Juliana of Heliopolis

Holy Martyr Juliana of Heliopolis suffered in the time of the Emperor Maximinus (305-311), together with the Holy Great Martyr Barbara. The Church commemorates them on 17 December (new style).

Saint Barbara

Saint Barbara was born in Heliopolis, in a pagan family of noble birth. Her father Dioscorus, having lost his wife early, was passionately attached to his only daughter. To keep her from the eyes of strangers and to cut her off from Christians, he built her a special tower, from which she came out only with her father's permission. Looking from on high at the beauty of God's world, Barbara often wished to know her true Creator. When the governesses given her said that the world was made by the gods her father honoured, she thought that these gods were made by human hands and could not be the makers of so bright a sky. There must be one God, who was not made by human hand.

In time suitors, rich and noble, began to come to Dioscorus more and more often, but the daughter firmly refused to marry. Her father allowed her to leave the tower, hoping that in the company of her friends she would change her mind. At a time when Dioscorus was on a long journey, Barbara met local Christian women, who spoke to her of the God in Three Persons, of the divinity of Jesus Christ, of His incarnation from the Most Pure Virgin, of His suffering and Resurrection. A priest who came from Alexandria, in the guise of a merchant, came to her and baptized her in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. While her father was away, a stone tower was being built at their house, in which the craftsmen had orders to make two windows, but Barbara asked them to make a third as well, in the image of the Light in Three Persons. When he returned, Dioscorus demanded an account. Barbara answered that three are better than two, for the unapproachable Light has Three Windows, that is Three Persons. Hearing the Christian teaching, Dioscorus was terribly angry and rushed at her with a drawn sword, but Barbara fled and hid in a crevice of the mountain, which opened miraculously before her.

In the evening, on the information of a shepherd, Dioscorus found her and took her home with beatings. In the morning he led her to the governor of the city, saying that he disowned her as a daughter if she did not return to the gods. The governor tried long to persuade her, but the saint rebuked with wise words the error of the pagans and confessed Jesus Christ as God. Then she was beaten hard with oxhide thongs and her wounds were rubbed with a coarse haircloth. In the evening she was led to prison. In the night, while her mind was in prayer, the Lord appeared to her: "Be of good courage, My bride, and do not fear, for I am with you." In the morning all were astonished to see that her body bore no trace of the tortures.

Martyrdom

Seeing the miracle, a Christian woman named Juliana openly confessed her faith and said that she wished to suffer for Christ. Both were paraded naked through the city, then hung from a tree and tortured long: their bodies were torn with hooks, burned with torches and struck on the head with a hammer. They could not have survived such torments had the power of God not strengthened them. Remaining faithful to Christ, the martyrs were beheaded by order of the governor. Saint Barbara was killed by Dioscorus himself, but the cruel father was soon struck by lightning and his body turned to ashes. The relics of the Holy Great Martyr Barbara were moved in the sixth century to Constantinople, and in the twelfth century the daughter of the Byzantine emperor Alexios Komnenos, princess Barbara, going to marry the Russian prince Michael Izyaslavich, brought them to Kyiv, where they are today, in the cathedral of Saint Prince Vladimir.