Saint Barbara

Saint Barbara
St. Barbara with her attribute – three-windowed tower, central panel of St. Barbara Altarpiece (1447), National Museum in Warsaw
Saint, Virgin, Martyr
Born	mid third century
Died	late third century to early fourth century (executed by her father) Variously given
Venerated in	Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodoxy, Aglipayan Church & Anglicanism
Feast	December 4
Attributes	Three-windowed tower, palm, chalice, lightning, a crown of martyrdom
Patronage	Armourers, Architects, Artillerymen, Firemen, Mathematicians, Miners, Tunnellers, Chemical Engineers, Prisoners

Saint Barbara (Greek: Αγία Βαρβάρα), Feast Day December 4, known in the Eastern Orthodox Church as the Great Martyr Barbara, was an early Christian Greek saint and martyr. Accounts place her in the 3rd century in the Greek city Nicomedia, present-day Turkey or in Heliopolis of Phoenicia, present-day Baalbek, Lebanon. There is no reference to her in the authentic early Christian writings nor in the original recension of Saint Jerome's martyrology. Her name can be traced to the 7th century, and veneration of her was common, especially in the East, from the 9th century.

Because of doubts about the historicity of her legend, she was removed from the General Roman Calendar in the 1969 revision, though not from the Catholic Church's list of saints.

Saint Barbara is often portrayed with miniature chains and a tower. As one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, Barbara continues to be a popular saint in modern times, perhaps best known as the patron saint of armourers, artillerymen, military engineers, miners and others who work with explosives because of her old legend's association with lightning, and also of mathematicians. Many of the thirteen miracles in a 15th-century French version of her story turn on the security she offered that her devotees would not die without making confession and receiving extreme unction.