscina d’acqua vicino alla torre e vi si immerse tre volte dicendo: “Battezzasi Barbara nel nome del Padre, del Figlio e dello Spirito Santo”. Per ordine del padre, la torre avrebbe dovuto avere due finestre, ma Barbara ne volle tre in onore della S.ma Trinità. Il padre, pagano, venuto a conoscenza della professione cristiana della figlia, decise di ucciderla, ma ella, passando miracolosamente fra le pareti della torre, riuscì a fuggire. Nuovamente catturata, il padre la condusse davanti al magistrato, affinché fosse tormentata e uccisa crudelmente. Il prefetto Marciano cercò di convincere Barbara a recedere dal suo proposito; poi, visti inutili i tentativi, ordinò di tormentarla avvolgendole tutto il corpo in panni rozzi e ruvidi, tanto da farla sanguinare in ogni parte. Durante la notte, continua il racconto seguendo uno schema comune alle leggende agiografiche, Barbara ebbe una visione e fu completamente risanata. Il giorno seguente il prefetto la sottomise a nuove e più crudeli torture: sulle sue carni nuovamente dilaniate fece porre piastre di ferro rovente. Una certa Giuliana, presente al supplizio, avendo manifestato sentimenti cristiani, venne associata al martirio: le fiamme, accese ai loro fianchi per tormentarle, si spensero quasi subito. Barbara, portata ignuda per la città, ritornò miracolosamente vestita e sana, nonostante l’ordine di flagellazione. Finalmente, il prefetto la condannò al taglio della testa; fu il padre stesso che eseguì la sentenza. Subito dopo un fuoco discese dal cielo e bruciò completamente il crudele padre, di cui non rimasero nemmeno le ceneri.
L’imperatore Giustino, nel sec. VI, avrebbe trasferito le reliquie della martire dall’Egitto a Costantinopoli; qualche secolo più tardi i veneziani le trasferirono nella loro città e di qui furono recate nella chiesa di S. Giovanni Evangelista a Torcello (1009). Il culto della martire fu assai diffuso in Italia, probabilmente importato durante il periodo dell’occupazione bizantina nel sec. VI, e si sviluppò poi durante le Crociate. Se ne trovano tracce in Toscana, in Umbria, nella Sabina. A Roma, poi, secondo la testimonianza di Giovanni Diacono (Vita, IV,89), s. Gregorio Magno, quando ancora era monaco, amava recarsi a pregare nell’oratorio di S. Barbara. Il testo, però, ha valore solo per il IX sec.; comunque, è certo che in questo secolo erano stati costruiti oratori in onore di B., dei quali fa testimonianza il Liber Pontificalis (ed. L. Duchesne, II, pp. 50, 116) nelle biografie di Stefano IV (816-17) e Leone IV (847-55).
Barbara è particolarmente invocata contro la morte improvvisa (allusione a quella del padre, secondo la leggenda); in seguito la sua protezione fu estesa a tutte le persone che erano esposte nel loro lavoro al pericolo di morte istantanea, come gli artificieri, gli artiglieri, i carpentieri, i minatori; oggi è venerata anche come protettrice dei vigili del fuoco. Nelle navi da guerra il deposito delle munizioni è denominato “Santa Barbara”.
La festa di Barbara è celebrata il 4 dicembre.
Autore: Gian Domenico Gordini
SOURCE : https://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/80400
Santa
Barbara in un'icona russa del XVIII
secolo.
Den hellige Barbara av
Nikomedia (d. ~306?)
Minnedag:
4. desember
Den hellige Barbara skal
ha blitt født på 200-tallet (?) i Nikomedia i Bithynia i Lilleasia (i dag Izmit
i Tyrkia). Hun var muligens en jomfrumartyr som ble drept rundt 303 i
forfølgelsene under keiser Diokletians (284–305) medregent i vest, Maximian Herkules
(286–305), mens andre kilder sier at det skjedde under keiser Maximinus Thrax
(235–38) eller keiser Maximinus Daza (305–13). Men det er nok tvilsomt om hun i
det hele tatt har eksistert, og hennes navn står ikke i noe eldre
martyrologium. Det såkalte Martyrologium Hieronymianum, som vel oppsto i
Nord-Italia etter 520 og omfatter rundt 6 000 navn fra hele Kirken, nevner
ikke Barbara i det hele tatt. Det gjør heller ikke Martyrologium Syriacum,
som er en fortegnelse over martyrene i øst, bevart i et håndskrift fra 411/412.
Hennes greske legende ser ut til å ha vært oppdiktet i en from hensikt, og den
opptrer først på 600-tallet.
