Saint Barbara of Nicomedia

One day, inspired by the ardor of her zeal for the true God, whom she saw ignored by those most dear to her, she said to her father: "What do these figures of men before us mean, my father?" — "What are you thinking of, my daughter?" Dioscorus immediately replied, "these are the figures of our gods, whom we must all adore." — "But were they not once men?" Barbara asked. — "Yes, certainly," the father replied; "but they are gods today, and one cannot doubt it without crime."

The young child, whom God had endowed with a wisdom far beyond her years, became, through the good use of the Lord's graces, increasingly worthy of the gifts of faith, and increasingly capable of believing and adoring the great mysteries that religion teaches. God, continuing to surround her with the care of His Providence, arranged for her the favor of being in contact with Origen, the foremost Christian teacher of his time. Among her servants, sh e found Origène Great theologian and teacher of Gregory in Caesarea. one to whom she could communicate her plan and entrust her delicate commission. Her faithful messenger carried, on her behalf, a letter to Origen in which the dispositions of her soul and the ardor of her holy desires were set forth. Origen, full of joy at the news brought to him, prostrated himself face to the ground, praising and blessing the Lord, who by His grace worked so many wonders and never ceased to make the light of truth shine in the midst of the thickest darkness of paganism; and this act of mercy served to strengthen Christians more and more in the faith and to revive their confidence and fervor. After giving himself over to the sentiments of gratitude and piety with which his soul was filled, the zealous doctor wrote to her, and choosing one of his most learned disciples, named Valentinian, he sent him to Nicomedia with the envoy of our neophyte. Barbara found the means to introduce Valentini an into the Valentinien Disciple of Origen sent to instruct Barbara. tower, and she received him with the greatest respect, as if he had been an envoy descended from heaven. Valentinian ardently fulfilled his holy mission, and, through long and frequent instructions on the mysteries of the Holy Trinity, the Incarnation and the Redemption, on the divine law and the sacraments, and on our eternal destinies, he supplemented everything that Origen had not been able to include in his letter. The good seed sown in well-prepared soil produces abundant fruit. Thus, the word of God, which Barbara had the happiness of hearing, was for her mind and heart a source of vivid light and excellent sentiments. She began to conceive a profound contempt for the fleeting and frivolous goods of this world, and to sigh for the joys of eternity. Baptism, the first and most necessary of all the sacraments, became the object of her most ardent desires; her prayers were soon answered.

Some authors say that this sacrament was conferred upon her by Valentinian, the envoy of Origen, without anything occurring that went beyond the ordinary ways of Providence. According to others, whose authority is much greater, Barbara was baptized with a concurrence of circumstances that were entirely miraculous, as we are about to see.

Being one day in prayer, prostrated on the ground in one of the lower apartments of her dwelling, and moved, no doubt, by a divine inspiration, she cried out: "My most sweet Master and sovereign Lord Jesus Christ, You who, through Moses, Your servant, once drew water from a rock in the desert, open for me, in this place, a spring of living water and deign to bless it, so that in the name of the holy and indivisible Trinity, I may receive baptism and be purified of all my faults." Suddenly, an abundant spring gushed forth before her, which, having first filled a large vase placed in that spot, continued to flow and divided into four parts in the shape of a cross. After having prepared, by a first wonder, the matter of the sacrament she was to receive, God completed His work with an even more striking miracle. Saint John the Baptist appeared beside the gushing water, and to reassure the fervent catechumen, he said to her: "Peace be with you"; and having made known to her, in a few words, the cause of his presence, he cr Saint Jean-Baptiste Biblical figure cited in comparison for his early sanctification. owned her happiness by conferring upon her himself a baptism far more effective than that which he once gave to the Jews in the waters of the Jordan.

The holy Forerunner, having fulfilled the functions of this extraordinary ministry, disappeared, leaving the new Christian given over to the transports of her joy and the outbursts of her gratitude. But, as if he had come to prepare, in this circumstance as well, the ways for the Savior of the world, as soon as he had withdrawn, Jesus Christ Himself, in the figure of a young man radiant with beauty, favored Saint Barbara with His presence, and, granting her a grace similar to that which several other Saints received, and in particular Saint Catherine, virgin and martyr, He gave her a palm and a gold ring, saying to her: "I come, in the name of my Father, to take you as my bride."

