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Irapuato
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Dec. 4 Saint Barbara. irapuato. 4.12.2011 Saint Barbara was from Heliopolis of Phoenicia and lived during the reign of Maximian, during the third century. The daughter of a wealthy, pagan idolater …More
Dec. 4 Saint Barbara.

irapuato. 4.12.2011 Saint Barbara was from Heliopolis of Phoenicia and lived during the reign of Maximian, during the third century. The daughter of a wealthy, pagan idolater named Dioscorus; she was raised in the belief of polytheism.

Highly intelligent and extremely beautiful, St. Barbara was ordered to live her life imprisoned in the tower by her jealous father. Vowing to protect her from the outside world, he forbade her association with friends and St. Barbara only came in contact with teachers and servants who had been carefully instructed that she be taught how to worship the pagan gods.

One day, as her father was leaving for a business trip, he ordered a bathhouse be built for Saint Barbara. He gave specific instructions for the design of the building, commanding the workers to install only two windows. Having learned about the teachings of Christ, St. Barbara’s belief in Christianity became firm. During her father’s absence she instructed the workmen to install three windows to symbolize the Holy Trinity.

When Dioscorus returned, he was enraged at the changes and infuriated with St. Barbara when she confessed that she was a Christian. He took her before the prefect of the province, who decreed she be tortured and beheaded, as was the punishment for Christians during this time. It was Dioscorus who rendered the death sentence to St. Barbara. On his way home, he was struck by lightning and killed instantly.

It is because of this legend of Saint Barbara that she came to be known as Saint Barbara the saint of danger from thunderstorms, fires and sudden death. When gunpowder was introduced in the Western world, Saint Barbara was invoked for protection against explosion and soon was regarded as the patroness of the artillerymen.
www.saintbarbara.us
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Saint Barbara - Gather Us In
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mariamargarita
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Gather Us In Lyrics
Here in this place, new light is streaming
now is the darkness vanished away,
see, in this space, our fears and our dreamings,
brought here to you in the light of this day.
Gather us in the lost and forsaken
gather us in the blind and the lame;
call to us now, and we shall awaken
we shall arise at the sound of our name.
We are the young – our lives are a mystery
we are the old …More
Gather Us In Lyrics
Here in this place, new light is streaming
now is the darkness vanished away,
see, in this space, our fears and our dreamings,
brought here to you in the light of this day.

Gather us in the lost and forsaken
gather us in the blind and the lame;
call to us now, and we shall awaken
we shall arise at the sound of our name.

We are the young – our lives are a mystery
we are the old – who yearns for your face.
we have been sung throughout all of history
called to be light to the whole human race.

Gather us in the rich and the haughty
gather us in the proud and the strong
give us a heart so meek and so lowly
give us the courage to enter the song.

Here we will take the wine and the water
here we will take the bread of new birth
here you shall call your sons and your daughters
call us anew to be salt of the earth.

Give us to drink the wine of compassion
give us to eat the bread that is you
nourish us well and teach us to fashion
lives that are holy and hearts that are true.
www.peaceinspire.com/2009/03/04/gather-us-in
soundingjoy
Dear Ira,
Thank you for the beautiful and inspiring videos you share. Bless you dear sister in Jesus.
😇 🤗
Irapuato
✍️ Traditionally in the German-speaking countries, particularly in Austria and the Catholic regions of Germany, a small cherry branch or sprig is cut off and placed in water on December 4th, Barbaratag (St. Barbara's Day). Sometimes a twig from some other flowering plant or tree may be used: apple, forsythia, plum, lilac, or similar blossoms. But it is the cherry tree that is most customary and …More
✍️ Traditionally in the German-speaking countries, particularly in Austria and the Catholic regions of Germany, a small cherry branch or sprig is cut off and placed in water on December 4th, Barbaratag (St. Barbara's Day). Sometimes a twig from some other flowering plant or tree may be used: apple, forsythia, plum, lilac, or similar blossoms. But it is the cherry tree that is most customary and authentic. This custom is known as Barbarazweig or Barbara Branch.

The cherry branch (Kirschzweig) or other cutting is then placed in water and kept in a warm room. If all goes well, on Christmas day the sprig will display blossoms. If it blooms precisely on December 25th, this is regarded as a particularly good sign for the future.
german.about.com/library/blbarbara.htm
Irapuato
December 4 SAINT BARBARA Virgin and Martyr (†235)
magnificat.ca/cal/engl/12-04.htm
Saint Barbara was brought up by a pagan father, Dioscorus. With the intention of protecting her beauty, he kept her jealously secluded in a lonely but very luxurious tower which he built for that purpose; for in his own way he loved her. In her forced solitude, this very gifted young girl undertook to study religion …More
December 4 SAINT BARBARA Virgin and Martyr (†235)

magnificat.ca/cal/engl/12-04.htm
Saint Barbara was brought up by a pagan father, Dioscorus. With the intention of protecting her beauty, he kept her jealously secluded in a lonely but very luxurious tower which he built for that purpose; for in his own way he loved her. In her forced solitude, this very gifted young girl undertook to study religion, and soon saw clearly all the vices and absurdities of paganism; her clear mind realized that there could be only one supreme Creator-God, and that He is entitled to the worship of His reasonable creatures. Divine Providence by its wonderful ways contrived to obtain for her the means to send a message to Origen, the famous exegete, asking for knowledge of the Christian faith. That teacher of Alexandria immediately sent to her, at Nicomedia, a disciple named Valentinian. Soon she was baptized, and Our Lord appeared to her, as He would appear to others such as Saint Catherine of Alexandria and Saint Teresa of Avila, to tell her He had chosen her to be His spouse. Saint Barbara, rejoicing, hoped to be able to communicate her precious new faith to her father, but would soon discover that hope was vain.

When she was of an age to marry, many requests for her hand came to her wealthy father. She was his only heiress, and he rejected her expressed wish not to accept any such offer, although she said she wished to remain his consolation for his declining years. When she continued to refuse every suitor’s demands, and when Dioscorus returned from a journey to find all the idols he had placed in her tower broken in pieces and scattered about, he was furious. Discovering his daughter’s conversion, he was beside himself with rage. She escaped and dwelt for a time in a cavern, where she was concealed by the vegetation growing at the entrance. But finally her father’s threats of chastisement, which he made known during his searches, for anyone who might be concealing her, caused some local shepherds who knew of her whereabouts, to reveal her retreat.

Her father denounced her to the civil tribunal, and Barbara was horribly tortured twice, and finally beheaded. Her own father, merciless to the last, asked to deal her the fatal blow himself. God, however, speedily punished her persecutors. While her soul was being borne by the Angels to Paradise, a flash of lightning struck Dioscorus and Marcian, the civil prefect, and both were summoned in haste to the judgment-seat of God.

Saint Barbara is beloved of the Spanish-speaking peoples. She is the special protectress of the region of Metz in France, where a magnificent church, later destroyed, was built in her honor in the 1500's. She is invoked against sudden and unprovided death, and invariably answers all requests for the favor of receiving the Last Sacraments. A famous instance of her intervention on behalf of a Saint who was on the verge of death, can be read in the life of Saint Stanislaus Kostka.

Reflection: Pray often to be protected from a sudden and unprovided death; and, above all, that you may be strengthened by the Holy Viaticum against the dangers of your final hour.

Sources: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 14; Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation based on Butler’s Lives of the Saints and other sources, by John Gilmary Shea (Benziger Brothers: New York, 1894).

Updated 08/27/2010 13:30:02.