De forskjellige utgavene
av legenden stemmer altså ikke overens med hensyn til tid og sted for hennes
martyrium. Tidspunktet varierer mellom år 235 og 313, og stedet skal ha vært
enten Antiokia, Heliopolis i Egypt, Roma, Toscana eller Nikomedia. Den ærverdige
kardinal Cesare Baronius (1538–1607), lærd oratorianer og kirkehistoriker,
trodde mest på tradisjonen som hevdet at hennes martyrium skjedde i Nikomedia,
og den versjonen ble satt inn i Martyrologium Romanum da han reviderte det på
slutten av 1500-tallet. Andre legender sier også at hun ble martyrdrept i
Heliopolis (Ba'albek) i Libanon.
Men usikkerheten hindret
ikke at Barbaras kult ble svært utbredt, først i øst, og hennes legende opptrer
i den hellige Simon Metafrastes’
legendesamling i andre halvdel av 900-tallet (MPG 116, 301 ff.). I Martyrologium
Bedae fra begynnelsen av 700-tallet nevnes hun ikke, mens Martyrologium
Romanum parvum eller vetes fra omtrent samme tid forteller om
henne. Hennes legende ble også tatt med i de utvidete samlingene av
helgenlegender i vesten fra 800-tallet, som den hellige Ado av Vienne og Usuard.
Hun kom også med i den salige Jakob de Voragines Legenda
Aurea, noe som gjorde at hun ble en svært populær helgen i
senmiddelalderen, særlig i Frankrike.
En versjon av legenden
forteller at Barbara levde i Nikomedia på slutten av 200-tallet som datter av
den velstående hedenske paynim Dioscorus (Dioskuros) [tjenestemann
hos keiser Maximian]. Hennes skjønnhet og skarpe forstand var berømt, og de
rikeste og vakreste ynglingene i byen kjempet om hennes gunst. Men Barbara
avviste alle, da hun følte at det måtte finnes mer i livet som ennå ikke var
åpenbart for henne.
Stadig oftere bega hun
seg til en liten gruppe av døpte kristne, som på denne tiden levde i skjul i
stadig angst for de keiserlige kristenforfølgelsene, og Barbara skjønte at hun
hadde funnet livets mening. Ifølge en versjon av legenden var det
selveste Origenes (ca. 185–ca. 254) som førte
henne til kristendommen. Han svarte på hennes skriftlige spørsmål gjennom
presten Valentin, som hun kunne besøke fordi hun utga ham for å være lege.
Men Barbaras far var en
fanatisk kristenhater, og han merket snart endringene hos datteren. Han
bestemte at hun skulle holdes borte fra de kristne, så han bygde et tårn ved
huset sitt hvor han kunne sperre datteren inne. [En annen versjon av legenden
forteller at han stengte henne inne badehuset sitt for å ta motet fra hennes
mange beilere.] Da han kom tilbake fra en kort reise, så han at Barbara hadde
fått murerne til å lage tre vinduer i tårnet i stedet for de planlagte to. Den
rasende Dioscorus spurte hva dette betydde, og Barbara svarte at det var et
symbol for treenigheten. Da hun også fortalte at hun i mellomtiden i
hemmelighet hadde mottatt dåpens sakrament, ble han fra seg av raseri og
forsøkte å drepe henne, men hun ble på mirakuløst vis reddet ved at gulvet åpnet
seg for henne.
Men faren anga henne til
provinsens prefekt Martinianus, som var en av de mest forbitrede forfølgerne av
kristne. Han lot henne piske, men om natten åpenbarte Kristus seg for henne og
leget hennes sår. Så lot prefekten henne piske med blykuler, brente henne med
fakler, skar brystene av henne og lot henne løpe naken gjennom byen. Men da kom
en engel og leget hennes sår og svøpte hennes nakenhet inn i en hvit kjortel.
Da innså prefekten at han ikke kom noen vei med tortur, og dømte henne til
døden ved halshogging. Dioscorus selv tilbød seg å drepe datteren, og han tok
henne med opp på et fjell, hvor han hevet sverdet og hogg hodet av henne. Det
skal ha skjedd den 4. desember 306. Men på vei ned fra fjellet slo lynet ned og
drepte ham.
En annen kristen ved navn
Juliana skal ha lidd martyrdøden sammen med Barbara. En from kristen ved navn
Valentinus gravla de hellige martyrene, og ved graven ble syke helbredet og
pilegrimene som kom for å be, fikk trøst og oppmuntring.
Barbara er en av de
14 nødhjelperne. Dette er en gruppe helgener
som særlig i middelalderen inntok en særstilling i folkefromheten i Rhinland.