Enlightened by the vivid lights of faith, filled with the grace of baptism, and having become the spouse of Jesus Christ, Barbara would henceforth appear to us as entirely transformed in God, inspired only by the most perfect maxims of the Gospel. To place an impassable barrier between herself and the world, she renounced all earthly establishment and consecrated her body and soul forever to the love and service of God. It was not, in truth, for men that God reserved this privileged creature whom He had filled with His favors; He alone was worthy to gather this lily so pure. The generous sacrifice of Barbara being accomplished, and her divine Spouse having received her vows, there remained for her only to keep an inviolable fidelity to Him; it was for her, it is true, a sweet obligation; but how could she fulfill it in the midst of a family devoted to idolatry? The chaste spouse of Jesus Christ could not, without lively opposition, raise the standard of virginity.

The solitude in which Barbara lived did not make her forgotten by the world; those who aspired to obtain her as a wife had long since turned their eyes full of hope toward her dwelling. The more her father took care to hide her from the eyes of men, the more they occupied themselves with her. People loved to talk about her brilliant qualities; they spoke with admiration of her beauty, her wisdom, the nobility of her family, and the great wealth that was reserved for her. She was not long, therefore, in being sought in marriage by the most powerful lords of the province.

Dioscorus, despite his desire not to be separated from his daughter, thought it his duty to make overtures to her regarding her future and to speak to her of the advantageous proposals that had been made to him. Barbara was not only insensible to such communications, but she hastened to show the liveliest repugnance for marriage and in particular for anything that could separate her from her father. She aspired, she told him with effusion of heart, only to live with him, to be one day the support and consolation of his old age. Charmed by these words and touched to tears by the beautiful sentiments of his daughter, the father took care not to insist; he embraced his dear child tenderly and promised her to redouble his attention to make her stay more and more pleasant.

The young virgin, while expressing with sincerity her great affection for her father and her aversion to any matrimonial alliance, had had to keep silent about the principal motive for her conduct, but the days of peace and tranquility that she had thus been able to obtain were not of long duration. The young princes who desired to marry her and who had seen their first requests fail, made new entreaties and easily managed to win over Dioscorus. They represented to him the advantages of a rich and powerful alliance, which would make him live again surrounded by the respect and love of his descendants. Barbara, for her part, more and more strengthened by grace in her holy resolutions, repelled, as the first time, any proposal contrary to her vow and remained entirely insensible to the voice of flesh and blood. Her father still saw in her conduct neither obstinacy nor disobedience; he believed that he must use patience and have recourse to persuasion rather than violence, hoping that with time, new reflections would bring about a change in his daughter's dispositions.

Dioscorus, convinced that a prolonged absence on his part would make an impression on his child's heart, that it would stimulate in her the feeling of filial tenderness and finally make her more docile to his wishes, resolved to leave as soon as possible. Before leaving his daughter, he gave orders to have a bathroom prepared with luxury in the tower, so that nothing would be lacking of all that could provide for her well-being and prove the devotion of her father. But the young and noble captive was thinking of something quite different from her pleasures; she spent the days and part of the nights in prayer, in the singing of hymns and canticles: "I will bless the Lord at all times," she said with the Prophet, "and His praise shall always be in my mouth." The reading of the holy books was her delight; she especially loved to meditate on the eight beatitudes, that sublime summary of the evangelical maxims which presents to us eternal felicity under so many attractive aspects. She formed herself through her readings in the practice of all virtues, but especially of an unalterable sweetness and an unshakable patience, foreseeing the need she would one day have for them. With this thought, she nourished her mind especially with this maxim: "Blessed are those who suffer persecution for justice's sake." To be even better prepared for martyrdom, she mortified herself incessantly, fasting every day and habitually wearing a rough hair shirt. With such means, she tamed the rebellions of the flesh, accustomed herself to sacrifice, and ensured the victory and triumph of the spirit over the senses.

The Lord, for His part, in order to prepare the young heroine for the fulfillment of her great destiny, showered her with new graces; angels consoled and strengthened her through frequent visits; Jesus Christ Himself deigned to appear to her again several times. One day, He revealed Himself to her in the guise of a marvelous child full of grace, who, an instant later, appeared covered in wounds and blood. This spectacle left in her soul a mixture of sadness and joy, and inspired in her the most tender and ardent feelings of love for Jesus. Animated by a new zeal against idolatry, and completely filled with horror for the hideous objects of this infernal cult, she walked through the tower, which these simulacra of false gods placed everywhere made resemble a temple of idols. Armed then with a supernatural strength, she overturned these divinities of wood, stone, and metal, disfigured them, broke them under her feet, and threw these odious objects out the windows, repeating these words of the psalmist: "May those who make them become like them, and all who put their trust in them."

