St Barbara

Devotional badge of St Barbara, who gave protection against sudden death. St Barbara is depicted holding a palm branch over her right shoulder. On her left stands a small tower. This tiny, circular badge has a cabled border and a stitching hole at the top. Thin copper alloy badges like this one were sewn onto clothing or into the pages of prayer books. St Barbara was very popular in the late 15th and early 16th centuries and appears on many badges and other trinkets of this period. The saint is said to have lived in the 4th century AD and had been kept in a tower by her father to isolate her from the outside world. She secretly became a Christian and when she confessed this to her pagan father, he turned her over to the state authorities. She was put on trial, tortured and condemned to death but refused to give up her religion. Her father beheaded her but as a punishment he was killed by being struck by lightning. St Barbara was often shown holding a palm branch, as an emblem of her martyrdom, and a tower.