De ble anropt i all slags nød, og deres kult bredte seg fra Regensburg og
Bamberg til resten av Tyskland, Norden og Ungarn, men hadde liten oppslutning i
Frankrike og Italia. De nevnes første gang i 1284 i et avlatsbrev og
fremstilles første gang i en gruppe i 1331 i dominikanerklosteret i Regensburg.
Høydepunktet for kulten ble nådd på 1400-tallet.
På grunn av Barbaras
innesperring ble hun assosiert med tårn og deretter med byggevirksomhet, Som en
følge av farens skjebne ble hun anropt som vern mot plutselig død, først ved
lynnedslag, men som en videreutvikling av dette også mot en plutselig død
forårsaket av kanonkuler eller ved nedstigning i gruver. Dette har gjort at hun
senere er blitt vernehelgen for kanonérer og gruvearbeidere.
Artilleriregimenter i mange land, inkludert Storbritannia, anser henne således
som sin skytshelgen. Ammunisjonsrommet på et fransk krigsskip kalles fortsatt
Sainte-Barbe.
Hennes attributt er et
tårn, men hun kan også være avbildet med palme (martyrsymbol), kanon eller
kalk. Det siste henviser til flere helgeners erfaringer. For eksempel ble den
hellige Stanislas Kostka alvorlig
syk som barn. Da han innstendig ba om eukaristien, ble han nektet dette. Men
hans bønn ble hørt ved at han fikk den hellige kommunion på overnaturlig vis av
Barbara. Denne og en åpenbaring av Jomfru Maria ble
regnet som autentiske i hans kanoniseringsprosess, og stedet hvor de skjedde er
i dag forvandlet til det mye besøkte kapellet St. Stanislas i Wien.
Barbara-relikvier skal
rundt år 1000 ha kommet til Markuskirken i Venezia og derfra ut til klosteret
San Giovanni Evangelista på den nærliggende øya Torcello. Den eldste kjente
avbildningen av henne er enn freske fra rundt 705 i Santa Maria Antiqua i Roma.
Det mest kjente bildet av henne er trolig det av Jan van Eyck i Det kongelige
Museum i Antwerpen. Sammen med Katarina av Alexandria og Margareta av Antiokia
er hun blant de tre såkalte Virgines Capitales, de hellige tre jomfruer.
I de tidligste listene
ble Barbara feiret den 16. desember, men hennes fest ble fra 1100-tallet feiret
den 4. desember. Men ved kalenderrevisjonen i 1969 ble hennes fest fjernet fra
den romerske generalkalenderen og henvist til lokale kalendere i likhet med
alle minnedager for rent legendariske skikkelser. Det er vanlig å si at
Barbaras kult ble stanset i 1969, men dette stemmer strengt tatt ikke.
Rituskongregasjonen foreslo riktignok dette, men den tyske Bispekonferansen
fikk med pavelig samtykke tillatelse til å beholde festen på grunn av en
levende kult for Barbara i bispedømmer med bergverksdrift. Og så lenge Roma har
tillatt feiringen av en «tvilsom helgen» noen steder, kan man ikke tale om å
stanse eller oppheve en kult. Parallelle tilfeller er den hellige Georg, som ble reddet av engelskmennene,
og den hellige Katarina av
Alexandria, som ble reddet av grekerne og senere fullstendig rehabilitert
av pave Johannes Paul II (1978–2005).
Flere artilleriregimenter
feirer henne fortsatt den 4. desember (inkludert i Nord-Norge). Hun har også en
translasjonsfest (overføring av relikviene) den 8. juli. 12. februar nevnes
også som minnedag for den tredje translasjonen fra Roma til Piacenza.
Som alle folkekjære
helgener utviklet det seg i årenes løp mange folkelige tradisjoner knyttet til
Barbara. Flere steder knyttes skikken med såkalte Barbara-greiner til hennes
festdag. Da skjæres det greiner av frukttrær (særlig kirsebær) som har mistet
bladene, og de settes i vann. I de varme stuene får de livet tilbake, og til
jul blomstrer de. Symbolikken med advent/Kristi komme er klar, og kan
illustreres av sangen «Det hev ei rose sprunge / ut av ei rot så grann».
