[Barbara was actually the Martyr of the Day on 4 December, but the site I go to each morning to discover, like a weird advent, what saint I’ll devote to today, seems to have my work ethic and updates haphazardly.]
On the way home from beheading his daughter, Barbara, Dioscorus was struck by lightning, killing him, but not instantly, as a mercy, but in a prolonged column of white hot flame, as is true of the judgment of God. God’s judgment is also a mercy of a kind, but you can adjust the flavor based on behavior.
Dioscorus had kept Barbara rapunzeled away in a tower with two windows, but she added a third, because she loved the Trinity. He tried to kill her, once, in the tower, after she had professed her Christian devotion, but she was magicked away by her prayers to a mountain gorge, surprising two shepards and their flock.
A third shepherd would have been preferable, but one shouldn’t overmanage one’s miracle overmuch.
One shepherd protected Barbara, one didn’t, and the one who didn’t was turned to stone, and his sheep were turned to locusts.
Mike Bevel 