Today's Birthdays

one click shows all of today's celebrity birthdays

Browse All Birthdays

43,625    Actors
27,931    Actresses
4,867    Composers
7,058    Directors
842    Footballers
221    Racing drivers
925    Singers
9,111    Writers

Get FamousLikeMe on your website
One line of code gets FamousLikeMe on your website. Find out more.

Subscribe to Daily updates


Add to Google

privacy policy



Famous Like Me > Actress > B > Barbara

Profile of Barbara on Famous Like Me

 
Name: Barbara  
   
Also Know As:
   
Date of Birth: 23rd June 1979
   
Place of Birth: Ukraine
   
Profession: Actress
 
 
From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia
Saint Barbara
Virgin, martyr
Born ?
Died Third century
Venerated in Formerly, by Roman Catholics
Feast Formerly, December 4
Attributes Tower, palm, chalice
Patron saint of Gunners, miners, military engineers, anyone who works at risk of sudden and violent death
St. Barbara and her burning tower

Saint Barbara was a likely fictional Christian saint and martyr. Said to have lived in the third century, she appears in historical records for the first time in the seventh century.

Her story says that Barbara was a beautiful girl who dwelt in the city of Nicomedia in Asia Minor. Dioscurus, her cruel pagan father, had her shut in a tower in order to preserve her from suitors. She nevertheless secretly converted to Christianity. Her father commanded that she be built a bath-house, so that she would not have to use the public baths. The design for the bath-house originally had two windows, but Barbara had a third installed to commemorate the Trinity. Her father, seeing this change, discovered that she was a Christian. He had her taken to a Roman imperial magistrate during a persecution of Christians, who ordered her to be beheaded, and directed that her father carry out the sentence himself. He did so, but was struck dead by lightning in divine retribution.

Her association with lightning caused her to be invoked against lightning and fire; by association, she also became the patron of artillery and mining. Her feast was formerly celebrated on December 4; in the 1969 reform of the Roman Catholic liturgy it was downgraded to a purely local celebration, and her name was dropped from the litany of saints. She was formerly one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers.

She is depicted in art as standing by a tower with three windows, carrying a palm branch and a chalice; sometimes cannons are depicted by her side. Because of her identification with lightning and cannonry, in Santería she is identified with the god Shango, god of lightning and war.

In the Spanish language, the word "santabarbara" means the magazine of a ship or fortress. It was customary to have the statue of Saint Barbara at the magazine to protect the ship or fortress from suddenly exploding.

External link

  • Golden Legend: Saint Barbara
  • The Feast of St. Barbara

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Barbara