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

All Saints Day – 1 November

1 November is when the western church celebrates All Saints – remembering all the saints that have lived and inspired their fellow Christians to live a life that is pleasing to God.   In the bible ‘saint’ is used to describe those who believe in Jesus and live a life of faith.  Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount talked about the characteristics of those who live a life of faith in him.  He refers to them as ‘blessed’:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. [1]

The saints are those who go about their daily life trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ and seeking to live a life that reveals the presence of God to those around them.  Not all who fulfil Jesus’ categories of sainthood are designated Saints by the church and given a place in the liturgical calendar.  Many are ordinary men and women.

 

In this blog I have been writing about Christian women who have lived in what is now modern day Turkey but was formerly Asia Minor, made up of many different parts – Cappadocia, Galatia, Bythinya and Pontus.   Many of these women are designated by the Church as Saints and have a place on the liturgical calendar.  But there are also those who have lived a life of faith who are not recognised in the liturgical calendar but none the less have lived faithful lives and are saints in the New Testament use of the word.  The New Testament refers to the ‘great cloud of witnesses’ (Hebrews 12:1) – these are those Christian people who have died and gone to be in heaven, who make up what is known as the ‘Church Triumphant’ – they have gone before us into the presence of God in the heavens and from there watch over us, pray for us and ‘cheer us on’.  One of these unknown women is remembered because of her epitaph that has been commented on by Dom Gregory Dix:

“There is a little ill-spelled ill-carved rustic epitaph of the fourth century from Asia Minor:—“Here sleeps the blessed Chione, who has found Jerusalem for she prayed much.” Not another word is known of Chione[2], some peasant woman who lived in that vanished world of Christian Anatolia. But how lovely if all that should survive after sixteen centuries were that one had prayed much, so that the neighbours who saw all one’s life were sure one must have found Jerusalem!”[3]

We do not know who Chione was, the only detail of her life is that “she prayed much”.  Surely Chione, with many other faithful women who have lived in what is now modern day Turkey are part of the ‘great cloud of witnesses’ who we will one day join.

The writer of the last book in the New Testament, Revelation, says in his vision of heaven that he:

“…saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slaughtered for the word of God and for the testimony they had given; they cried out with a loud voice, “Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long will it be before you judge and avenge our blood on the inhabitants of the earth?” They were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number would be complete both of their fellow servants and of their brothers and sisters, who were soon to be killed as they themselves had been killed. [4]

Some of those written about on this blog are women who have been martyred for their faith.  They were seen crying out to the Sovereign Lord, the Pantocrator.  This group too are part of that ‘great cloud of witnesses[5]’.

In the next chapter of Revelation the writer has a vision of  “…a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands.  They cried out in a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”” [6]

Heaven is populated by those who during their earthly lives were part of the church here on earth, the Church Militant, but upon death they have passed over into the heavenly realms where they are part of the Church Triumphant.  Both parts of the same whole, what is also referred to as ‘the body of Christ’.  That interaction between both parts of the Church is referred to in the Nicene Creed as ‘the communion of Saints’ – because of our common faith in Christ there is a oneness, a fellowship between us even after death.

All Saints[7] day is an opportunity in the churches’ calendar to celebrate those in whom the church has recognised the grace of God at work in a recognisable way.  That grace and their sanctification comes in the context of ordinary every day life as well as, a result of the extraordinary crises of life.

After Emperor Constantine’s edict of Milan Christians were less likely to be martyred.  This led some Christians to live the ascetic life, to seek spiritual martyrdom.  Celtic Christians talk about Red, White and Blue martyrdom:

“Now there are three kinds of martyrdom which are counted as a cross to man, that is to say, white martyrdom, and blue[8] martyrdom, and red Martyrdom (bdanmartre ocus glasmatre ocus dercmartre).  This is the white martyrdom to man, when he separates for the sake of God from everything he loves, although he suffer fasting or labour thereat.  This is the blue martyrdom to him, when he means of them (fasting and labour) he separates from his desires, or suffers toil in penance and repentance.  This is the red martyrdom to him, endurance of a cross or destruction for Christ’s sake, as happened to the apostles in the persecution of the wicked and in teaching the law of God.  These three kinds of martyrdom are comprised in the carnal ones who resort to good repentance, who separate from their desires, who pour forth their blood in fasting and in labour for Christ’s sake.”[9]

According to this designation those like St Euphemia who were killed for their faith suffered Red Martyrdom.  Those who left the comfort of their homes and lived as hermits in caves or lonely places were Green martyrs.  There they studied scripture and communed with God.  This green martyrdom gave way to monasticism.   Some of the women who have been featured as examples of Christian women in what is now modern day Turkey felt the call of monasticism and lived in convents.

