Celebration of Saint Barbara

©Direction de la Communication / Michael Alesi

Monseigneur Bernard Barsi, Archbishop of Monaco, recently presided over the traditional mass of Saint Barbara, the patron saint of Monaco’s Fire and Emergency Service, in the presence of Colonel Luc Fringant, 1^st Aide de Camp (representing H.S.H. the Sovereign Prince), Serge Telle, Minister of State, and a number of high-profile figures from the Principality.

In his homily, the Archbishop thanked the firefighters “for their commitment to serving those in distress, for their strength of character and for their enormous courage.”

Saint Barbara, from Turkey, was martyred in the third century A.D.: having refused to renounce her faith, she was beheaded by her own father.

A garden in Monaco bears her name. It is an extension of the Saint Martin gardens and was created around 1830, during the reign of Prince Honoré V.