4 December – St Barbara of Nicomedia (235)

Saint Barbara[1]

Saint Barbara is celebrated on 4 December.  She is known in Greek as Αγία Βαρβάρα, and in Spanish as Santa Barbara.  She was martyred for her faith on 4 December 235.

Saint Barbara is widely celebrated and considered the patron saint of artillerymen, military engineers, miners and others who work with explosives and also the patron saint of mathematicians.  However, as is the case with the lives of the saints it is not clear how much of her story is based on fact.  For this reason Saint Barbara was removed from the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar in 1969 by Pope Paul VI’s motu proprio Mysterii Paschalis.   But Saint Barbara is still celebrated in the Eastern Church and as recently as 4 December 2018[2] The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Fener, Istanbul sent Bodrum Metropoliton Alikarnasos Andrianos to Izmit to lead a service to celebrate the life of St Barabara.

It is not clear where Saint Barbara comes from – it is variously suggested that she lived in Phonecian Heliopolis (Baalbek, Lebanon) or Nicomedia, present day Izmit, Turkey.   Her story is included in this collection of Christian women because she is a Christian woman who is celebrated and known about[3].

The extent documentation suggests that Saint Barbara was brought up by her father Dioscorus after her mother died.  Dioscorus wanted to protect his daughter so he locked her in a high tower[4].  Only her father and her pagan teachers came to visit her.  Barbara spent a lot of time looking out of the tower on the surrounding hills and admiring God’s creation.  She doubted that the beautiful world she saw was created by the pagan gods that her father and her teachers worshipped and believed in.  Eventually Dioscorus allowed Barbara to leave her tower, he hoped that having some freedom would change her and that she would agree to marry one of the suitors he had found for her.  She used her new found freedom to meet with Christians and become a Christian.

Her father,Dioscorus, had a bath house built for Barbara.  The original architectural plans was for 2 windows but when her father was absent Barbara had the plans altered and asked the builders to put in three windows so that there would be a Trinity of light in the bath house.  When Dioscorus returned from his travels Barbara told him that she had become a Christian.  Full of rage he grabbed his sword ready to kill her, but she ran off.  Dioscorus followed her but was prevented from reaching her when a hill blocked his way.

The hill opened up and Barbara was hidden in a crevice.  Her father asked two local shepherds if they had seen his daughter.  The first denied he had seen her but the second betrayed her hiding place.

Dioscorus beat his daughter, locked her up, starved her then handed her over to Martianus, the prefect of the city.  Despite continued ill treatment by both Dioscorus and Martianus Barbara stood firm in her faith.  She was joined by another woman, Juliana.  They were both subject to various tortures and Barbara was condemned to death by beheading by her father.

Barbara was beheaded on 4 December.  Legend has it that both Dioscorus and Martianus, the prefect, were then struck dead by lightning.

In the 6th century relics of St Barbara were taken to Constantinople.  Six hundred years later, they were taken to Kiev  by the daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Alexius Comnenos[5] where they remain.

The Order of Saint Barbara is an honorary society within the United States Army Field Artillery Associated and the United States Army Air Defense Artillery Association.

Cities such as Santa Barbara, California are named after this saint.  There are in total 45 cities that are named after Saint Barbara of Nicomedia[6].

The service to celebrate Saint Barbara’s life was held in an ancient building in İzmit Şehitler Korusu[7].  This place is associated with Saint Barbara maybe where she was imprisoned before her martyrdom.

Izmit was known in ancient times as Nicomedia[8].  There has been a settlement in the Izmit area since 1200-800 BC.  The city took the name of Nicomedia during the reign of King Nicomedes (279-250BC).  During the reign of King Nicomedes III (94-74BC) the province of Bithynia became part of the Roman Empire.  Nicomedia was the major city in the province of Bithynia.  Bithynia is immortalised in the writings of Pliny the Younger (AD 61-113) who was governor of Bithynia and died in Birthynia.

During Emperor Diocletian’s reign (284-305) Nicomedia became the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire.  Because the Roman Empire had become so large Diocletian introduced the Tetrachy system of ruling with two Agustus and two Ceasars.  Emperor Diocletian and Caesar Galerius ruled the East from Nicomedia while Emperor Maximian and Caesar Constantius ruled the west.  After 284 Diocletian rebuilt Nicomedia as his new capital.   During this time a hippodrome, palace, temple, bathhouse, mint, a shipyard and various official buildings were built.  Nicomedia became the fourth city in the Roman Empire after Rome, Antioch (Antakya) and Alexandria.