Kilder:
Attwater (dk), Attwater/John, Farmer, Jones, Bentley, Hallam, Benedictines,
Delaney, Bunson, Engelhart, Schnitzler, Schauber/Schindler, Melchers, Gorys,
Dammer/Adam, CE, CSO, CatholicSaints.Info, Infocatho, Bautz, Heiligenlexikon,
santiebeati.it, zeno.org, stbarbara-ob.de - Kompilasjon og oversettelse: p. Per Einar Odden
Opprettet: 10. desember
1998 | Oppdatert: 1. desember 2018
SOURCE : https://www.katolsk.no/biografier/historisk/barbara
Vitrail
dédié à sainte Barbe, église Saint-Nicolas de L'Hôpital (Moselle).
Barbara van Nicomedië,
Bithynië, Klein-Azië; maagd & martelares met Juliana; †
ca 306.
Feest 4 december.
Dat zij heeft bestaan,
staat historisch vast. Maar wat we van haar leven en sterven weten, berust puur
op legende.
Barbara was de dochter
van een rijke heiden uit Nicomedië. Om haar tegen ongewenste invloeden te
beschermen sloot hij haar op in een toren. Desondanks werd zij bekeerd tot het
Christendom, men zegt zelfs door Origenes, de beroemde theoloog uit Alexandrië
(† 254). Haar vader ontdekte dit toen Barbara vroeg om een derde venster in
haar toren aan te brengen ter ere van de Heilige Drie-Eenheid. Hij liet haar
folteren om haar tot geloofsafval te dwingen. Toen dat niet lukte, onthoofdde
hij zijn dochter. Meteen daarna werd hij gestraft: een bliksemschicht doodde
hem.
Wij geven hier de legende
zoals ze staat opgetekend in het zogeheten Passional, dat voor het eerst in
1471/72 te Augsburg, Duitsland, werd uitgegeven.
Ten tijde van Keizer Maximianus leefde een zekere Dioscurus.
Het gaat hier niet om
keizer Maximianus (284-305), maar om diens opvolger in het oosten Maximinus
Daia (305-313).
Hij was steenrijk, maar
een heiden en afgodendienaar. Hij had slechts één dochter, Barbara. Daar liet
hij een toren voor bouwen om haar daarin op te sluiten: dan zouden de mannen
haar tenminste niet kunnen zien. Ze was namelijk beeldschoon. Nu zeiden een paar
notabelen van die stad tot Dioscurus, dat hij voor haar toch een echtgenoot
moest zoeken. Dus klom hij omhoog naar haar toe om haar te zeggen:
"Mijn dochter, een paar meisjes in de stad zeiden mij dat ik je uit moest
huwelijken. Wat vind je daarvan?"
Hoogst ongerust antwoordde zij: "Ach vader, toe, dat heb ik liever niet."
Toen zijn voorstel op die manier was afgewezen, ging hij weer naar beneden, en zorgde ervoor, dat er een badhuis werd gebouwd over de bron heen waarin de maagd Barbara in het geheim was gedoopt. Hij had namelijk een hele menigte bouwvakkers aangesteld om de bouw snel klaar te hebben. Overal had hij precies van aangewezen, hoe hij het hebben wilde. Hij gaf aan ieder het toekomende loon, en vertrok toen voor lange tijd naar een ver land in den vreemde.
Barbara kwam ook eens naar beneden om de bouw te bekijken. Toen ze zag, dat er op het noorden twee vensters werden aangebracht, vroeg ze aan de bouwlieden:
"Waarom hebben jullie maar twee vensters aangebracht?"
Zij zeiden daarop: "Omdat je vader ons dat zo heeft opgedragen."
Ze zei: "Breng dan nog een derde venster voor me aan."
Maar zij antwoordden: "Meesteres, we zijn bang, dat uw vader woedend op ons zal zijn en wij blijven liever gespaard voor zijn woede."
Barbara stelde hen gerust: "Doe maar wat ik je zeg; ik zal wel zorgen, dat hij het er mee eens is."
Zo willigden ze dus haar verzoek in en brachten een derde venster aan. Barbara wandelde nu het hele badhuis door, ook langs de wand op het zuiden, en drukte daar met haar vinger het kostbare teken van het kruis in het marmer. Dat is tot op de huidige dag behouden gebleven tot stichting van al wie het ziet. Toen betrad zij de uitbouw waar het water instroomde, en zei daar een gebed waarin zij vroeg, dat het water zou mogen worden geheiligd. Daar bleef vervolgens een afdruk van haar kostbare voet achter. Toen besteeg ze weer haar toren en kwam zodoende langs de afgodenbeelden die haar vader aanbad. Door de Heilige Geest geraakt spuwde zij ze in het gelaat met de woorden:
"Moge jullie makers op dezelfde manier behandeld worden; en allen die op jullie vertrouwen."
En ze klom verder naar de bovenste verdieping van haar toren, en daar verwijlde zij in gebed bij de Heer.
