Great Martyr Barbara and Martyr Juliana of Heliopolis

Life and context

Saint Barbara lived in Heliopolis in Syria during the reign of Emperor Maximian, 305–311. According to her Life, her pagan father Dioscorus was wealthy and prominent and kept his only daughter secluded. Looking upon the beauty and order of creation, Barbara sought its Creator and concluded that handmade idols could not have made the world. She later learned the Christian teaching about the Creator, the Holy Trinity, and the Son of God. A priest who came to Heliopolis from Alexandria, disguised as a merchant, instructed and baptized her.

Confession and suffering

When Dioscorus discovered his daughter’s Christian faith, Barbara openly rejected the worship of idols and confessed Christ. Her Life recounts that, while a bathhouse was being built, she asked for a third window as a sign of the Trinity and traced a cross on a wall. The account then relates her flight, capture, imprisonment, and severe tortures under the city prefect Martianus. Juliana, a Christian woman of Heliopolis, saw Barbara’s suffering, spoke against the torturers, and was seized. Both women endured torture and were executed. According to the Life, Dioscorus himself beheaded Barbara.

Why they are venerated

Barbara is honored as a Great Martyr because of the severity of her sufferings and her steadfast confession of Christ. Juliana is honored as a martyr because she freely joined Barbara’s witness. The Life includes accounts of Barbara’s healing and of an angel covering the martyrs during public humiliation; these are received as Church tradition. The source states that Barbara’s relics were transferred to Constantinople in the sixth century and later to Kiev, where they remain at Saint Vladimir Cathedral. Their commemoration encourages Christians to remain faithful to God, to stand compassionately beside those who suffer, and to pray for a peaceful and repentant end to life.

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