Filled with the spirit of God, and considering that the three divine persons are the source of all the lights that enlighten men, she wished to make this truth manifest through an external and visible symbol for all, in the highest part of her dwelling. She had a third window added to the top of the tower to the two that her father had had built there, so that a light of the same nature, penetrating inside through these three distinct and equal openings, would be the image of the unity of the divine light which, through the three adorable persons of the Holy Trinity, enlightens and vivifies all men.

This work completed, Barbara went to the new bath chamb er and had the sainte Trinité Central concept symbolized by the three windows of the tower. sign of the cross engraved on all sides by the workmen; she herself, with the thumb of her right hand, imprinted this sacred sign on a marble column, which softened under her delicate hand like wax exposed to the sun and thus miraculously received the sacred imprint, and at the same time, the mark of the Saint's right foot was deeply imprinted on the floor slab.

The distance of Dioscorus could not be of long duration; the thought of his daughter preoccupied him too much for him not to hasten to shorten the time of his absence, despite contrary intentions. Having therefore returned to Nicomedia, pressed by the feeling of paternal tenderness, he ran to embrace his child. Fear and hope shared his restless mind by turns: he longed to emerge from this painful uncertainty. Thus, after the first outpourings of his heart, he pressed Barbara to give him a positive answer to the proposals that his absence had left her time to meditate upon and appreciate, because the time had come to decide between the various parties who were waiting impatiently for her decision, and he absolutely wanted her to accept one of them without further delay.

While her father spoke, the young virgin, troubled, lowered her head. The redness of her brow and the sadness of her face showed well all that this speech had of painful for her heart. Finally breaking the silence, she protested that, being already united to a heavenly and truly divine Spouse, she would never abandon Him to accept an earthly and mortal spouse, and that she was prepared to endure the greatest evils and death itself rather than fail in her word and betray her oaths.

At this firm and courageous language, Dioscorus remained stunned, as if struck by a thunderbolt; he did not know if he should believe his ears, or if he was the plaything of a cruel dream; however, he contained the first movements of his anger, not daring to provoke explanations that would reveal to him the mystery whose existence he began to suspect. He had recourse to threats and promises, and he employed by turns what they had of the most seductive and the most terrible. But, seeing that all his entreaties were useless before the unshakable resolution of Barbara, he withdrew, rage in his heart.

It was quite another matter when, walking through the entire building, he saw everywhere the idols overturned, broken, and destroyed, and on all sides the cross, which he abhorred, engraved on the walls and columns of the tower. He questioned, he multiplied the questions, and he heard only this answer, "that everything was done by the order of Barbara." Transported with fury, he retraced his steps, and, with a feigned appearance of calm, he ordered his daughter to explain her conduct.

The young and fervent Christian was trembling with emotion, but also all ablaze with zeal for the glory of her divine Spouse and for the salvation of the soul of her beloved father. Hoping that God had finally provided the opportunity she had been waiting for for a long time, she declared herself a Christian with a courageous frankness, and strove to show the vanity of the cult of idols and to establish the truth of the religion she had just embraced.

"How," she said respectfully to her father, "how can you regard as gods statues of gold and silver, of wood and stone, these vain idols that have eyes and do not see, ears and do not hear, feet and cannot walk? How can you worship, as divinities, images of mortal men whose lives have been defiled by so many crimes and whose examples you would not want me to imitate? Ah! my dear father, renounce all these shameful superstitions, and, like me, leave the darkness of idolatry to open your eyes to the true light; recognize the true God; render to Him the tribute of adoration that belongs to Him alone; pay homage to the Father, to the Son, to the Holy Spirit, to these three distinct persons who are but one God. It is this mystery that I wanted to represent, although in a very imperfect manner, by having a third window added to the other two, in the upper part of the tower; I wanted to make it understood that, as through these three windows the same sunlight arrives in the interior of the building, so the three persons of the Holy Trinity are the unique source of the true light that enlightens every man coming into this world. The Son of God, the second person of this adorable Trinity, became man to deliver us by His death from sin and its terrible consequences and to save us. It is to Him that I have consecrated my virginity; He is called Jesus Christ, and I am a Christian forever."