White martyrs were those who sailed off into the unknown, not knowing where they would end up and whether they would come home again.   The challenge for us is to live sacrificially and faithfully no matter what one’s circumstances.

The Anglican collect for All Saints day is:
Almighty God,
you have knit together your elect
in one communion and fellowship
in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord:
grant us grace so to follow your blessed saints
in all virtuous and godly living
that we may come to those inexpressible joys
that you have prepared for those who truly love you;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.  Amen

[1] Matt 5:3-12

[2] Chione or Khione in GK: Χιόνη

[3] Pfatteicher, Philip H.. Journey into the Heart of God: Living the Liturgical Year (Kindle Locations 6493-6496). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.  Quoting from Dom Gregory Dix, The Shape of the Liturgy (Westminster: Dacre Press, 1945), pp. 744–745.

[4] Revelation 6:9-11

[5] Hebrews 12:1

[6] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Re 7:9–10). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

[7] The Greek Orthodox Church celebrates All Saints after Pentecost.

[8] Or Green Martyrdom

[9] Taken from the Cumbrai Homily which is dated to the seventh century or early eighth century.  It is written in old Irish and is found in:  Dorothy Whitelock, Rosamond McKitterick, David Dumville (Eds) Ireland in Early Medieval Europe: Studies in Memory of Kathleen Hughes (CUP, Cambridge, UK 2011) p.23

Copyright©2019 Rev Ros Wilkinson

16 September – St Euphemia, Martyr 303, Chalcedon

 

Greek Orthodox Church
dedicated to St Ephermia,
Kadikoy, Istanbul.
St Euphemia was martyred on 16 September 303, during the reign of Emperor Diacletian.  She died in Chalcedon[1], just across the water from what was then Constantinople.
Euphemia was the daughter of a senator named Philophronos and his wife Theodosia who lived in Chalcedon.  In the year 303 Priscus, the governor of Chalcedon, made a decree that all those who lived in the city should take part in sacrifices to the god Ares.  Euphemia was discovered, with forty-nine other Christians hiding in a house and worshiping God and in defiance of the governor’s decree.  They were tortured for a number of days and then all but Euphemia were sent to the Emperor for trial.  Euphemia was apparently the youngest in the group and she was separated from the group, tortured harshly, including use of the wheel, in order to break her spirit and cause her to renounce her faith.  She was put into an arena with lions.  Rather than kill her they licked her wounds.  It is said that she was fatally wounded by a wild bear in the same arena. 
In June or July 384 Egeria, a nun from Galicia states in her record of her journey to Turkey that she “reached Chalcedon, and I stayed there because it contains the renowned martyrium of Holy Euphemia, long known to me”[2]  So just over eighty years after Euphemia’s martyrdom the church dedicated to her and containing her remains was a place of pilgrimage. 
A large basilica was built over the site where she was buried and it was in that church that the Council of Chalcedon was held in 451 attended by five hundred and twenty bishops.  “Pulcheria selected her martyr shrine because it was large enough to contain so numerous a gathering, but also because she trusted that this powerful female saint would protect the council and bring it to a salutary conclusion.”[3] 
The Church where the Council of Chalcedon was held is probably nearer to the now defunct Haydarpaşa Station rather than on the site of the present Greek Orthodox Church dedicated to St Euphemia in the market area of Kadıköy.   The relics of the martyr Euphemia are in the Greek Patriarchate, Istanbul.
The Greek Orthodox Church also holds a special celebration on 11 July when they remember the part that the martyr Euphemia played in the decision making process of the Council of Chalcedon.  The two factions -the Monophysites and the Orthodox believers put their written statements of belief about the nature of Christ into Euphemia’s coffin.  Later they came to see what had happened to the two statements and found that the Monophysite statement was at the Martyr’s feet and the Orthodox belief as embodied in the Nicene Creed was in Euphemia’s hands.  
Euphemia is an example of a brave young woman who resisted the pressure on her to worship a pagan god.  Despite the torture she remained faithful to her Lord.  The involvement of the martyr Euphemia in the Council of Chalcedon is an indication of how the saints were part of the daily life of Christians and were relied on to be part of the ordinary lives of later citizens of Chalcedon and to answer their prayers. 

 


[1]Now known as Kadıköy, a suburb of Istanbul.
[2] Wilkinson, John Egeria’s Travels (Aris & Phillips, Warminster, UK 2002) p.142.We will look separately at the travels of this amazing woman.
[3] Holum K Theodosian Empresses (University of California Press, USA, 1982) p. 213

Copyright © 2018 Rev Ros Wilkinson