Saint Barbara

Saint Barbara

Terra Sancta Scout Troop - Bethlehem , distributed Barbara in the courtyard of St. Catherina's Church on the occasion of St. Barbara's Day

Saint Barbara, , was born in the early third century AD in the city of Nicomedia from Bithynia. She was the only daughter of her pagan father, Discourse, who was famous among his people for his obscene wealth and prestige. Barbara converted to Christianity, and after her father learned of this, he asked the ruler to allow him to cut off her head with his own hand, so he allowed him to kill her.

When Saint Barbara fled from her pagan father, who pursued her to kill her, she hid in a field of wheat among the ears of corn that covered her and hid them from his eyes. Some also narrate that she came across some shepherds who were boiling wheat, so she asked them for something to eat, and they gave her some boiled wheat to eat. Thus, wheat is a symbol and a sign of eternal life and death from the world, so that we may live in and with God.