Feast of SAINT BARBARA

Although not a Carmelite, St. Barbara was formerly honored liturgically by the Discalced Carmelites. Her feast was elevated from a commemoration to that of the 3rd class in the Tridentine Discalced calendar. The 2004 edition of the “Martyrologium Romanum” retains her commemoration on the traditional date of December 4th. Its liturgical celebration is not impeded by either Advent (since it is before December 17th) or the optional memorial of St. John Damascene. However, the text listed below may not be used in any official liturgy of the Church.

PRAYER.

WE beseech Thee, O Lord 
that the intercession of the Blessed Barbara, 
Thy Virgin and Martyr, 
may protect us from every misfortune, 
that, through her mediation, 
we may be made worthy, 
by true repentance joined with a good confession, 
to receive the glorious Sacrament 
of the most holy body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
before the day of our death.

LESSON IV.

Barbara, a maiden of Nicomedia, was the daughter of Dioscorus, a man of noble birth, but an idolater. By means of the things that are visible, she easily reached, with the help of divine grace, the knowledge of those that are invisible, and therefore she began to devote herself to God alone, and to heavenly things. Her father, wishing to protect her striking beauty from all intercourse with men, shut her up in a tower, where the pious maiden gave her time to prayer and meditation, trying to please God alone, whom she had chosen as her spouse. She refused with scorn several noble alliances which her father proposed to her, and he, trusting that his daughter’s resolution might be the better overcome by his absence, journeyed into foreign parts. Before his departure, he ordered a bath to be built, that she might lack no comfort.

LESSON V.

During her father’s absence, Barbara ordered a third window, in honor of the Holy Trinity, to be added to the two which had been cut in the tower, and she commanded that the rim of the bath should be guarded with the sign of the Holy Cross. When Dioscorus saw this novelty and learned the reason of it upon his return, he flew into such a rage with his daughter that he drew his sword, attacked her, and had well-nigh dealt her a deadly blow. God, however, was at hand; a mighty rock opened to Barbara as she fled, making a path by which she could reach the top of the mountain, where she hid in a cave. Her father, however, found her later. After pitilessly kicking her sides and beating her upon the back with his fists, he dragged her by the hair over steep and dangerous paths, and gave her up to the judge, Marcianus, to be punished.

LESSON VI.

Here every temptation was put before her, but in vain. Then the judge commanded that she should be stripped naked and scourged with cords ; that her wounds should be rubbed with potsherds, and that she should then be thrown into prison. Christ appeared to her in prison, surrounded with a great light. He comforted her in a wonderful manner, and strengthened her to bear her sufferings. Upon seeing what passed, Juliana, a married woman, was converted to the faith and shared the same palm. Barbara’s limbs were torn with iron hooks, her sides were scorched with torches, and she was beaten on the head. with hammers; but amid these tortures she consoled her companion, and encouraged her to fight bravely to the end. At last, their breasts having been cut off, both women were dragged naked through the public streets, and were then beheaded. Barbara’s wicked father, void of all pity, severed his daughter’s neck with his own hands. His savage cruelty, however, went not long unpunished, for he was struck by lightning at the same moment, and died on the very spot. A part of the bones of the blessed Martyr are preserved in the holy church of the Lateran, together with her veil, while her head is reverently guarded in the oratory at the “Holy of Holies.”

Taken from the book “Saints of Carmel” (BOSTON: JOHN CASHMAN & CO., 1896).