Toen de bouw voltooid was, keerde haar vader terug en vroeg aan de bouwlieden:
"Waarom hebben jullie drie vensters aangebracht?"
Ze zeiden: "Dat heeft uw dochter ons bevolen."
Daarop riep hij zijn dochter en vroeg: "Mijn dochter, waarom heb je opdracht gegeven drie vensters te laten aanbrengen?"
Zij antwoordde: "Daar heb ik goed aan gedaan. Want drie vensters verlíchten alle mensen, terwijl twee vensters de mensen in het duister laten."
Toen nam haar vader haar mee naar beneden het badhuis in, en vroeg:
"Waarom geven drie vensters meer licht dan twee?"
Daarop wees de heilige Barbara op elk venster apart met de woorden:
"Dit hier betekent de Vader, dit de Zoon en dit de Heilige Geest."
Toen werd haar vader woedend, trok zijn zwaard uit de schede en probeerde haar
te doorsteken. Maar de heilige Barbara richtte zich in een gebed tot God,
waarop een rots openspleet, haar in zich opnam en ergens boven op een berg weer
tevoorschijn bracht.
Het gegeven dat
vluchtelingen door een berg aan het oog worden onttrokken, komt ook voor in de
legende van Elisabeth en haar zoontje Johannes de Doper (feest 5 november) die
de kindermoord van Bethlehem trachten te ontvluchten: ‘Toen enige
tijd later ook Christus was geboren, liet Herodes alle kinderen van Bethlehem
ter dood brengen. Hij zond dus ook manschappen op het kind van Zacharias en
Elisabeth af; want hij had gehoord van de wonderlijke omstandigheden waaronder
dit kind ter wereld was gekomen. Bij het zien van de soldaten nam Elisabeth
Johannes in haar armen - het kind was op dat moment 18 maanden - en vluchtte
haar huis uit de woestijn in naar de bergen die je in de omgeving van de stad
daar hebt. Toen het tot haar doordrong in wat voor benarde positie zij door
Herodes' soldaten gedreven was, schreeuwde ze tegen de bergen:
"Asjeblieft, berg van God, neem deze moeder met kind in je op!" En
werkelijk, de rots opende zich en verborg moeder en kind in zijn binnenste.’
Daar op die berg waren
juist twee herders hun schapen aan het hoeden. Die zagen hoe zij op stenen tot
vlak bij hen werd gedragen. Haar vader vond ze en vroeg hun naar zijn dochter.
De ene probeerde haar te verbergen en te redden. De ander wees echter in haar
richting.
Achter de gestalte van
elke martelaar doemt
de figuur van Jezus moest lijden sterven om zo zijn heerlijkheid binnen te
gaan, zoals Hij het zelf uitdrukte (Lukas 24,26). Dat Barbara verraden werd
herinnert aan hoe Jezus verraden werd door Judas.
Daarop vervloekte Barbara
hem; zijn schapen veranderden onmiddellijk in sprinkhanen. Sindsdien zijn deze
diertjes altijd in de buurt van haar graf te vinden geweest tot op de dag van
vandaag.
De vader pakte haar beet,
sloeg haar met een riem, trok haar aan haar haren van de berg naar beneden en
sloot haar op in een armzalige cel. Deze vergrendelde hij met een slot en een
ketting, zodat niemand bij haar naar binnen kon; tenslotte stelde hij ook nog
een bewaker aan. Toen ging hij haar aangeven bij de stadhouder met de bedoeling
dat zij aan de beulen zou worden overgeleverd. Deze gaf opdracht haar voor zich
te laten verschijnen.
Juist zo had Jezus voor
de stadhouder en zijn beulen gestaan…!
Van zijn hoge
rechterstoel keek hij op haar neer, en was onder de indruk van haar schoonheid;
hij vroeg:
"Je hebt de keus: ofwel je redt jezelf door aan onze goden te offeren,
ofwel we leveren je over in de handen van de hardvochtigste beulen die je je
maar kunt indenken."
Zij antwoordde: "Ik kan alleen maar offers brengen aan mijn Heer Jezus Christus, die hemel en aarde gemaakt heeft en alles wat daarin is. Over jullie afgodsbeelden zegt de psalmist echter: 'Zij hebben een mond maar praten kunnen ze niet; ze hebben oren, maar horen doen ze niet; ze hebben een neus, maar ruiken? ho maar! Ze hebben handen, maar pakken doen ze je niet; voeten hebben ze, maar verzetten geen stap; ze praten zelfs niet uit hun nek!
En wie ze maken, zijn net zo! Precies als al degenen die erin geloven...'"