These words, which Dioscorus had the strength not to interrupt, made him realize the full extent of the supposed misfortune he dreaded. Barbara had just declared it: she was a Christian. Not knowing what course to take, he fell into a deeper despondency than the first time, when he had only had simple indications of the young virgin's change. Still dominated by his extreme tenderness for an only daughter, the sole heiress to his titles and great wealth, he painted for her the most frightening picture of all that he had to fear, for himself and all his kin, from an emperor who was a fierce enemy of Christianity, should he learn that it was practiced even within the house of Dioscorus; and he accompanied his words with tears and supplications. But all was in vain: tears, supplications, promises, threats, human considerations, nothing could shake the intrepid heroine. Then, like a torrent whose impetuous waves have long been held back and which, finally managing to break its dikes, brings desolation and death everywhere, the fury of Dioscorus knew no bounds. Forgetting that he was a father, he listened only to his despair and his rage, which immediately transformed him into a cruel tyrant. He seized his sword to pierce his daughter, and swore by all the gods that he would be her executioner. Barbara burned with the desire to shed her blood for Jesus Christ; but, frightened at the thought of seeing her father stain himself with an enormous crime if she were immolated by his own hand, she begged the Lord to come to her aid and deliver her from this pressing danger. Her prayers were promptly answered.

While she was fleeing before her father, a new miracle caused him to lose sight of her just as he was about to reach her. A rock, which she could not cross, split to provide her passage and immediately resumed its former position; at the same moment, Barbara was transported as if by an impetuous wind to the summit of the mountain, where a deep cave, masked by thick bushes, served as her retreat. These striking marks of divine protection in favor of the poor fugitive should have calmed the wrath of the persecutor and made him return to himself. But, like a ferocious animal thirsty for blood and carnage, he listened only to his fury, and let himself be carried away by the thirst for vengeance that devoured him. Searching for his victim on all sides, he scoured every path, questioning every retreat. Overcome with fatigue, exhausted by the violence of his passion, he was finally about to withdraw, despairing for the moment of seizing his prey, when he caught sight of two young shepherds. Immediately he ran to them, pressed them with questions, frightened them with his threats, until one of the two pointed with his finger, trembling, to the place where the Saint was hiding.

At this sign, Dioscorus revived his strength and rushed toward the cavern where his daughter had taken refuge. Hearing him coming, she left her retreat and advanced, full of courage and dignity, to meet him, imitating the divine Master who, in the Garden of Olives, went out to meet his enemies. The sight of this innocent child who threw herself at his knees, far from appeasing him, seemed to redouble his anger; like a ferocious beast, he seized his prey, overwhelmed her with blows, trampled her underfoot, dragged her by the hair along the mountain paths, among stones and thorns, and thus brought her back, half-dead, to his house; there, he threw her into a dark dungeon, loaded with heavy chains that bound her tightly.

However, the tender victim, in the midst of these cruel treatments, did not utter a complaint and maintained an admirable firmness. She considered herself happy, following the example of Saint Paul and the Apostles, to be a prisoner for the cause of God. Her divine Spouse did not abandon her in her distress; he sent an angel to console her, to relieve her, and to revive her exhausted strength: "Do not fear," he said to her, "Christian virgin, God will always be with you, to protect you and to support you in your battles." She herself implored the help of heaven for her final struggles, and repeated with confidence these words of the Prophet: "Lord, my soul has clung to you; may your all-powerful hand be my support."

Saint Barbara has already taken the first steps into the bloody arena of the martyrs; she will walk there for two more days, according to her desires, to pay homage, through three days of combat, to the three persons of the Holy Trinity, the constant object of her tender devotion. Dioscorus will continue to conduct himself toward her as an unnatural and barbaric father. If he had followed only his own inclinations, he would have promptly taken her life himself; but he feared, on one hand, to make himself odious to his fellow citizens, to appear to encroach upon the rights of the emperor's representative and to irritate him if he acted without his consent; he was anxious, on the other hand, to manifest to the eyes of all his attachment to the gods of the empire. Guided by these vari ous motives, he h président Marcien Advisor to Emperor Valerian. astens to find the president Marcian, and summarizing in a few words his grievances against the young virgin, he accuses her of having outraged the gods and abandoned their worship to embrace a religion proscribed by the decrees of the princes; he asks at the same time that an officer of justice come to seize the accused to lead her before the judges, and that she be treated according to all the rigor of the edicts issued by the emperors against the followers of Christ.

The Saint soon found herself in the hands of the satellites of her new persecutor. Raising then her spirit toward God to implore his help: "Lord," she said, "be with me, do not abandon me; help me to conquer my enemies, who are also yours; for it is because of you that the impious pursue me; clothe me in divine armor, so that nothing may triumph over my weakness. If I emerge victorious from the combat, all the glory will be yours, and the infidels themselves will be forced to recognize your power and to pay it homage."

