Barbara was brought up a pagan. She was a very beautiful young woman, and many princes came to ask her father for her hand in marriage. But she refused to marry. Her father built a tower in which he guarded his daughter. She gave herself to prayer and study, and later was baptized secretly.
When her father heard of this, he drew his sword to kill his daughter, but God saved her.
Later her father brought her before a judge, who said to her: “Choose either to offer to the gods or to be put to death by cruel torments.” Barbara answered: “I offer myself to my God, Jesus Christ, who created heaven and earth and all things.”
After Barbara was beaten, our Lord came to comfort her in a vision. Her father came for her and took her to a mountain, where he himself beheaded her while she was praying to God to have mercy on his soul.
Barbara was martyred in the year 235. She is invoked against lightning and fire.
From the Book of Saints by father Lovasik. S.V.D.
Prayer of him who suffers
Saint Barbara, many people around me lie. Teach me to resemble you by hating falsehood and treachery, and preferring everything to them – even humiliation, even poverty, even social failure.
Saint Barbara, many people around me hate. Teach me to be like you by returning good for evil and by praying for those who hate me, remembering that Christ said: “If you do not forgive, you will not be forgiven”, and “The measure you use will be the measure used for you”.
Saint Barbara, I am crushed with suffering, and cannot bear any more. Teach me that suffering offered with love is alms, and that it can save a soul. Christ offered me such alms on the cross, and you imitated him in the torture chamber. This is how he saved the world, and how you converted your country.
Help me to remember under what conditions you lived: It will give me courage. Then I will see that I too, can achieve great things with that I have, and that if I do not like what is happening. I can change it by my hidden acts – even though I am small, even though I am alone.
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