[vgl. Psalm 115,05-07].
In toorn ontstoken beval nu de stadhouder haar uit te kleden om haar met ossenhaken en vissersgaren toe te takelen. Men ging zo ruw te werk, dat ze al gauw onder het bloed zat.
Vervolgens werd ze weer in haar kerker opgeborgen totdat hij besloten had welke dood zij zou moeten sterven. Maar precies om middernacht omstraalde haar een hemels licht waarin de Heer haar verscheen; Hij zei haar:
"Blijf op mij vertrouwen, Barbara, en wees sterk. Want groot zal de vreugde over jou zijn in de hemel en op de aarde. Wees niet bang voor de dreigementen van die tiran, want ik ben bij je. Ik zal alle wonden helen die zij je toebrengen."
En op hetzelfde moment waren alle wonden op haar lichaam verdwenen...
Dat de verwondingen na een foltering worden genezen, komt herhaaldelijk voor in martelaarslegenden. Dat verwijst naar het feit dat de geloofsgetuige innerlijk ongebroken blijft!
De volgende morgen werd zij weer voor de stadhouder geleid. Toen hij zag, dat de martelingen haar in het geheel niet hadden gedeerd, sprak hij:
"Kijk toch eens Barbara, hoe genadig jouw goden je zijn geweest, en hoeveel zij van je houden, want ze hebben al je wonden genezen en geheeld.”
Zij antwoordde hem: "Uw goden zijn stom en doof en blind, zonder verstand
en star. Hoe zouden die mij hebben kunnen helpen. Ze kunnen zichzelf niet eens
helpen. Nee degene die mij genezen heeft is Jezus Christus, de Zoon van de
levende God; die is u onbekend, omdat de duivel uw hart heeft verhard."
Daarop gaf de stadhouder brullend als een leeuw het bevel haar te pijnigen en
met brandende fakkels te bewerken, en als dat nog niet mocht helpen, haar
ondersteboven op te hangen en te slaan tot het bloed haar neus uitkwam.
Het brullen van de leeuw
herinnert aan Petrus’ woord (1 Petrus 05,08): ‘Weest nuchter, wordt
wakker! Uw vijand de duivel zwerft rond als een brullende leeuw, op zoek naar een
prooi om te verslinden.’ Die aanbeveling is op haar beurt een herinnering
aan Psalm 22,14: ‘leeuwen sperren hun muil naar mij open met doordringend,
verscheurend gebrul.…’
Maar zij keek op naar de hemel met de woorden:
"U, Jezus Christus, weet wat er omgaat in het verborgene van mijn hart, want u weet alles. Nu ik omwille van U deze martelingen moet ondergaan: verlaat mij niet!"
Intussen beval de stadhouder haar de borsten af te snijden. Maar zij richtte eens te meer haar blikken ten hemel en bad:
"Heer God: U bedekt de hemel met wolken; wil ook mij bedekken met Uw
beschutting en bescherming. Nu ze mij naakt hebben uitgekleed: bedek mij; dan
kunnen deze schaamteloze kerels mij tenminste niet zien."
Ook het feit dat Barbara
naakt is uitgekleed herinnert aan Jezus’ ontkleding voordat hij gekruisigd
wordt.
Vervolgens zond de Heer zijn engel en deze bedekte haar met zijn lange witte gewaad. Tenslotte werd ze via de wei weer terug voor de goddeloze stadhouder gebracht. Deze beval haar het hoofd af te slaan. Haar vader - al evenzeer tot razernij gebracht - eiste haar van de stadhouder voor zichzelf op. Hij bracht haar naar de berg.
Terwijl zij daarheen werd gebracht, verlangde zij er naar om de zalige overwinning binnen te halen; ze bad tot God met de woorden:
"Heer Jezus Christus, U hebt hemel boven de aarde uitgespreid; U hebt de aarde gegrondvest en de afgronden afgegrendeld; U hebt de zeeën hun grenzen aangewezen; en U hebt aan de schaduwrijke wolken bevolen, dat ze moesten regenen over goeden en slechten; U hebt over de zee gelopen en de storm gestild. Alles is U onderhorig. Sta mij toe waarom ik nu, als Uw nederige dienares, kom vragen: 'Als iemand in uw naam op de naamdag van uw dienares mij in herinnering roept, wil dan geen acht slaan op al diens eventuele zonden en fouten. U weet zelf, dat wij zwakke mensen zijn...'"
Toen klonk daar de stem van de Heer:
"Kom maar hier, mijn liefje, mijn schoonheid. Rust nu maar uit in de vertrekken van je Vader die in de hemel is. En wat je zojuist vroeg: dat zal ik doen."