Barbara arrived before the president, bound like a criminal and all bruised from the blows she had received the day before. When Marcian saw this young girl, whose modesty and sweetness equaled her beauty, he was touched with compassion: far from treating her with extreme rigor, as he had agreed with Dioscorus, he ordered her bonds to be removed, blamed the severity that had been used toward her, and neglected nothing to win her over with gentleness. "How," he said to her, "could you have let yourself be seduced by the vile sect of the Christians, you, the daughter of such a powerful lord? Why sadden the old age of your father, who had for you such a tender and lively affection? Do you not see that by persevering in your error, you will deprive yourself of all the advantages that the nobility of your birth and your rare merit would procure for you? Become wiser; renounce your vain superstitions, and hasten to sacrifice to the gods to avoid a death that is equally shameful and cruel." The intrepid Christian replied: "I offer every day a sacrifice of praise to my God, creator of heaven and earth and of all they contain. Your gods are but vain simulacra, works of the hands of men; under their name, you adore demons or men dishonored by all sorts of vices. As for the goods of which you speak to me, I make no more account of them than of the mud one tramples underfoot. I desire, I esteem only the true and eternal goods that Jesus Christ, my Lord and my God, promises me."

These noble and courageous words irritated the governor all the more, as he saw his advances thus despised and rejected by a young girl. From then on, keeping no more restraints, he carried himself toward the generous Christian with such excesses that only hell could have inspired them in him, and the account of which one could not hear without being seized with horror. He had her stripped of her clothes, and so cruelly scourged, that the blood, flowing in great streams, trickled onto the pavement; then he ordered that the numerous wounds with which the rods had covered her body be torn with iron claws. The pagans themselves could not hold back their tears, and they expressed loudly the feelings of compassion that the frightful tortures of the young victim inspired in them.

Saint Barbara alone, as if ravished out of herself, appeared insensible to all the torments. She did not cease to manifest her contempt for the idols and to sing the praises of the God of the Christians. She cried out: "Blessed be the Lord, who has heard my prayer and who has not removed his mercy from me! This is the day I was waiting for, that I called for with my most ardent wishes, and which is much more agreeable to me than all the feasts of the world!"

The governor, whom the invincible courage of the young athlete rendered more furious, ordered that she be suspended in the air, feet upward, that her head be struck with iron hammers until the blood flowed from it on all sides; that after having placed a thick layer of salt on her wounds and placed a rough hair shirt on her flesh, she be rolled all bruised on fragments of broken vases, and finally that she be thrown into a narrow prison, with shackles on her feet, so that she could not take any moment of rest. He believed he would thus weaken her courage. But the Saint, joyful and triumphant, continued to despise the torments and to applaud herself for being judged worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus Christ. She occupied herself with pious thoughts, and fortified herself by prayer in her generous dispositions, when she saw herself surrounded, in the middle of the night, by a brilliant light. The Savior himself appeared to her for the third time, and came to communicate to her new courage and new strength, to prepare her for the final combats she would still have to sustain.

A lady named Juliana, having been a witness to the supernatural courage of our Saint, understood that only God could have inspi red and Julienne A Christian converted by the example of Barbara and martyred with her. sustained it, and that, consequently, the religion for which one was disposed to fight so generously was divine. Fully penetrated by these thoughts, she hastened to declare loudly that she belonged to Jesus Christ, and that she wanted to live and die a Christian. Inflamed thus suddenly with the desire for martyrdom, she was associated with the final sufferings and the triumph of Saint Barbara.

The very next day, Barbara, taken from her prison, was led again before the tribunal of Marcian; but what was not the astonishment of this cruel man, when he saw her perfectly healed of the wounds with which he had torn her the day before! Not wanting to bear witness to God and to the truth, he had the boldness to attribute this marvel to his chimerical divinities. "See," he said to the victim, "what care our gods take of you and how they have brought you out of the sad state to which you were reduced. Be therefore grateful to them, and, touched by such a great benefit, do not refuse them your adorations any longer." Barbara, indignant at this sacrilegious deceit, taking a grave and solemn tone of voice, replied without hesitation: "How are you foolish enough to dare to speak thus? What! You attribute my healing to your vain idols, which could not defend themselves when my weak hands burned them and threw them shamefully out of my dwelling? No, no, it is not your chimerical gods who have operated the prodigy of goodness of which you speak; it is Jesus Christ, my Lord and my God, who has come to the aid of his humble servant and who has healed my wounds. It is he whose omnipotence will resurrect me when you have put me to death; thus I sacrifice myself willingly now for his love, because I know that he will make me live eternally happy with him in heaven."

