Feast Day:
December 13
Profile
Rich, young Christian who vowed her life to Christ. Her
Roman father died when she was young. Her mother, Eutychia, arranged a marriage for her.
For three years she managed to keep the marriage on hold. To change the mother's mind
about the girl's new faith, Lucy prayed at the tomb of Saint Agatha, and her mother's long
haemorrhagic illness was cured. Her mother agreed with Lucy's desire to live for God, and
Lucy became known as a patron of those with similar maladies.
Her rejected
pagan bridegroom, Paschasius, denounced Lucy as a Christian. The governor planned to force
her into prostitution, but when guards came to fetch her, they could not move her even
when they hitched her to a team of oxen. The governor ordered her killed instead. After
torture that included having her eyes put out, she was surrounded by bundles of wood which
were set afire; they went out. She prophesied against her persecutors, and was executed by
being stabbed in the throat with a dagger. Legend says her eyesight was restored before
her death; this and the meaning of her name led to her connection with eyes, the blind,
eye trouble, etc.
Born
c.283 @ Syracuse, Sicily
Died
martyred c.304 @ Syracuse, Sicily; her relics are scattered
in churches throughout Europe
Name Meaning
light; bringer of light (= Lucy)
Patronage
against hemorrahages, authors, blind people,
blindness, cutlers, dysentery, eye disease, eye problems, glaziers,
hemorrahages, laborers, martyrs, peasants, salesmen, stained glass workers,
Syracuse Sicily, throat infections, writers
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