Australian Armourers Association

St Barbara

George Lewandowski Pays a visit to Europe

We went on a long overdue trip which encompassed Spain, Portugal, Morocco and Switzerland in September 2006. The trip was great, saw many sights, took lots of pics and just had a ball.

Anyway, we were in Zurich when the skies decided that we had too much good weather on the trip and we needed to experience rain from the Atlantic Ocean. So what does one do but go and visit the local museum in Zurich. Lo and Behold, a whole collection of paintings, wood carvings and other icons of our patron saint.

As you would be aware, some museums frown on taking pics of their artifacts. But, with some stealth, I managed to shoot these two of St Barbara. St Katherine of Alexandria is also featured in both pics. However, I am at a loss as to why they were both featured in various icons together. Possibly they lived within 70 years of each other and the fact that both were beheaded by or on order of their respective fathers.

St Barbara 1 is a wood relief carving with inlaid gold leaf which dates back to about the 14th Century. It depicts St Barbara on the right, holding the tower she was supposed to have been inprisoned in. St Katherine is depicted with a sword in her hand.

The painting in St Barbara 2 (apologies for the sheen) depicts the beheading of St Barbara (note the base of that tower again) with St Katherine looking on. What is interesting is the fact that St Barbara was martyred in 235 AD in Nicodemia and St Katherine died in 305 AD in Egypt. If you look closely, the executionist is dressed in garb that suggests that he came from an area bordered by Greece and Turkey, the locale of Nicodemia. Yet, the guy behind St Katherine, who is ready to draw his sword looks to come from Egypt as suggested by the colour of his complexion. Yet his clothing and weaponry suggests otherwise.

So, there you have it. There must be some truth in any legend or myth, especially by the amount of iconry in Zurich.

This link below offers further information about St Barbara: HYPERLINK http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintb01.htm

The irony of the whole story is that both saints were removed from the Roman calendar and cultus suppressed in 1969. Their feast days are only days apart, 25 November for Katherine and 4 December for Barbara.

Cheers,
George

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