Saint Barbara

Saint Barbara has been enerated from the seventh century.She is the patron saint of artillerymen, miners and explosive experts.She is also associated with lightning.She was the daughter of a rich pagan called Dioscorus.Her father carefully guarded her , shutting her up in a tower, to protect her from the outside world.

She became a Christian and rejected an offer of marriage.

Her father commanded that a private bath house was to be built for his daughter near her dwelling . During his absence Saint Barbara instructed the builders to put three windows in the bath house to represent the Holy Trinity, imstead of the two her father wanted.

Legend says that when her father found out she was a Christian, he went to kill her. Her prayers made the tower wall open and she fled to a mountain where she hid until she was betrayed by a shepherd.

When he eventually got to her he ill treated her and dragged her before the prefect of the province,Martinianus . She was cruelly tortured and condemned to death by beheading. Every night after her torture her wounds healed and her cell was bathed in light. Many miracles occurred .Torches that were intended to burn her went out as they got near her.
She died on the 4 th December 306 in Nicomedia , Bithynia , Asia Minor . This day is her feast day in the Greek Orthodox calendar.

Her own father executed her . As soon as he did this he was struck by lightning and his body vanished.

It is also said that the shepherd who betrayed her was turned into a marble statue and his sheep into grasshoppers.

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