Day 100 -- Saint Lucy

"Those whose hearts are pure are temples of the Holy Spirit."

I have been fascinated by Saint Lucy for many years. We have a statue of Saint Lucy in our parish, similar to the one to the left here.

Saint Lucy was born around 283 in Syracuse, Sicily. Her name means bringer of light. She was raised in a pious family of Greek ancestry and she vowed her life to Christ. Her father died when she was young and her mother arranged for her marriage, but for three years she was able to hold off on the marriage. Saint Lucy had to change her mother's mind and she prayed at the tomb of Saint Agatha and her mother's hemorrhage was cured. Saint Lucy's mother agreed with her for her desire to live for God. This is how she became known as patron of people with hemorrhages.

Since her bridegroom was pagan, he denounced Lucy's love for Christ to the governor of Sicily and the governor sentenced her into forced prostitution, but when the guards came to get her they could not move her. So the governor ordered that she be killed. She was tortured and even had her eyes torn out. She was surrounded by fire wood, but when lit, the fire went out. She eventually was martyred by being stabbed in the throat in the year 304 in Syracuse, Sicily and her relics are throughout Europe. Her name is listed in the prayer “Nobis quoque peccatoribus” (though we are sinners) in the Canon of the Mass.

She is also the patron of those with eye ailments because legend says her eyesight was restored before her death.


I particularly liked this prayer to Saint Lucy:
Saint Lucy, you did not hide your light under a basket, but let it shine for the whole world, for all the centuries to see. We may not suffer torture in our lives the way you did, but we are still called to let the light of our Christianity illumine our daily lives. Please help us to have the courage to bring our Christianity into our work, our recreation, our relationships, our conversation -- every corner of our day. Amen.