Op dat moment was ze aangekomen op de plaats van haar marteldood. Door haar eigen vader werd ze onthoofd, tezamen met de heilige Juliana die op dezelfde plaats door dezelfde Dioscurus omwille van hetzelfde geloof dezelfde marteldood onderging. Om haar lijk werd gevraagd door een zekere Valentinus; hij zette haar bij in een klein huisje in de stad Soli.
Vele heiligen verkondigen haar roem. Toen haar vader van de berg afdaalde, viel
er vuur uit de hemel boven op hem; hij verbrandde meteen zodat er alleen een
klein hoopje as van hem overbleef. Dit alles geschiedde tijdens de regering van
keizer Maximianus en tijdens het bewind van stadhouder Marcianus op 4 december.
Zoals hierboven aangeduid, gaat het niet om keizer Maximianus (284-305), maar om diens opvolger in het oosten Maximinus Daia (305-313).
[Pas.1986p:38-43]
Verering & Cultuur
In de Oosterse kerk geniet zij sinds de vroegste tijden verering als heilige genezer.
In de westerse kerk vindt men de eerste sporen van haar verering in de 8e eeuw.
Haar legende maakte Sint Barbara tot een van de populairste heiligen uit de middeleeuwen, vooral in de Nederlanden en Noord-Frankrijk.
In het Rijnland wordt zij beschouwd als begeleidster van Sint Nicolaas,
waarschijnlijk, omdat zijn feest, dat meestal op de vooravond van 6 december
werd gevierd, reeds zijn schaduwen vooruit wierp op Sint-Barbaradag, 4
december. In Limburg werd Sinte Berbke beschouwd als huishoudster van
Sint-Nicolaas. Vandaar, dat er in Limburg soms ook reeds op haar feestdag
cadeautjes werden uitgedeeld. Op haar feest zet men in bepaalde streken
kersentakken in het water die dan met Kerstmis bloeien. Ze wordt ook beschouwd
als de vrouw die de akkers vruchtbaar houdt.
Zij is beschermheilige van bergbouwers en tunnelgravers, vooral in Duits
sprekende gebieden. Dat heeft te maken met de legende dat zij aan de dood
ontsnapte doordat een berg haar in zich opnam en verborg voor haar vader die op
haar dood uit was. Vandaar dat tunnelboormachines bij de aanvang van het
werk gezegend worden onder aanroeping van haar voorspraak. Soms steken berg- of
tunnelbouwers een kaars of lamp aan om Sint Barbara’s bescherming af te
smeken.
Verwant hiermee is haar verering onder de mijnwerkers.
Haar voorspraak wordt vooral ingeroepen tegen een onverwachte dood. Dat geldt natuurlijk voor allen die ondergronds werken. Met name als zij daarbij gebruik maken van springstoffen. Zo is zij ook patrones van mijnopruimers en vuurwerkmakers. Vandaar ook van gebruikers van vuurwapens, van artilleristen,
van kanonniers, schutters, soldaten, van de militaire stand, wapenmakers en vandaar ook van metaalgieters in het algemeen.
Zo wordt zij patrones van allerlei beroepen die met (onvoorziene) dood te maken hebben, zoals brandweerlieden. Maar ook van doodgravers, begrafenisondernemers en van begraafplaatsen en crematoria.
Doordat ze in toren werd opgesloten is zij ook patrones van architecten, bouwvakarbeiders, metselaars, steenhouwers, timmerlieden en dakdekkers; en van vestingwerken en torens als zodanig.
Omdat in torens van een klokkenspel hangt ook van beiaardiers, klokkenluiders en klokkengieters.
Ze is ook patrones van gevangenen (omdat zij in haar gevangenschap van een
engel de sacramenten ontving).
In de westerse kerk is zij een van de Veertien Noodhelpers.
Daarnaast is zij patrones van hoedenmakers (omdat de hoed symbool is voor bescherming?); van koks (misschien vanwege de lekkernijen die eigenlijk bij het naderende Sinterklaasfeest horen?).
Verder wordt haar voorspraak ingeroepen tegen koorts, pest en voor een gelukkig stervensuur; ze is beschermheilige tegen brand, bliksem en vuur; voorts wordt haar voorspraak ingeroepen bij storm. Erasmus († 1536) vertelt in zijn Enchiridion (66), dat Barbara’s voorspraak ook werd ingeroepen om niet in de handen van de vijand te vallen.
Ze is patrones van de plaats Santa Barbara in Californië (USA).
In België is er een Barbarakerk in Brussel-Molenbeek.
