Did you know ...
... about Saint Barbara?
Traditionally on December 4, miners are celebrating their long-time patron Saint Barbara. Who was she, and what is it all about?
As legend has it, Saint Barbara is one of the great early Christian women who died a martyr's death for her conviction back in Roman times. Although only oral legend and no reliable written sources give a reference for her existence and her deeds, she has been one of the most popular saints already for hundreds of years not only in the Roman-Catholic, but also in the Greek Orthodox church.
She is the patron saint of all miners, but also of architects, artillerymen, fire brigades and firemen, geologists, tunnel construction workers, bell founders and bell ringers, hat makers and milliners, physicians, nurses and pharmacists, bricklayers and carpenters. Moreover, places, mines, ships, pharmacies, military barracks and restaurants are often named after her. She is one of the so-called Fourteen Holy Helpers and a guard against thunderstorm, the risk of fire, fever, the plague and sudden death.
This is what legend tells:
Barbara was the daughter of Dioscuros, a wealthy citizen of Asia Minor. She lived approximately at the end of the third century A.D. in Nikomedia which is today Izmit in Turkey.
Barbara is said to have been a beautiful and intelligent young woman who was very interested in the new Christian faith, which her father did not appreciate at all. He locked her up in a tower built particularly to this purpose – to prevent her from associating with the Christians or to keep her away from the many admirers she had, the records differ about this.
Thus cut off from the world around, her solitary confinement only contributed to turning her into a convinced Christian, for which her father punished her even harder. Barbara managed to escape from the tower – in some stories a crevice miraculously opened up in the tower wall. Helpful miners could hide her away for a while.
But eventually Dioscuros found his daughter, beat her up and took her to the Roman governor Marcianus who sentenced Barbara to death. Despite being cruelly maltreated and tortured, she stood firm in professing herself a Christian. In the end, the father decapitated his daughter with a sword, and legend has it that he was struck dead by lightning.
According to tradition, miners are commemorating Saint Barbara still today on 4 December. Many mines hold Barbara celebrations that can vary from region to region. However, church service is always an integral part.
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