This admirable response put the finishing touch to the fury of Marcian. To the torments of the day before, renewed with more relentlessness, he had others added, even more terrible. Thus, after a hail of blows had again broken, in a way, the body of Saint Barbara; after the iron claws had a second time torn and confounded her bloody wounds, she is stretched on a rack. Her sides are burned with ardent torches, and blades of iron reddened in the fire are applied to her whole body. The intrepidity of the heroine seemed to grow in proportion to the increase of her torments. She drew this supernatural strength from her union with God, and from her fervent prayers. "Lord," she said, "I can do nothing of myself, but I can do all things in you; do not turn your adorable face from me; do not withdraw your holy Spirit from me." She also recommended to God Juliana, the companion of her martyrdom, consoled her, and encouraged her to persevere until the end.

One might have believed that the barbaric governor, however inventive his spirit was in the matter of torments, was incapable of finding new ones to torture his victim, and that he had exhausted against her all the torments that the malice of his heart could have suggested to him; but the demon, the enemy of God and of men, who was a murderer from the beginning, took possession of his soul; he inspires him and drags him into new and inconceivable excesses of cruelty. The order is therefore given to tear, with burning pincers, the breasts from the young virgin, and, in this frightful state, to parade her naked through the streets and squares of the city, striking her incessantly on her raw wounds, and finally to cut off her head.

Upon hearing this infernal sentence pronounced, Barbara was penetrated with deep sorrow; the atrocious cruelties exercised on her poor body were nothing to her, in comparison with what her modesty would have to suffer from the execution of the last orders of her executioner. Thus it was with a sort of joy that she presented her chaste breasts to the burning pincers that were going to disfigure her and make of her body an object of horror; likewise she felt a true satisfaction in thinking that soon, all covered with blood by the rods that would tear her miraculously healed flesh, she would be unrecognizable. However, she prayed with ardor; she asked her divine Spouse to guard the honor of his spouse and not to permit that she be thus exposed to public derision: "Lord," she said, "you who cover the sky with clouds and envelop the earth in impenetrable darkness, who give to the flowers of the fields their magnificent adornment, come to my aid in this critical moment. In the name of your infinite goodness, veil the body of your servant, so that it may not be exposed to the impudic gazes of the infidels. Deliver me from the criminal and shameful mockeries of this brazen crowd that surrounds me."

The Lord, who had until then led the modest virgin as if by the hand, hastened to grant her ardent prayer and to grant her a brilliant help in this pressing need. After having healed all her wounds a second time, he surrounded her with such splendor that she appeared as if clothed in a long robe and enveloped in a vast mantle, which not only hid her from the avid gazes of the pagans, but also dazzled the eyes of her guards. At the sight of such an unexpected miracle, Marcian was plunged into stupefaction. Obliged to admit himself defeated, he uttered cries of rage and despair, mixed with disjointed and disparate words. He pronounced the names of magician, seductress, enchantress, which were repeated by the most hardened of those who surrounded him. Fearing to cause the multiplication of prodigies whose eloquent significance could detach a great number of people from paganism, as often happened in such circumstances, he took the decision to finish it promptly, and gave order to the executioner to cut off, without further delay, the head of this indomitable virgin.

Saint Barbara could hear nothing more agreeable. Death, so feared by the wicked, was the object of all her desires. It was going to put an end to her cruel trials and make her enter into possession of the immortal crown of virgins, of the palm of martyrs; it was finally going to reunite her forever with her celestial Spouse.

The supreme hour of Saint Barbara had arrived; the death sentence was passed; it was now only a matter of proceeding with her execution. But, who would believe it? It is her father who will deal her the death blow. After having witnessed all the tortures of his daughter and demanded that she be treated with the greatest rigor; after having applauded all the acts of barbarity exercised against her, her own father, the fanatical Dioscorus, wants to be her final executioner. His request makes all those who hear it recoil in horror, and yet it is accepted. The president orders that Barbara be handed over to him at once, and, without wasting time, the wretch proceeds to the accomplishment of his horrible design. He seizes the innocent victim, drags her out of the city, escorted by a retinue worthy of him, and leads her to a nearby mountain. Our Saint, far from offering the slightest resistance, walks with a firm and assured step, joy in her heart, like an athlete who, after having fought well, is going to receive the palm of victory. She unites her sacrifice to that of Jesus Christ, who was also led out of the city and climbed a mountain to consummate there, on the cross, the work of our redemption.

