THE PATRON SAINT OF PEOPLE WITH ABUSIVE FATHERS

 

I'd like to put forth St Barbara as a patron saint of people - men and women - who have abusive fathers. In the 3rd century, Barbara was born to a pagan father in Nicomedia, Turkey.  Barbara was ravishingly beautiful. Her father was so pathologically possessive of her that he locked her up in a tower in case men would take an interest in her. It was despotic to put her under lock and key lest she ever attract a male, yet also speaks to something that may have been incestuous. Incest was never committed; Barbara remained a virgin, but her father's extreme measures are symptomatic of a jealousy that consumed him. 

Barbara did not want to marry and she took private vows to be Christ's bride. Her captivity acted as a type of cloister. This tower, her prison, had two windows, but when Barbara's father went away for a while, Barbara had a third put in so that there would be a porthole for every member of the Trinity. She also put a cross on her bath. On his return, her father was furious at these reverent renovations. He seems as though he wanted her entirely for himself, no other man and no Messiah was to have her attention. He went from being abusive to psychopathic, and he tried to kill her, but a miracle prevented her death. Then he said she had committed a crime and a judge sentenced her to severe torture. 

He did not feel the torture had been a condign punishment, and he took his sword and cut off her head. Her own father was her murderer; he martyred her. 17 centuries have passed since and her beauty has inspired artists through the ages. A wide, long corridor in London's Victoria and Albert museum is filled with exquisite sculptures and paintings of her, where I spent many a happy hour. 

She has been a muse to artists, but she may also be an intercessor for people who have abusive fathers, who know every kind of abuse, from dire violence to despotically controlling behavior, and they may not know who in Heaven will intercede for them. Barbara is the beautiful woman who may work the miracle to help them escape their equivalent of her tower. 

This continues my series on The 14 Holy Helpers, of which Barbara is one, she is also invoked against sudden death and here she joins another list of intercessors such as St Andrew Avellino. 

There is a lovely prayer to her for a good death;

"Saint Barbara, thou noble bride, 

To thee my body I confide, 

as well in life as at life's end"

Today, December 4 is her feast day. May you and yours have A BLESSED FEAST OF ST BARBARA! 

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This post was informed by Dr Pius Parsch's The Church's Year of Grace. Peter Paul Rubens executed the first painting of Barbara fleeing from her father, and the second of her torture was executed by Wilhelm Kalteysen.