Barbara, St.
BARBARA, ST.
Virgin and martyr. Data of her vita and passio are from a legend composed in the 7th century, perhaps of Egyptian origin. Her father, Dioscorus, is said to have kept her in a tower so that her beauty would not be contaminated by the world; but on learning that she was baptized a Christian, he had her condemned by the prefect Martinianus and himself beheaded her, whereupon he was consumed by lightning. There is an 8th century fresco of Barbara in Rome. Her vita was taken from the Menologion of symeon metaphrastes and introduced into European martyrologies in the 9th century. She is one of the fourteen holy helpers and the patroness of those exposed to sudden death. The subject of many Flemish and Italian artists in the 15th and 16th centuries, she is portrayed with crown, palm, and sword, with tower and peacock, and with a chalice to symbolize a happy death.
Feast: Dec. 4.
Bibliography: v. sempels, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques. (Paris, 1912) 6:627–628. k. gross and h. bender, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, 10 v. (Freiburg 1957) 1:1235–36. g. d. gordini, Bibliotheca Sanctorum (Rome, 1961) 2:760–765.
[m. j. costelloe]