Arrived at the summit of the mountain, she knelt down to prepare herself to receive the fatal blow, and, understanding by herself how necessary the help of the sacraments is to go and appear before the sovereign Judge, and how painful it is to be deprived of them, she asked, for all those who would honor her martyrdom, the grace to receive, at the hour of death, the divine viaticum in holy dispositions. "Lord Jesus," she said, "infinite goodness, you who are the solid foundation of the hope and salvation of those who believe in you, grant, I pray you, that all those who will invoke you in memory of my sufferings and my death, may feel, in all circumstances, the effects of your mercy, and especially that at the end of their life they may receive with a truly contrite and humbled heart the last sacraments and that they may be delivered from the snares of the devil. Amen." A celestial voice immediately replied: "Come, beloved of the Lord; come to enjoy eternal rest in the bosom of your heavenly Father; come to receive the crown that you have earned; the door of heaven is open to you. Everything you have asked will be granted to you."

These words filled the holy martyr with consolation. All those present heard them distinctly, and several of them, touched to the depths of their souls, proclaimed the divinity of Jesus Christ and were converted. As for Dioscorus, deaf to any voice other than that of his hatred against Christianity and his rage against his innocent daughter, he struck her with his axe with such violence that with a single blow he made her head roll into the dust. This gentle victim had turned toward him, bowing respectfully and commending herself to God with these words: "Lord, I commit my spirit into your hands." This supreme prayer was expiring on her lips when the death blow separated her beautiful soul from her virginal body, and, while her blood flowed onto the earth, the angels, who were awaiting her deliverance, received her soul and carried it to heaven in triumph. This glorious martyrdom was consummated, as we have seen, in the year 235 of the Christian era, on December 4, the day on which the Church honors her memory.

If the death of the Saints is precious in the eyes of God, that of the wicked can only be frightful; while the former puts the Saints in possession of eternal life, the latter delivers the impious to the avenging blows of God's justice. The criminal Dioscorus, whose name will be forever odious, had a terrible experience of this. Heaven, which had applauded the generous combats of Saint Barbara, and which had opened to receive her with honor in the abode of rest and peace, shuddered with horror at the sight of the parricide proud of his crime and all covered in the blood of his child. The wrath of God could not endure him on earth any longer. He was descending from the mountain, holding in his hands the bloodstained axe, instrument of his final crime, exalting his gods, cursing the Christian name, and applauding himself for the murder he had just committed. Suddenly, in a cloudless sky and while the sun was shining in the vault of the firmament, a lightning bolt flashed with a lugubrious fire, and while a violent clap of thunder shook the mountain and spread terror everywhere, the lightning struck the culprit, consumed him in an instant, and, in a black whirlwind, dissipated his impure ashes so much that no trace of them remained. The governor Marcian, who had associated himself so cruelly with the same crime, was enveloped in the same punishment. The fire of heaven likewise did justice to him.

Saint Barbara is represented: 1° having near her cannons, powder barrels, fuses, bombs, grenades, we shall say why in a moment; — 2° carrying a ciborium or a chalice surmounted by the host, as if she were bringing or guaranteeing the holy Viaticum to those who implore her. According to her legend, the Saint, at the moment of her final torture, had specifically asked God for this favor for those who would recommend themselves to her, and a heavenly voice had guaranteed her the effect of her prayer; — 3° leaning against a tower pierced with three windows; we have said why; — 4° having at her feet her father struck down by lightning.

Saint Barbara is mainly invoked against lightning and sudden death (in allusion to that of her father); consequently, she is the natural patroness of all artisans whose trade exposes them to sudden death: pyrotechnicians, artillerymen, founders, armorers, roofers, carpenters, masons, miners. Palm players and racket players also honored Saint Barbara as their patroness, no doubt because the game of paume is quite risky for human life when played vigorously. A pun, as there are quite a few in our popular devotions, led to Saint Barbara being taken as the patroness of brushmakers, broom-makers, and hatters (because brushes and hats are made with various types of hair; which naturally leads to the idea of a beard).

[APPENDIX: CULT AND RELICS.]

The body and head of the glorious Martyr were embalmed by a pious Christian named Valentinian, then buried with respect in a place called Gelasse, twelve miles from Euchaita, a city near Nicomedia, or, according to others, in Heliopolis. Numerous miracles revealed the existence of this treasure, and countless sick people obtained such striking cures there that the place of her burial acquired, from the 7th century, a very great celebrity. So many wonders prompted the people to enrich Nicomedia with her relics. They placed them in a shrine, which they covered with plates of gold and silver and precious stones. They suspended it from the vaults of the temple, with chains to which were attached lamps that were always lit and where precious aromatics burned. The body of the Saint was transferred, according to some, from Nicomedia to Rome and from Rome to Piacenza. According to others, whose opinion is much more probable and better supported, the translation of her relics took place from Nicomedia to Constantinople and from Constantinople to Venice.

