Barbara, St (lived 3rd century AD)

Martyr of the early Roman Catholic Church. Accounts of her life differ widely, but she is thought to have lived in Tuscany during the reign of the Roman emperor Maximinus Thrax (ruled AD 235–38). One legend recounts how her father Dioscorus denounced her as a Christian and, after having her tortured, beheaded her himself. He was then struck by lightning and killed. Her feast, on 4 December, was suppressed in the Roman Calendar of 1969 because of doubts about her authenticity.