Vigils reading – St Lucy

ST LUCY

From Butler’s Lives of the Saints

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St Lucy is said to have been a Sicilian, born in the city of Syracuse of noble

and wealthy parents and brought up a Christian. She wished to devote her life to

God and to give her fortune to the poor, but during the Diocletian persecutions a

man, usually represented as a Roman soldier, tried to rape her, and she resisted.

He denounced her as a Christian, and she was arrested, tortured and killed.

Though these traditions have no ascertainable historical basis, her

connection with Syracuse and the existence of an early cult connected with her

name are well established. A fourth-century inscription mentioning that a girl

called Euskia died on Lucy’s feast-day survives at Syracuse. Lucy was honoured

at Rome in the sixth century as one of the most illustrious virgin martyrs whose

lives the Church celebrates. Her name is included in the Canons of the Roman

and Ambrosian rites and occurs in the oldest Roman sacramentaries, in Greek

liturgical books, and in the marble calendar of Naples.

Churches were dedicated to her in Rome, Naples, and eventually Venice.

In England two ancient churches were dedicated to her, and she has certainly

been known since the end of the seventh century…

Possibly on account of her name, which has connotations of light and

purity (in Latin Lux and Lucia), legends have long gathered around St Lucy.

Some of the legends and many paintings relate to her eyes. One gruesome story

is that she tore her eyes out rather than surrender to her attacker, and she is

sometimes shown offering them to him. Oddly, she is the patron saint of those

with eye trouble, and a gentler interpretation is that this is because the eyes are

the source of our awareness of light. Her feast-day had long been the occasion

for special ceremonies connected with virginity. It occurs near the shortest day

of the year and is especially celebrated in Sweden as a festival of light, with a

procession of young girls dressed in white and crowned with lighted candles.

The song “Santa Lucia” celebrates her memory.