MIRACULOUS MIRACLES^™

Prayer — Prayers of the Saints

Prayer to St. Barbara for a Happy Death

Indulgenced by Leo XIII, 21 March 1879

Against the one death every Catholic used to dread — the sudden one, with no priest and no sacraments. Her patronage covers miners, gunners and anyone whose work can kill them without warning.

The Prayer

English · Original

O God, who didst choose St. Barbara to bring consolation to the living and the dying; grant that through her intercession we may live always in thy divine love, and place all our hopes in the merits of the most sorrowful Passion of thy Son; so that a sinner's death may never overtake us, but that, armed with the Sacraments of Penance, the Holy Eucharist, and Extreme Unction, we may be able to pass without fear to everlasting glory. We implore this of Thee through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

O intrepid virgin and martyr, St. Barbara, through thy intercession come to my aid in all needs of my soul. Obtain for me the grace to be preserved from a sudden and unprovided death; assist me in my agony, when my senses are benumbed and I am in the throes of death. Then, O powerful patroness of the dying, come to my aid! Repel from me all the assaults and temptations of the evil one, and obtain for me the grace to receive before death the holy sacraments, that I breathe forth my soul confirmed in faith, hope, and charity, and be worthy to enter eternal glory. Amen.

When the Prayer is Said

On 4 December; before dangerous work; by miners, gunners and engineers; in a storm.

History & Background

Barbara's legend has her shut in a tower by a pagan father, baptised in secret, and beheaded by his own hand — after which he was struck by lightning. The acts are late and unreliable, and she was among the saints removed from the general calendar in 1969. Her cult, however, was enormous, and the reason is exact: a man killed instantly by lightning died without the last rites, and she was believed to obtain that no one devoted to her would.

When gunpowder arrived, the patronage went with it. The powder magazine of a warship is still called the <em>santabárbara</em> in Spanish, and she remains patron of artillerymen, military engineers, miners, tunnellers and demolition workers — everyone whose trade can kill them between one breath and the next. Her feast is 4 December.

The prayer asks only for this: not to be overtaken by a sinner's death, but to go 'armed with the Sacraments of Penance, the Holy Eucharist, and Extreme Unction'. Leo XIII indulgenced it in 1879; the text is the Raccolta's of 1910.

Indulgences Attached

One hundred days, once a day — Leo XIII, brief of 21 March 1879 (Raccolta, 1910, no. 381).

Related Saints

St. Barbara

Late 3rd century, Nicomedia (per the traditional Acts) or Heliopolis (Lebanon) – c. 306 AD, Nicomedia (or Heliopolis)

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