Narrative of St Barbara

tr. Lewis, 1900

Chapter 6

Again the story of Saint Barbara in Heliopolis.

During the reign of the bad and wicked Aximus, there was a governor [named] Aquinus, and there was a great persecution of the Christians. And there was a certain man in an Eastern land, in the city which is called Heliopolis, and he lived in a village named Glasius, which is twelve miles distant from Euchaita, and his name was Dioscurus; and he was very rich, and he was benevolent, and he had an only daughter, and her name was Barbara. And her father made a high tower for her, and shut her up in it, so that she might not be seen of men, because of the exceeding fairness of her beauty. But some of the great and distinguished men of the city came to the father of Saint Barbara, and tried to persuade him about a marriage union. But when these things were spoken of to her father, he went up to the tower beside his daughter, and said to her: “My daughter, some great people have been trying to persuade me concerning thee, to betroth thee to them. What dost thou wish, my beloved daughter? “But she gazed on him with anger, and lifted up her glance to heaven and said: “Do not force me to do this, father, or else I will kill myself.”

Then he left her and went down. And he was solicitous about the edifice which he was building to make it a bath-house. And he set on a great number of workmen so that they might finish his great building quickly; and he commanded them that they should do it in a manner suitable to what they were building, and then he gave to each of them his full wage, and went to a far-off place. And he stayed there a good while.

And the handmaid of God, Barbara, went down to see that building, where the workmen were. And when she saw that great edifice, she saw two windows in the south side placed separately, and she said to the workmen, “Why have you put only two windows?” And they said to her, “Thus hath thy father commanded us.” The handmaid of God, Barbara, said to them, “Do this thing that I command you, without fear. Set up another one for me.” But they said to her, “We are afraid, lady, lest when thy father comes, he will be angry at us.”

The handmaid of the Christ, Barbara, said to them, “I have told you, Do without fear what I tell you. And I will persuade my father concerning this.” And they agreed to it, and set up another window as she had told them.

Now when the handmaid of God, Barbara, had walked into the bath-house, which was being built, she entered on its eastern side. And she drew with her finger on the marble wall the sign of the cross. And the figure of the cross is there till this day, for the penitence and confusion of those who see it and do not believe; whilst it was a cause of fear to all those who approached and entered it and believed, receiving healing and help.

And whilst this bath-house was a healing and a cure for all pains and sufferings, by means of that......which the saint of God brought into it: and when she had ascended to the tower in which she dwelt, she lifted up her eyes and saw those idols which her father worshipped. And she cried to the Holy and life-giving Spirit, and she conquered the Devil and spat in the faces of the idols, saying to them, “Your makers are like you, and all those who trust in you.” And she climbed up to her tower and prayed continually to the Holy Cross.

And when the work of the artificers was completely finished, her father arrived. But when he saw three windows set up, he said to the artificers: “Why have ye set up three windows?” And they said to him: “Thy daughter has commanded us to do thus.” And he said to his daughter: “Hast thou commanded them to do thus?” And she said to him: “Yes, for I did well in commanding it; because it is pleasing that the Trinity enlightens all men who come into the world. For two would have been darkness.”

And her father led her, and went down from the tower to the bath-house which he had built, and he said to her: “Tell me, in what way is the light of three better than that of two?” And the handmaid of God, Barbara, said to him: “Look and see! lo, there is the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost.”

Then her father was filled with rage, and drew his sword to strike her, and the holy Barbara prayed: and immediately the rock was cleft, and it received her inside of it[self] and it put her out on the mountain.

Now there were in that mountain two shepherds feeding [their] flocks, and they saw her running. But her father climbed to that mountain, and asked the shepherds about her. And one of them wishing to rescue her, denied with oaths that he had seen her, whilst the other shepherd pointed her out with his finger, and the handmaid of God, Barbara, cursed him. And immediately his flocks.........and they are beside the tomb of the saint until this day. But as her father climbed up and found her, he dragged her by the hair of her head, and drove her with blows from the mountain, and he made her go into a little narrow cell and imprisoned her, and shut the door in her face and sealed it with his signet-ring, and set sentinels to guard her, so that no one might be able to open [it] to her until he should go and make her stand before Marcianus the governor; and should commit her to him for judgment.

And when the governor had arrived he commanded them to bring her. Then her father went in with Gerontius the prison-clerk, and they brought her out of the cell, and delivered her up to the governor, her father swearing to him by his gods that he would put her to death by severe punishments and bitter tortures.

Then the governor sat on his judgment-seat, and when he saw her beauty he said to her: “What dost thou wish? have pity on thy body and sacrifice, or else I will deliver thee up to bitter torments.” The handmaid of God, Barbara, answered and said to him: “I am ready to offer the sacrifice of praise to the Saviour of my soul, to Him who hath made the heavens and the earth, and the sea, and all that in them is; for concerning thy gods the prophet David has said: ‘They have a mouth, but they speak not; they have eyes but they see not; they have ears, but they hear not; they have hands, but they feel not; they have feet, but they walk not, and they cry not with their throats. Their makers are like unto them, and so are all those who trust in them/”

Then the governor was filled with rage and anger; and he commanded them to strip the holy woman, and to tear her body with an ox-hide, and to rub her wounds with a hairy garment, so that all her body should be bathed in her blood. And he commanded them to take her to the prison-house, until he should consider by what punishment he would put her to death.

