From the lightning that struck down her persecutor grew the whole logic of Saint Barbara's patronage. Because her father was killed by a thunderbolt, she came to be invoked against lightning and fire, and, more deeply, against sudden and unprovided death, the death that leaves no time to make one's peace with God, a terror keenly felt in a culture that prized a prepared and shriven end.
When gunpowder transformed war and industry, this patronage extended naturally to everyone who handled explosive fire: artillerymen, miners, military engineers, tunnellers, and firework-makers all took her as their protector, and the magazine where powder was stored was often called the santabarbara. She is counted among the Fourteen Holy Helpers, the group of saints venerated together in the late-medieval West as especially powerful intercessors in need. Towns, mountains, and mines across the Catholic world bear her name.