Saint Barbara is portrayed as determined woman who while imprisoned in the tower had begun to question pagan belief because of her observations of natural beauty that she was able to observe from the tower within which her father imprisoned her.  We don’t know for sure whether St Barbara was locked up in a tower.  But Jungian psychologists believe that being locked in a tower can symbolise living too much in one’s head and not being grounded in everyday reality.  The person who is locked in the tower is set free through love, through learning to feel, to be in touch with their feelings (some would see this as exercising the right brain function rather than the more cerebral left brain functions).  Being let out of the tower can also symbolize the Jungian process of individuation[9].

The story seems to suggest that St Barbara exercised her personal choice by becoming a Christian, by symbolising her new found faith with three windows in her bath house.  Three windows, representing the Christian concept of a Trinitarian God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  She suffered greatly for her choices and ended life as a martyr beheaded[10] by her own father.

 

[1] http://www.visitizmit.org/santa-barbara-tower

http://m.ozgurkocaeli.com.tr/santa-barbara-izmit-adini-dunyada-45-kente-vermistir-251695h.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Barbara

http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=166

http://www.saintbarbarafw.org/who-was-saint-barbara/

[2] https://www.haberturk.com/kocaeli-haberleri/17065045-azize-santa-barbara-izmitte-anildi

[3] DS one of my former students attended a service in Izmit on 4 December 2015 and told me about her experience.  It is that account that has led me to research and add Saint Barbara’s story to this collection.

[4] Locking up in a tower to protect a daughter is also known about in Istanbul.  In that case the daughter was locked up in Leander’s tower, a well known landmark in the Bosphorus between Uskudar and Sirkeci.

[5] Also known as Komnene.  Barbara, daughter of Isaac (or Alexius) Comnenos and Irene of Alnia was born in about 1070.

[6] Present day Izmit.

[7] Martyr’s Park, Izmit.

[8]http://artnicomedia.org.tr/index.php/74-tanitim-katagorisi/izmit-tarihi-tarihi-ve-turistik-yerleri/23-izmit-tarihi.html

[9] To develop the ability to act independently, to be an individual rather than controlled by another.

[10] Losing one’s head is not always a bad thing, if one is too much of a thinking type! The beheading may also be a symbol of that. 

Copyright©2019 Rev Ros Wilkinson

26 September – St Natalia of Nicomedia (4th Century)

 

26 September – St Natalia of Nicomedia (4thCentury).
St Natalia[1]was married to St Adrian, the head of the Praetorium.  He was a pagan and one of his duties was to record the names and responses of Christians who were being tortured in Nicomedia.  This was probably in the time of Emperor Galerius Maximian (305-311). 
Twenty-three believers hid in a cave near Nicomedia, they were caught, tortured and urged to offer sacrifices to the gods.   As their names were being recorded Adrian asked them how they expected to be rewarded by their God.  They answered Adrian
What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the human heart conceived,
what God has prepared for those who love him”[2]
 Upon hearing their testimony and seeing the way they bore their sufferings he decided to become a Christian and he told the scribe to add his name also.   Upon this Adrian was imprisoned but Natalia, his wife who was also a secret believer was able to visit him and encourage him as he faced death for his new found faith. 
Adrian and the other Christians were sentenced to having their arms and legs placed on an anvil then broken with a heavy hammer.  Somehow St Natalia managed to take one of the hands of her husband and secrete it amongst the folds of her robe. 
The executioners tried to burn the bodies but a storm arose and blew the fire out and struck and killed some of the executioners. 
Natalia was afraid that she would be pressured into re-marrying once Adrian was dead, before her husband’s martyrdom she asked him to pray that this wouldn’t happen.  When after Adrian’s martyrdom an army commander wanted to marry Natalia, she left Nicomedia and went to Argyroupolis, which was near to the city of Byzantium.  Later Adrian appeared to his wife in a dream and warned her of her impending death, thought to have been brought on by her sufferings.  Shortly after St Natalia fell asleep in the Lord. 
In the pre-Constantine era Christians in Asia Minor, suffered persecution under Emperor Diocletian (284-305) and Gaius Galerius Valerius Maximianus (305-11).  Persecution came to an end after Constantine became the Emperor of both the Eastern and Western Empire.  In 312, just before the battle of Milvian Bridge, he had a vision of the Chi(X) Rho(P), the first two letters of Christ[3]which influenced his decision to allow Christian worship in the Empire.
Nicomedia was a major city in the Eastern Empire, particularly in Diocletian’s time when it became ‘the adorned Eastern capital of the Empire’[4].  During the turbulent years of Diocletian’s reign there were several persecutions and many martyrs from Nicomedia.  Nicomedia is now the Turkish city of Izmit. 
The hymns about Saint Adrian and Natalia emphasize the cooperation of husband and wife and exalt them as a model married couple. In one hymn, the third Sticheron of Vespers, Natalia is contrasted favourably with Eve, as exhorting her husband to godliness rather than tempting him to sin. In the fourth Sticheron of Lauds she is also likened to the wise pilot of a storm-tossed ship (her husband), bringing him safely into the heavenly harbour. 
Troparion (Tone 4) [1]
Your holy martyrs Adrian and Natalia, O Lord,
Through their sufferings have received incorruptible crowns from You, our God.
For having Your strength, they laid low their adversaries,
And shattered the powerless boldness of demons.
Through their intercessions, save our souls!
Kontakion – (Tone 4)
Martyr of Christ, Adrian,
You kept the words of your godly and devoted wife Natalia in your heart.
With her you accepted every kind of suffering and obtained the crown of victory![5]
         