And at midnight a great light dawned upon her, and our Redeemer appeared to her, saying, “Be strong and of good courage, my beloved martyr; there is great joy about thee in heaven and on earth, because of thy witness. Be not afraid of the threats of the tyrant, for I am with thee, and I will deliver thee from all the punishments that they may bring upon thee.” And immediately her wounds were healed, and not one of them appeared on her body. And when the Lord had said these things to her, He set His seal upon her and ascended to heaven with His holy angels. And the handmaid of the Christ rejoiced and was glad at the revelation of the Lord.

Now there was with her a certain woman who feared God, whose name was Juliana, and she had joined herself to the holy Barbara, and she saw the wonders and the signs that God did by the hands of the holy one, and she gave herself up along with her to stripes and to tortures. And at the dawn of the day the governor commanded them to bring her. And when he saw her wounds that they were healed and had disappeared, he said to her, “I see, Barbara, how the gods care about thee, and they love thee, and heal (thee), for lo! they have even healed thy wounds.” The martyr of the Christ, Barbara, answered and said to the governor, “In truth thou hast gods which are blind and dumb and stupid, and that cannot move. How can they heal wounds—they who can neither cure themselves nor help themselves? But nevertheless He who has cured me is our Lord Jesus the Christ, the Redeemer of the world, the Son of the Living God; He whom thou art unworthy to behold because of the blind remoteness¹ of thy heart, which is blinded by the devil.”

Then the governor was enraged and ground his teeth like a lion; and he commanded them to tear her sides with a comb and singe them with burning lamps, and to strike her on the crown of her head with a hammer.

But when Juliana, she who loved God, saw the blows that they had arranged, she wept convulsively. Then said Marcianus the governor, “Who is this woman?” Those who were standing in his presence said to him, “She is a Christian, and is grieved about Barbara.” And the governor was enraged, and commanded them to hang her up, and to tear her sides with combs, and to singe all her body with lamps. But the holy Barbara lifted up her eyes to heaven and said: “Thou, Lord Jesus the Christ, knowest what is in the hearts of those who love Thee. Forsake me not, thine handmaid, nor my sister Juliana.”

When they had bravely endured these tortures, the governor commanded that the breasts of the holy Barbara should be cut off with knives. And whilst they were being cut off, the martyr of the Christ, Barbara, was singing psalms and saying: “Lord, turn not Thy face away from us, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from Thy handmaid, but turn to me the joy of Thy salvation, and may Thy glorious Spirit uphold me in Thy fear.”

And while they were bearing these punishments bravely, the governor commanded that they should separate Juliana from the saint, in the prison, and guard her. But about the holy Barbara he commanded that they should lead her about naked through all that province and should beat her unmercifully with stripes.

But the martyr of the Christ, Barbara, looked up to heaven, and said, “O God, who dost cover the sun with clouds, let down upon me the wing of Thy mercy, and be my helper; and cover this my naked body, and let it not be seen by these bad and wicked men.” Whilst she was saying this the Lord came, seated on the chariot of cherubim; and He sent the angels and clothed her with a white garment. And whilst they were leading her about in all that province, they brought her to a certain village which was called Dalisin, to the governor Marcianus. Then that governor commanded that she should die by the sword, with her sister Juliana.

The father of the saint was thereafter filled with rage, and took her away from the governor, and led the holy Barbara up to a mountain. She was eager and hastened, so that she might attain to the complete reward from above to which she was called along with the holy Juliana. And whilst the holy Barbara was on the way she prayed and said: “O Lord Jesus the Christ! co-eternal with the Father, the invisible, the uncreated, the crown of martyrs, He who has stretched out and laid the foundations of the earth; He who commands the clouds and they produce the rain, and brings down His dew on the good and on the bad: He who walketh on the back of the sea and does not wet His steps, for all obey Thee, Lord Jesus the Christ, because they are the work of Thy hands. Do thou grant us the request which I seek from Thee, and give grace to me, Thy handmaid. And to every one who makes mention of Thy holy name, and of the name of Thy handmaid, and who makes a commemoration and remembers my martyrdom: O Lord God my Saviour, let no plague of infection nor of cancer come upon that country nor on that house, on the body of any one who is in it, whether male or female, nor yet upon the children, And remember not against them their sins, but grant a recovery even to the lepers. For Thou knowest, O Lord! that they are flesh and blood, the work of Thy pure and holy hands. And to Thee honour and adoration is due for ever and ever. Amen.”

And when she had said Amen, there was a voice from heaven near her saying, “Come, my martyr, thou art clothed with suffering, and thou hast won the victory in thine own person. Come, rest in the mansions of my Paradise, in Heaven, with my beloved Juliana. For what thou hast asked hath been given to thee. And all those who are seized with the diseases which thou hast mentioned will be healed, whilst they confess their sins.”

And when the martyr of the Christ, Barbara, had heard these things, she went to the place which was prepared for her to die in it. And she was crowned by the sword of her father Dioscurus. And she died, the holy virgin-martyr Barbara, with Juliana, she who had attached herself to her. And their heads were cut off in the...indiction, in that place.

But when the father of the holy Barbara came down from the mountain, fire fell from heaven and consumed him and Marcianus the governor, so that it was seen also by those who stood round them.

The holy Barbara was crowned in the month of December on Thursday.

Glory and honour be to God for ever and ever.

Here endeth the martyrdom of the holy Barbara.

Notes

Literally “blindness of the remoteness.”