Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/143

 12 s. in. FEB. IT, Ian.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

137

"French litany of St. Barbara, where we find :

'' Patronnc singuliere entre tous les Saints, pour nous obtenir k 1'heure de la mort la reception des saints Sacrements : Priez pour nous."

In allusion to her protection of sailors she is termed " Etoile, qui dans le naufrage indique le port du salut, Jesus-Christ " ; and " Xavire mysterieux, qui conduit aux mourants le froment des eius."

In that well-known and beautiful book, ' Coeleste Palmetum,' may be found the ' Little Office of St. Barbara ' (for private devotion), used on Thursdays " ad im- petrandam felicem mortem." The hymns and antiphons are very lovely. There are further given " Septem petitiones per patro- cinium S. Bjarbarae."

St. Barbara is also the patroness of the sick, and an old collect commences : " O -electa Christi famula, S. Barbara, cuius lethalia uulnera Jesus in carcere attactu ananuum suarum curauit : ora pro me. . . .''

The Confraternity of the Booksellers in Rome, which wears a white gown, a red rgirdle, and black cape, is under the protection of St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Barbara. It is said that St. Barbara was instructed in divinity and Sacred Letters by Origen. At Rome relics of St. Barbara are preserved in St. Peter's, St. John Lateran (part of her "veil), S. Maria Maggiore, Dodici Apostoli, S. Maria in Trastevere, San Lazaro, and S. Cesario in Palatio.

St. Barbara is greatly venerated to-day in Greece. Some years ago when staying in Athens I purchased several icons, and I <;an well remember how the shopkeeper brought forward an icon of St. Barbara, sa> ing : " She is powerful ! She is worth all the other saints ! Without St. Barbara you can do nothing." In art Palma Vecchio's great picture of St. Barbara in S. Maria Formosa, Venice, is one of the most glorious treasures of the world. It was painted for the bombardieri, who went thither to adore her shrine.

Although, naturally enough, legends and fabulous accretions have grown around the saint, to say, as Baring-Gould is quoted, that "she is a wholly mythical personage," is, of course, unscholarly nonsense.

Two other saints, well-known patrons of sailors, are the Blessed Peter Gonzalez (St. Elmo),* and S. Maria de Cervellione (de Socos),f a Mercedarian nun. The sacred

t Feast, Sept. 22.
 * Feast, April 14.

relics of St. Elmo are venerated in the Cathedral of Tuy, Spain :

" Eius miraculorum fama ad remotas usque Americae regiones peruagata, ingenti populorum uenera.tione inuocari et coli coepit, a nautis cum- primis, qui eius opera in maris tempestatibus praesentissimarn expert!, eum sub inuocatione Sancti Telmi, in Tutelarem sibi adsciuerunt."

S. Maria de Cervellione appears in art clothed in the white habit of her order, standing upon a rough and tempestuous sea, and holding in one hand a ship with all sail spread. She is particularly venerated in Spain. MONTAGUE SUMMERS, F.R.S.L.

PREBENDARY DEEDES is probably familiar with the exquisitely finished miniature of St. Barbara in the copy of the ' Hours of the Virgin ' which formerly belonged to Isabella of Castile, the wife of Ferdinand II. of Spain, of about the date of 1490, now in the British Museum. A facsimile of this miniature, drawn by the late Henry Shaw, F.S.A., and executed in the very finest style of wood engraving, is in Shaw's ' Handbook of the Art of Illumination,' London, 1866, p. 34.

E. BRABROOK.

Upon the shaft of a font in Hart Church co. Durham, there is a figure of St. Barbara but in this case she is represented with a book in the left hand and a tower in the right hand.

Both bowl and shaft of this font have suffered mutilation ; a crowbar seems to have been the implement used, and it would appear to have been, aimed at the figure of St. Barbara, when it probably very easily removed her face.

I am indebted to Canon J. C. Hodgson for naming the figure, who tells us the date of the font is 1490-1510. It is of elaborate character, if not conspicuous merit.

Is it not unusual for the book (presumably the Scriptures) to be held in the left hand ? A. E. OUGHTRED.

Castle Eden.

PREBENDARY DEEDES may like to refer to Mr. Francis Bond's ' Dedications of English Churches.' English representations of St. Barbara will be found there on pp. 7, 22, 47, 144, and 149.

Probably the best - known picture of St. Barbara is that by Palma Vecchio in Santa Maria Formosa in Venice, if, indeed, it survives the Austrian air- raids.

In Rome there is a small church dedicated to this saint near the Campo de' Fuori, which was already in existence in the eleventh century, as is proved by a mural inscription. JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.