In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

            In some ways, St. Lucy is like St. Patrick: there are a lot of celebrations that take place around the world, while the actual details surrounding the saint’s life are hard to state definitively. For example, it is not at all clear that St. Patrick actually drove a bunch of snakes out of Ireland! I am sure he would never countenance such an abomination as green beer. Even so, from probably the sixth century, Lucy’s birthday of December 13 has been celebrated around the world with various traditions, from her home country of Italy, to Scandinavia, England, Greece, and the Philippines. She is one of the eight women named in the Roman Canon of the Mass, showing how popular and widely known she is.

            The traditional story of Lucy’s life matches many of the themes of that category of saint called “virgin-martyr.” It says that she was a firm believer in Christ from a very early age. She was promised as a wife to a pagan in Syracuse, Sicily in the very early fourth century. She convinced her mother (whom tradition says was miraculously healed) to give to the poor her dowry price. This, apparently, did not please her fiance, who then turned her in to the authorities for being a Christian. They tried to force her into prostitution, but the legend says that when they came to get her, they couldn’t move her even with a team of oxen. They piled wood around her where she stood, in order to burn her, but the wood wouldn’t burn. And, finally, they put out her eyes and killed her with swords. Another legend says that she refused to be betrothed to anyone but Christ, so she put out her own eyes. Both of those legends have led to artwork with Lucy holding two eyes on a golden platter. The conclusion of the story is that when they went to bury her, her eyes were miraculously restored. So she’s been considered the patron saint of the blind.