ST. BARBARA’S DAY
GUNNERS’ CLEBRATIONS
Artillerymen throughout New Zealand yesterday celebrated Gunners’ Day, the feast day of their patron, St. Barbara. At Burnham Camp there were competitions of skill, including gun drill, in the morning, sports in the afternoon, and in the evening a smoke concert for Regular Force artillerymen and a film show and supper for trainees.
St. Barbara is reputed to have been born in the third century. She was the daughter of a fanatical heathen of Nicomedia, in Bithynia. Her father incarcerated her in a tower, in which she had three windows constructed to represent the Blessed Trinity. When her father learned she had been converted to Christianity, he had her torturned to death, but-he was himself struck dead by lightning shortly afterwards.
St. Barbara is one of the 14 “auxiliary saints” invoked specially against thunderstorms and fire. For countless years she. has been venerated as the patron of artillerymen. The symbolic flash of lightning can be seen in artillery emblems, including the gunners’ red and black tie.
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27669, 27 May 1955, Page 3
Word Count
171ST. BARBARA’S DAY Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27669, 27 May 1955, Page 3
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