Both Natalia and Adrian are referred to as martyrs but in practice it seems as if only Adrian was killed for his faith. 


[1] One of my daughters is named Natalia which has drawn me to this saint.  Although I would have preferred the Russian spelling – Natalya – used by the wife of a famous 20th century writer.  Picture from:  https://orthodoxwiki.org/Adrian_and_Natalia
[2] 1 Cor 2:9
[3] John Julia Norwich, Byzantium: The Early Centuries (London: Penguin Books, 1990) p. 10
[4] Lectant. De mort. Pers. 17.2-9 quoted in http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0006:entry=nicomedia
[5] https://orthodoxwiki.org/Adrian_and_Natalia

 

Copyright © 2018 Rev Ros Wilkinson

3 September – St Basilissa (300-309) Nicomedia

 

The life and martyrdom of St Basilisa is celebrated on 3 September.
Basilisa lived in Nicomedia, the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire.   Emperor Diocletian (284-305) and Galerius (305-311) were both based at Nicomedia during their times as Emperor and persecuted the Christians in Nicomedia.  John Julius Norwich observes, that
“…we must assume that Constantine witnessed, in 303, the deliberate burning of the newly completed Cathedral at Nicomedia – the dramatic inauguration of those famous Persecutions that were to rage, scarcely controlled, for the next eight years.”  
It is thought that the burning of the Cathedral was in retaliation for a fire at the imperial palace which the Christians were accused of starting.  As many as twenty thousand Christians lost their lives in this fire[1]. 
Basilissa was nine years old when she was arrested and tortured for her faith.  She was tortured to make her renounce her faith in Christ.  But the young girl stood firm in her faith although she was subjected to prolonged and intense torture.  Despite the torture she didn’t die and this made an intense impression on the Governor of Nicomedia Alexander who in the face of her faithfulness became a Christian himself and was later baptised by Bishop Anthimus and lived in deep repentance then shortly after his conversion died.  The cause of death is not given.    
Although Basilissa was only nine years old it could have been that she was called to account because she had resisted being married to a pagan or declaring that she wanted to remain a virgin as had been the case with the Martyr St Agnes in Rome[2].   
The cause of St Basilissa’s death does not seem to be directly the result of torture but seems to have happened sometime later although her suffering must have weakened her body.  She is referred to as a martyr in the Orthodox Church Calendar. 
During my researches I have been impressed with the large numbers of Christians who suffered for their faith in the Nicomedia area.  Probably because the Emperors of the Eastern Roman Empire lived in Nicomedia. 
With the Edict of Milan by Emperor Constantine and Emperor Licinius[3]in 311 persecution of Christians came to an end.    Later in the Eastern Roman province in which Nicomedia lay but nevertheless persecution ceased and Christians could live at peace.    


[2] St Agnes was executed during persecution of Christians by Diocletian in 304.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnes_of_Rome 
[3]Licinius promulgated the Edict of Milan on 13 June 311 in Nicromedia.  John Julius Norwich, Byzantium The Early Centuries (London: Penguin, 1990) p. 45

 

Copyright © 2018 Rev Ros Wilkinson