Baring-Gould’s sources: Roman Martyrology. Usnardus, Ado, Notker, &c. All Greek Menseas and Menologies. Authority: — The fabulous Acts.] Usuardus and Ado in their martyrologies make S. Barbara a martyr in Tuscany; Metaphrastes says she suffered at Heliopolis; Baronius, in the Roman Martyrology, sets her down as a martyr at Nicomedia. One authority is just as right as the other, for S. Barbara is a wholly mythical personage.
There was once upon a time a very wealthy and noble Greek named Dioscorus, an idolater, who had a daughter so beautiful in face and form that he shut her up in a tower, very lofty and inaccessible, so that no man might see her, 1 Euseb. H. E. Ivi. c. ii.
and that thus she might be kept out of mischief According to one account, however, he allowed her to take lessons of masters, of advanced age, or, no doubt, of disagreeable appearance.1 At last Dioscorus determined to marry her to a suitable partner, but when he broached the subject, he found his daughter wholly opposed to the scheme. By some means or other the lovely Barbara had imbibed the doctrines of the Gospel, and had resolved to dedicate her virginity to God. Her father was about to go a long journey. Before he departed, she expressed to him her desire to have a bath constructed at the basement of her tower, in which she could disport herself, and while away the tediousness of the long hours of her incarceration. Dioscorus consented, but gave strict orders to the workmen to make two windows to this bath so high in the wall as to be inaccessible to any impudent and forward youth who might desire to look in whilst Barbara was splashing in her bath. The judicious father departed before the bath was completed. Barbara urged on the workman the insufficiency of two windows, and insisted on their making a third. After great hesitation they consented to make a third opening. Barbara drew her finger on the marble rim of the bath, and a cross remained furrowed in the stone. On the return of Dioscorus from his journey, he was surprised and indignant at finding three windows to the bath-room instead of two. Barbara took occasion to preach to him on the mystery of the Trinity, and to illustrate and make it comprehensible by means of the three windows. She also pointed to the miraculous cross she had drawn on the marble, and continued her discourse on the mystery of Redemption.
Dioscorus was furious; he drew his sword and rushed upon the maiden to put her to death. But suddenly the rock 1 “ On croit qu’Origene fut de cc nombre.” — Guerin et Giry. He was unobjectionable on other grounds.
8. BARBARA. After the Painting by Hans Holbein (the elder). One of the wings of the Altarpieoe of 8. Sebastian in the Pwakothek. Munich.
S. Barbara. cleft, received her into its bosom, and left Dioscorus striking furiously on its flinty surface.1 The excited and astonished parent tore about the mountain looking for his daughter. She had, in the meantime, slipped out of the rock at a distance from the tower. His search was in vain; at last, however, he lit on two shepherds, and asked them if they had seen his daughter. They had, in fact, caught sight of Barbara emerging from the mountain, and knew where she was lurking. One of the shepherds, being a good man, told a lie, and said that he had not seen her anywhere. The other shepherd, being very wicked, pointed with his finger in the direction in which Dioscorus was to seek her. The father found her, kicked and beat her, and drew her by the hair before the chief magistrate, Marcian, who, when he saw her, was captivated by her appearance, and did his utmost to persuade her to sacrifice to the gods. She refused. He therefore ordered her to be stripped, and beaten, till her back and sides were raw. She was then taken to prison, when Christ appeared to her in a blaze of light and healed all her wounds. Next day she was again brought before the judge, who ordered her sides to be torn with iron combs, and her “ venerable head ” to be hammered. A girl named Juliana, who witnessed these barbarities, burst out crying. She was therefore arrested and treated in the same manner.
Notwithstanding the hammering on her " venerable head,” the blessed martyr Barbara preserved her faculties, and was able to address an eloquent prayer to Heaven. Marcian then ordered the breasts of Barbara to be cut off, and that she should be led naked round the town. The virgin prayed, and Christ at once came from heaven with a gown and put it over her.
1 So Theda was received by a rock from pursuit. So the mother of Rabbi Jehuda the Pious was received by a wall at Worms, when a Christian drove his car against her. The recess in the wall is still shown at Worms. So also the mother of Rabbi Raschi (Scholmo ben Isaac) was saved from violence. Marcian, at a loss what more cruelty to exercise on Barbara, gave sentence that she and Juliana should be executed with the sword.
As they were led to execution Barbara prayed On reaching the destined place, her father cut off her head, and Juliana suffered likewise. A flash of lightning fell and consumed Dioscorus, another flash reduced Marcian to a smoking ash -heap. Accordingly S. Barbara is held to be the patroness of firearms, and is invoked against the lightning. Just before her death she prayed that whoever should invoke her aid might receive what they asked, and a voice from heaven replied that so it should be. She is therefore also regarded as a proper saint to call upon at the hour of death; and as a patroness by whose aid one may insure not perishing without the last sacraments. She is accordingly represented not only with the three-windowed tower, but also holding a chalice with the Host above it. The relics [the bodily remains of a saint, or objects they used, kept with honor] of S. Barbara are very numerous, especially in Germany.
The date of her death is as arbitrary as the fixing of the locality where she suffered. The real locality of her passion was the brain of the inventor of her legend.
