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99 ST. BARBARA 09 King of Hungary, and was at one time Yioeroy of Naples for King Ferdinand. Her mother was Joanna Malatesta of Rimini. They had four sons and one daughter, called at first Camilla. She was bom in troubled times. Two of her father's brothers, with their sons, had been put to death for being implicated in a conspiracy. In 1481 Camilla took the veil at Urbino, and with it the name of Baptista. After a few years she returned to Camerino, and was made abbess of the nuns of the Order of St. Olaba there. She wrought miracles, and was revered as a saint by the people of Camerino during her life. She was a mystic, and received many marks of divine favour. She was carried in the spirit by two angels to the foot of the cross, and remained there two months. Christ placed three lilies on her breast. She had revelations of the mental suffer- ings of Christ, and wrote an account of them. In 1502 the Camerentines gave them- eelves up to Pope Alexander VI. His son, Ciesar Borgia, cruelly slaughtered Baptista's father, who had ruled virtu- ously for nearly half a century, and three of his sons ; the youngest survived, his father having sent him with the treasure to Venice at the beginning of the war. He was eventually reinstated is his possessions, and, after the death of Alexander, the two following Popes con- firmed him in the principality or duke- dom of Camerino. In 1527, on the death of Baptista, this brother, John Mary, made a magnificent funeral in her honour, and the people began at once to venerate her as a great saint. Papebroch, in AA.SS,, from her auto- biography, written by order of her con- fessor. Her life has been written in Italian by Cimarella, and also by Passino. St. Barbada, Paula Barbata. St. Barbalaba, or Bakbalabia, M. at Antioch. AA.SS, St Barbara (l;, Dec. 4, 10, V. M. CBarbe, Barbill, Basia, or Varvara^. 235 or 300. Called by John Knox " the gunnaris goddess.'* She is one of the fourteen Auxiliary Saints. Supposed to be the Christian adaptation of the god- dess of war. Bepresented (1) with a miniature tower in her hand ; (2) with a tower behind her, a crown on her head, and holding a palm or a sword ; at her left side a chalice, with the sun in it as the sacred wafer, as if she were credited with giving the last sacraments to those who die suddenly in piety. In German and Flemish pictures she holds an ostrich's or a peacock's feather, in allu- sion to the phoenix at Heliopolis, where s^e was bom. The flesh of the phoenix was said by the ancients to be incor- ruptible, so the bird became the symbol of apotheosis and of a happy immortality or long life. Barbara, Catherine, Euphemia, and Margaret are the four great patrons of the Eastern Church. Barbara was patron of armourers, gunsmiths, artillery-men, brewers, tilers, tfiatchers, carpenters, masons, architects, sappers and miners, bell-ringers, hatters; of all dangerous trades involving liability to sudden death ; also of the goldsmiths at Home ; of firearms and fortifications; against storms, thunderbolts, sudden death, and final impenitence ; of Hungary ; of the cities of Mantua, Ferrara, and Guastalla ; of Culemburg and Pedena in Istria. The legend of St Barbara is that she was the daughter of Dioscurus, a rich nobleman, who, fearing she should be taken from him by marriage on account of her great beauty, built a tower in which to keep her. Here she lived and watched the stars until she became con- vinced that they could not have been made by her father's gods. Having heard of a new and purer religion, she contrived to receive instruction and bap- tism from a Christian priest disguised as a physician. Her father began to build her a bathing-place in the garden, but before it was finished, he had to go on a long journey. During his absence, she went to look at the building, and finding that Dioscurus had ordered two windows to be made in it, she persuaded the work- men, notwithstanding their fear of dis- obeying their master, to make three windows in honour of the Trinity. See- ing a marble pillar beside the fountain, she made the sign of the cross on it, which remained there as if engraved upon the marble. After her martyrdom