TODAY is the feast day of St. Barbara. Like many Catholic women in history, this saint of the third century was no stranger to controversy:

Barbara — one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers — was the beautiful daughter of a rich and powerful pagan named Dioscuros. She grew up in Nikomedia (in modern Turkey). To keep her a virgin, her father locked her in a tower when he was away, a tower with only two windows. Upon his return from one journey, he found three windows in the tower instead of two. When he asked Barbara about this, she confessed that she’d become a Christian after being baptized by a priest disguised as a physician, and that she’d asked that a third window be made as a symbol of the Holy Trinity.

She was then denounced by her father, who was ordered by the local authorities to put her to death. She escaped from her tower, but her father caught and killed her. When he dealt the death blow, he was immediately struck by lightning. (Source)

St. Barbara is a patroness of the dying. For approved prayers for her intercession, go here.

St. Barbara, pray for us!

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