Orthodox Icon of St. Barbara & St. Catherine

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St. Barbara - December 4th
Troparion (Tone 8)
Let us honor holy Barbara, Destroying the snares of the enemy, she escaped from them like a bird with the help of the Cross as a weapon.

Barbara became a Christian in secret. Her father was an idolater in Heliopolis of Phoenicia, now Baalbek, Lebanon. When he was building a bath house, he had to go out of town. Barbara ventured out to the building site and directed the workmen to add a third window to the bath house. She made the sign of the Cross with her finger on the marble of the bath house and it was carved in the stone as if a tool was used. Upon her father's return, he questioned her concerning the third window. She confessed her faith in the Holy Trinity. When her father could not convince her to renounce her faith, he tortured her horribly and ultimately beheaded her with his own hands. Barbara entered into martyrdom in the year 290.

St. Catherine - November 24th
Troparion (Tone 5)
Let us praise Catherine the radiant bride of Christ, guardian of Sinai, our helper and supporter. By the power of the Spirit, she silenced the arrogance of the ungodly. Crowned as a martyr, she now implores great mercy for all.

Catherine of Alexandria was a virgin of great beauty and intellect, daughter of King Constus. She refused to marry the Emperor because she had received a wedding ring from the Lord Himself in a vision. When she successfully defended the faith against the arguments of fifty pagan philosophers who had been called in to convince her of the errors of Christianity, she was tortured on a wheel of spikes. An angel of God appeared and broke the wheel. After many tortures, she was beheaded with the sword at age eighteen in 310. Milk flowed from her body instead of blood. Her relics are preserved at the monastery named for her at Mount Sinai.

This icon is by the hand of Philip Zimmerman of New Florence, Pennsylvania. It is from Christ Our Saviour Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Seminary in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

Order # zcj-12