Saint Barbara is the patroness of the Metz region. Her cult likely dates back to the time of the Crusades and the expeditions of the Venetians, Genoese, and Pisans, who, by bringing a large number of Saint's bodies from the East, made their cult famous in our regions. For several centuries, Saint Barbara had a famous sanctuary, a short distance from Metz, in the village that still bears her name today. Numerous troops of p Metz City where the saint received his theological training. ilgrims were seen flocking there every year, especially during the Pentecost holidays. The people of Metz invoked her in all the calamities that afflicted the city. The lords and dukes of Lorraine also frequently visited her sanctuary at the beginning or end of some great enterprise. These pilgrimages were coupled with all the ducal pomp; the majesty of the Lorraine princes was established in all its splendor to render more honor to the patroness of the Metz region; Metz-la-Riche welcomed them magnificently; the nobility of Metz escorted them, gave them presents, and did the honors of their opulent city. In 1449, John of Calabria, son of the good King René, governor for his father of the duchies of Bar and Lorraine, upon returning from his brilliant Normandy campaign, where he had fought under the eyes of Charles VII, came to Sainte-Barbe in the great company of lords, knights, gentlemen, and squires. He made an offering of a twenty-pound wax candle and a gold crown. In 1472, Nicholas I, Duke of Lorraine, upon returning from his trip to Flanders, passed through Sainte-Barbe with his troops and wished to hear Mass there. Three years later, the young Duke René II came there to invoke the help of the illustrious patroness against Charles the Bold, D uke of René II Duke of Lorraine and protector of Hugues des Hazards. Burgundy, who was threatening his states. In 1494, Philippa of Guelders, his pious wife, wishing to fulfill a vow, came there with a retinue of two hundred people, lords and ladies from the highest houses of Lorraine. On February 23, 1515, Claude of Guise, son of René II and Philippa of Guelders, and father of the illustriou s Francis of Gu Claude de Guise Lorraine nobleman who went on a pilgrimage after the Battle of Marignano. ise, the defender of Metz, went to Sainte-Barbe before his departure for Italy, where he was to accompany Francis I with the elite of the Lorraine nobility. He took part in the Battle of Marignano at the head of the landsknechts. After the combat, he was found under a heap of dead, his body covered with twenty-two wounds and trampled under the horses' feet. In the midst of such pressing danger, the young hero promised God, if He delivered him, to make the pilgrimage to Sainte-Barbe and Saint-Nicolas-de-Port, on foot and armed as on the day of the battle, and to offer a wax candle of his own weight. Claude of Guise arrived in Metz on May 8, 1519, and the next day he was led to Sainte-Barbe by several lords of the city. He also offered his life-sized wooden statue. However, the church of Sainte-Barbe was far from matching the celebrity of the place and the influx of pilgrims. Claude Baudoche, lord of the place and the last gentleman of this illustrious and opulent family that had given so many magistrates to the Republic, conceived the design of raising a sanctuary to the patroness of the Metz region more worthy of her and the homage of the people. In 1516, the foundations of the new church were laid; the plans were taken from the church of the Grands-Carmes, the work of Pierre Perrat, the great architect of Metz. Nothing was spared to make it one of the most magnificent sanctuaries in the country. Valentin Bousch, who created such sumptuous stained glass windows at the Cathedral of Metz, was commissioned at the same time to execute those of Sainte-Barbe. While the church was under construction, it was visited in 1523 by the good Duke Anthony of Lorraine and the Duchess Renée of Bourbon, sister of the Constable of France. Anthony was accompanied by his young brother Francis, Count of Lambesc, barely seventeen years old, who was to succumb a few months later at the Battle of Pavia. The illustrious pilgrims were well received there by the lords of the city. After hearing Mass, the Duke and Duchess made rich offerings to Saint Barbara. The cathedral chapter, which had acquired the sanctuary upon the death of Claude Baudoche, offered it to the Abbey of Saint-Arnaud, which took possession of it in 1634 and founded a priory there that lasted until 1790. The church, spared by the revolutions, fell in 1823 under the pickaxe of the restorers, who replaced it with one of their barn-churches. The bell tower is the only remnant of this magnificent church. Some fragments of the stained glass windows were saved from the barbaric ignorance of the iconoclasts of the century and transported to the cathedral to serve in the restoration of its sumptuous windows.

We have used, to compose this biography, the History of Saint Barbara, by Father Villemot, and local notes due to the kindness of Father Noël, of the clergy of Metz.