26 Facts About Saint Barbara

Saint Barbara, known in the Eastern Orthodox Church as the Great Martyr Barbara, was an early Christian Greek saint and martyr.

Saint Barbara is often portrayed with miniature chains and a tower to symbolize her father imprisoning her.

Saint Barbara was buried by a Christian, Valentinus, and her tomb became the site of miracles.

The name of Saint Barbara was known in Rome in the 7th century; her cult can be traced to the 9th century, at first in the East.

In 2022, Saint Barbara was officially added to the Episcopal Church liturgical calendar with a feast day she shares with Catherine of Alexandria, and Margaret of Antioch on 24 November.

Saint Barbara is venerated by Catholics who face the danger of sudden and violent death at work.

Saint Barbara is invoked against thunder and lightning and all accidents arising from explosions of gunpowder.

Saint Barbara became the patron saint of artillerymen, armourers, military engineers, gunsmiths, and anyone else who worked with cannon and explosives.

Saint Barbara was the Patron saint of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps of the British Army, a church being dedicated to her, initially at Hilsea Barracks Portsmouth, and later being moved to Backdown in Surrey, when the Corps moved its training establishment there.

Saint Barbara is recognized as the patron saint of the field artillerymen of the Marine Corps 1st Marine Division, who commemorate Saint Barbara's Day with a dinner and the traditional preparation artillery punch.

Saint Barbara is the patron saint of the United States Field Artillery Association.

Saint Barbara is revered as a patron saint of miners and in extension, the geosciences in general, including the tunneling industry.

The City of Santa Saint Barbara got its name from the early Spanish navigator Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo.

Saint Barbara chose to name the spot after the patron of that day, Saint Barbara.

The Presidio of Santa Saint Barbara was built in 1782, with the mission of defending the Second Military District in Spanish California.

Santa Saint Barbara County was one of the twenty-seven original counties of California, formed in 1850 at the time of statehood.

In Ukraine, alleged relics of Saint Barbara are kept in St Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery.

Saint Barbara is the patron saint of the northern Greek city of Drama, where a sweet called, which resembles a more liquid form of koliva, is prepared and consumed on her feast day.

The feast of Santa Barbara is the main religious feast of Paterno, in the province of Catania, dedicated to Santa Barbara, the patron saint of the city, originally from Nicomedia, in Bithynia and martyred according to tradition in 306 by father Dioscuro.

The Feast of Saint Barbara, is celebrated amongst Middle Eastern Christians in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, and Turkey.

The general belief among Lebanese Christians is that Saint Barbara disguised herself in numerous characters to elude the Romans who were persecuting her, and the tradition states that when the saint was escaping from the army of the pagan king in Baalbek, she passed in a field of wheat, and the wheat grew miraculously in order to hide her footprints from the soldiers, and this is the reason of serving the traditional wheat dessert on the feast day.

St Faustina wrote that St Saint Barbara appeared to her on 22 August 1937.

Saint Barbara is mentioned in Thomas Pynchon's novel Against the Day.

Saint Barbara is mentioned in Federico Garcia Lorca's play La Casa de Bernarda Alba.

Major Saint Barbara is a play by George Bernard Shaw in which the title character, an officer in the Salvation Army, grapples with the moral dilemma of whether this Christian denomination should accept donations from her father, who is an armaments manufacturer.

Saint Barbara's story is mentioned in a live version of The Hold Steady's song "Don't Let Me Explode" from Lollapalooza.