Mining and agriculture are the two most essential activities that sustain mankind – any material that cannot be grown through agricultural processes is extracted from the earth through mining or quarrying. Even those materials that are created in laboratories or factories could not be produced without the metals and minerals used to build highly advanced machines and equipment.
While mining is one of the most essential activities, it is the dirtiest, most dangerous and most thankless profession available to able-bodied men and women. (One scarcely considers the chain of activities involved in obtaining materials to make the products we use daily.)
Although the life-endangering and back-breaking toil of miners the world over is largely taken for granted by the general populace, it is interesting that the wellbeing of this specialised workforce has not been overlooked by, at least, the Catholic Church which, many centuries ago, beatified St Barbara the patron saint of miners and geologists. (A patron saint is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven for a nation, a place, an activity or a profession.
Because they have already transcended to the metaphysical, patron saints are believed to be able to intercede effectively for the needs of their special charges.)
There is no known date for Saint Barbara’s canonisation, although the veneration of saints was common from the seventh century onwards.
Moreover, there is no written record of her in any early Christian texts or martyrological works. St Barbara and the story of her life are more the stuff of legends, as is the case with St George, for example.
As there are no written records, various versions of the saint’s life have circulated through the ages, two of which are summarised in this article.
According to one of the stories, Barbara was the young daughter of a wealthy merchant who lived in Asia Minor around 300 CE, during the reign of the Christian persecutor, Diocletianus.
Barbara’s father, Dioscuros, strongly shared this anti-Christian sentiment and strove to keep her away from its influence. One of the plans he devised to keep her from this religion’s influence was to confine her to a two-windowed tower whenever he had to go away on business. In addition, he arranged to marry Barbara off to a rich heathen merchant, who also shared the anti-Christian sentiment.
However, both the father and her betrothed were unaware that Barbara’s slave girl was a Christian and was secretly teaching her the Christian faith, eventually baptising her while her father was away on a long business trip. (At that time, Christians were being persecuted in many areas of Asia Minor and were considered enemies of the State.)
Following the return of her father, Barbara explained that she had been baptised into the Christian faith and had no wish to marry the heathen merchant.
Dioscuros, seeing that his only child had turned to the new religion and that he himself had been placed at a disadvantage through the rejection of the marriage proposal, was overcome with rage. Desperately, she fled to the court for refuge and to plead for the Christian cause, only to be denounced as a heretic and tortured. Although her wounds miraculously healed, she was sentenced to death, the authorities ordering the execution to be undertaken by Dioscuros himself.
Still overwhelmed by rage, Dioscuros killed his daughter but was immediately struck and killed by a bolt of lightning as God’s punishment for his monstrous crime against his only child.
The scene of another story is set in a Greek mining town. In this narrative, Barbara was the daughter of an old heathen couple who, as in the other version of the tale, converted to Christianity in spite of her father’s anti-Christian sentiment. Her conversion and faith so enraged her father that he tried to murder her.
However, in this version, she managed to escape to a nearby mine and hid in a kibble which was just going down a shaft. The miners, who were mainly Christian too, offered her refuge in the mine. She stayed there for some time and repaid her protectors’ kindness by nursing the sick, helping the women and caring for the children. On her eventual return home, her father’s anger had not abated and he killed her.
With her rich and comprehensive legendary background, St Barabara – usually represented with a chalice and host, and a tower with two or three windows – won the hearts of many people and became the patron saint of a variety of craftsmen, not just of miners and geologists. Her imprisonment led to her association with towers, their construction and maintenance, and then their military uses. The lightning that avenged her murder led to her being asked to provide protection against fire and lightning; hence, her patronage of firefighters. Her association with things military and with death that falls from the sky led to her patronage of all things related to artillery, and her image graced powder magazines and arsenals for years. After the invention of gunpowder, artillerymen made her their patroness. And miners always prayed to her that she might protect them during their sojourn underground.
December 4 is St Barbara’s Day and is celebrated in many countries the world over.
Other patron saints less commonly associated with mining are St Kinga, the patroness of salt miners; St Joseph of Arimathea, the patron of tin miners; St Leonard of Noblac, the patron of coal miners; and St Eligius, a metal smith himself, the patron of metalworkers.