In Frankrijk kende Parijs in de middeleeuwen een Collège Ste-Barbe.
In Nederland zijn er Barbarakerken in Amsterdam (tezamen met Nicolaas), Ballum,
Breda, Breskens, Brunssum-Treebeek, Bunnik, Culemborg, in Delft stond van
1403-1572 een Barbaraklooster, Dreumel, Ede (tehuis), Frienszeg,
Geleen-Roermond, Griendtsveen, Haarlem (tezamen met Elisabeth), Heerlen
(kapel), Hurwenen, Leveroij, Nieuwegein, Oudenbosch (tezamen met Agatha),
Rossum (Gelderland tezamen met Martinus), Rotterdam, Schaesberg,
Scheulder/Cadier-en-Keer, Schuller, St.-Hubert (tezamen met Hubertus),
Tungelroy, Valkenburg (tezamen met Nicolaas), Vreeswijk, Volkel (kapel tezamen met
Antonius),
Barbara & Catharina
1] Niet zelden wordt Barbara afgebeeld in gezelschap van Sint Catharina. Zowel in het oosten als in het westen. In het westen symboliseren deze twee heiligen het kloosterleven: Catharina het contemplatieve of beschouwende en Barbara het actieve of apostolische.
Waarom die symbolische betekenis zo over beiden is verdeeld...?
2] In Midden- en Oost-Europa komt hen als derde vaak de heilige maagd Margaretha vergezellen. In het Duitse taalgebied spreekt men van 'Die Drei Heiligen Madl':
"Margaretha mit den Wurm
Barbara mit dem Turm
Katharina mit dem Radl:
Das sind die drei heil'gen Madl."
3] Tenslotte komt er soms nog een vierde heilige maagd bij:
Dorothea. In dat geval spreekt men van 'De Vier Kapitale Maagden' (Quattuor Virgines
Capitales).
Afgebeeld
In de kunst wordt ze afgebeeld als martelares (met palmtak
en zwaard), met een toren bij zich, meestal met drie vensters (verwijzing naar
haar geloof in de Drie-Eenheid); ook wel met een model van een kanon (zie bij
patronaten); zeer vaak heeft ze een kelk of een hostie in de hand (een engel
bracht haar de eucharistie in de kerker: daarom roept men haar aan om niet een
onverwachte dood te sterven zonder de sacramenten). Vaak wordt ze afgebeeld
samen met de H. Catharina van Alexandrië, soms ook samen met Catharina en
Margaretha; of ook nog met Dorothea erbij.
In 1946 publiceerden Gabriël Smit (rijmpjes) & Piet Worm (prentjes) een boekje over heiligen voor kinderen: ‘Roosjes uit de Hemeltuin’; Utrecht/Antwerpen, De Fontein. Het bevat ook een rijmpje voor Sint Barbara:
Al werd gij vloekend ingesloten
En mocht gij niet uw toren uit,
Gij waart onwrikbaar, onverdroten
En bleeft vol liefde Jezus’ bruid.
Maar als ik sterf, Sint Barbara,
Dat ik als Gij voor Jezus sta.
[000»Albertus-Brescia(†Cath); 000»Apollinaris; 000»bk:Balkenende:157; 000»bk:Thulden:137; 000»Cosmas†Damianus(boekje);
000»bk:Cowie:198p.165(kerk-California); 000»Gallus; 000»:Jakob-Rem(Ingolstadt:29);
000»jrb; 000»kaartspel(Í8); 000»Martinus:bk:Bingen:26; 000»posters:04:036;
000»sys:8-vrouwen; 101; 101a; 102; 103; 104; 105; 106; 107; 108; 109p:781(vig); 111p:662-3;
117; 122; 123p:70.72; 126; 132; 155p:282; 156p:31; 178p:129.130; 181p:82.114.125;
186p:103; 188p:173; 191p:38.41; 193p:37; 200/2»12.04; 201p:17(bene:6).49;
204p:41; 226p:183; 230p:237.274; 231p:146; 233p:179; 234p:110; 235; 237; 279p:9.51.62;
282b:76(kruid); 291; 293p:234; 300p:170.280a.280b.365.366a; 301p:150(†Leonardus);
307p:12.202.203; 331p:76; 333p:30.31.t/o:128; 345p:160-161;
347p:95(klooster A'dam); Dries van den Akker s.j./2007.11.21]
© A. van den Akker
s.j. / A.W. Gerritsen
SOURCE : https://heiligen-3s.nl/heiligen/12/04/12-04-0306-barbara.php
Saint Barbara: The
Iconography : https://www.christianiconography.info/barbara.html
