St. Barbara

Who they were

Barbara's story is almost entirely legend, and this page says so in the first breath. She was dropped from the Church's general calendar in 1969 for exactly that reason, while remaining in the Martyrology and in the affection of half the working world. The tradition runs like this: a young woman locked in a tower by her pagan father, converted in secret, who had a third window cut into the tower for the Trinity; denounced and executed by her father's own hand, he was struck by lightning on the way home. From the lightning came her patronage of everyone who works near sudden death, including miners, artillerymen, tunnellers and demolition crews. From it came the older and deeper devotion too: Barbara is invoked against dying unprepared, without the sacraments, without goodbye. Mining disasters across centuries have been met with her name, and the safety chambers in some mines are still called Barbaras.

Why people turn to St. Barbara

The trades where the ground or the charge can take you without warning, and anyone who prays the old petition against sudden death.

How to ask their intercession

For the people in your life with dangerous work, by name, at the start of the job. And honestly, for the grace of a prepared death, which is an intention nobody regrets having prayed.