Feast day: December 4

St. Barbara

Virgin, Martyr · d. c. 306

Patron of Miners, artillery, against lightning

By legend a beautiful girl locked in a tower by her pagan father, who secretly became a Christian; when she would not renounce her faith, her own father killed her and was struck dead by lightning.

Because her father was killed by lightning at her death, she became patron against sudden death by fire and storm — and so of miners, gunners, and firefighters.