Life
Saint Barbara the Great Martyr was born at the close of the third century in the city of Heliopolis (present-day Lebanon), to the family of a wealthy pagan named Dioscorus. Her mother died early, and her father, consumed by a jealous anxiety over his daughter’s exceptional beauty and intelligence, had a high tower built for her and locked her inside it so that no one could see her. There, contemplating nature and the heavens, Barbara began to reflect on the Creator — she perceived that her father’s idols could not be the true God, since they were made by human hands.
Through encounters with Christian women in the city and through secret correspondence, Barbara came to know the teaching of Christ and received faith in her heart. Her name, meaning “stranger, foreigner” in Greek, became a symbol of her discovery that in the world of paganism she was a stranger, and that she belonged to Christ. While her father was away on a long journey, she commanded the builders working on a bathhouse he was constructing for her to make three windows instead of two — as a symbol of the Holy Trinity. In the pool of the bathhouse she baptized herself, invoking the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
On his return, Dioscorus realized that his daughter had converted to the faith in the Crucified One. Enraged, he drew his sword and attempted to strike her down, but Barbara was miraculously saved — the rock opened before her and concealed her. She was captured and handed over to the judge Martianus, who savagely tortured her: she was flogged, her wounds burned with torches, and she was led naked through the city. Each night the Lord healed and comforted her. Suffering alongside her was Saint Juliana, who openly confessed Christ upon witnessing her torments.
At last Dioscorus himself took the sword and struck down his own daughter. The moment he did so, a thunderbolt descended from heaven and slew both him and the judge Martianus. Saint Barbara suffered around 306. Her relics rest in Kyiv, in the Vladimirsky Cathedral, where they are the object of great veneration.
Saint Barbara is especially known in the Church as the protectress from sudden, unconfessed death. Before her own death she prayed to Christ that everyone who remembers her and calls upon her name at the end of life would not be left without Confession and Holy Communion. Her icon in every home is therefore a reminder to prepare for eternity.
Tropar (Tone 8)
To thy Lamb, O Jesus, Barbara cried aloud in true devotion, and in the three-fold font was clothed in perfect impassibility; she poured forth her blood and received the crown of martyrdom.
Kontakion (Tone 4)
Honoring the Trinity with piety, and recognizing the three windows in the bathhouse, O martyr Barbara — thou wast crowned by Christ in thy baptism with the Cross.
About the Feast
Varvarica — the feast dedicated to Saint Barbara — is celebrated on December 17 by the New (Gregorian) calendar, corresponding to December 4 by the Old (Julian) calendar. It falls in the midst of the Nativity Fast, so the feast table is entirely meatless.
Varvarica is traditionally a women’s feast — it is especially kept by families in Vojvodina, Šumadija, and eastern Serbia. Beyond the patron feast itself, Saint Barbara is especially invoked as the protectress of miners, soldiers, and all those engaged in dangerous work, as well as by all who desire “a peaceful and Christian end to life.”
The central traditional dish of Varvarica is varica — a cooked wheat dish with beans, corn, dried plums, and walnuts, prepared precisely on this day. It is believed that varica symbolizes abundance and blessing, and in some parts of Serbia the mistress of the house would carry it at dawn to neighbors, children, and the poor so that “good fortune might spread” throughout the household.
The Varvarica feast table always includes slava bread, koljivo, Lenten stuffed cabbage, prebranac, Lenten salads of pickled cabbage and beets, Lenten fish (permitted in the Nativity Fast except on Wednesdays and Fridays), dried fruit, walnuts, hazelnuts, and honey cake. The host lights the slava candle, and the priest blesses the bread and koljivo with a prayer to Saint Barbara asking for health, peace in the home, and a safe end of life for all the household.