babes

st barbara

"The story of St. Barbara also contains a tower, much like the Cleve family Swan Tower, and a woman who could not be contained by it. Barbara’s father kept her shut up in that tower, sealed away from the outside world, and when she refused the offered marriage and declared herself a Christian, he “drew his sword to kill her, but her prayers created an opening in the tower wall and she was miraculously transported to a mountain gorge, where two shepherds watched their flocks.” Though she was eventually captured by the soldiers of the prefect Martinianus and tortured, each night her wounds sealed up, and the soldiers found her fresh and healthy in the morning. And though her father won the right to cut off her head as he had planned, immediately after doing so, he was struck down by lightning and turned to ash. Thus St. Barbara became the patron saint of artillerymen and explosives workers."


st catherine