Hi, I would like to use this thread to discuss about saints. Here we will post articles about the life, history, myths, legends, facts, and lore of any saint we wish to discuss about. If you have a question about a certain saint you could post it here and I will see if I could find the answer for you or see if anybody else could. To add to this we can post information about corresponding attributes a saint has and how it could apply to magick.
Please be free to be creative and post anything you want as long as its about saints.
Variations of Saint Barbara's legends are told all around, but all involve death and a tall tower.The most common version suggest her to be a beautiful daughter of a wealthy pagan. Her father tried to arranged a favorable marriage for her, with wealthy princes, but little did he know she vowed her virginity to the Lord.Worried of her daughter loosing her virginity to any other man, besides the one he hoped to find to marry her with, he locked her up in a tower.
Many different princes did come a knocking, but Barbara found ways of dissuading them, much to her father's annoyance. One day her father had to travel far from home, Without her father;s supervision, Barbara emerged from her tower to check a bathhouse under construction on her family's property. She didn't like the two windows they were building there and persuaded the workmen to build a third one in honor of the Holy Trinity.
After a while she secretly had a priest baptize her in the bathhouse. She began to model herself after John the Baptist and the desert fathers, eating only locust and sipping from honeysuckles. She then began to demolish and disfigure all her father's idols and images.
Unfortunately, her father came home and was very angry. He impulsively tried to kill his own daughter with a sword, but she prayed and was transported out of her own house and onto a mountain. Her father perused her when a shepherd betrayed her hiding place, though all of his sheep became grasshoppers. Barbara was then pulled by her hair and was dragged off to jail, where she was scourged, beaten, and tortured.
Little did they know miracles was about to take place:
The rods used to beat her with were transformed into peacock feathers.
Torches that were lit to burn her spontaneously went out whenever brought near her.
All of Barbara wounds miraculously healed.
Authorities tried to humiliate her by taking off her clothes so she can roam the streets naked, but somehow each time they stripped her of clothing, she remained fully clothed.
The judge ordered that Barbara be executed by sword. The head of the family had the legal right to execute members of his family privately himself, rather than expose the family to shame of public execution. That being so, her own father dragged Barbara back to the mountain and killed her. After doing so he was struck by lightening and reduced to ash. Local Christians buried her body, whose tomb quickly became a pilgrimage site and also a site of miracles.
Although she allegedly lived and died in the fourth century, she only emerged as a saint in the seventh. By the middle ages she was a very popular saint, as she continues to be.
Traditionally, Saint Barbara is called upon when caught in a big thunderstorm (storms in general) and are frightened for your own safety. She is called for protection against any firey death, including death from artillery, explosions, fire and of course lightning. She is also petitioned against getting hurt or dying from land mines and also prayed to for a sweet, merciful, peaceful death. She also heals sick children and is invoked against invasive insects and grasshoppers.
Although, in recent years a new image of the saint came about. Its unclear whether the saint continued to evolve or a new completely spirit appeared in her name. Whether you believe it to be her is up to your own choice. In Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America Saint Barbara became a warrior saint. She rushes in and saves people from all sort of danger, but not necessarily those traditionally associated by her - lightning, fire, explosions. Instead, this Barbara protects from supernatural and spiritual dangers. She fights demons and nightmares. Some may say she resembles a female Michael the Archangel..
Favored People: Architects, builders; stone masons; those who would work with explosions; bomb technicians (presumably safe crackers, too), firefighters, gunner, ammunition workers, soldiers, those who work with any sort of explosive weapon or tool; miners; prisoners.
Feast Day: December 4th
Sacred Day : Saturday
Color: Red
Offerings: Small silver towers, honeysuckle flowers, candles in general, but especially lightning shaped candles, peacock feathers, red apples
Hey I had an idea :) Since you have the Council status, you can try making articles about the different saints. Just make sure it's in Articles, not Spells. Easy mistake to make XD
