‘Light’ of St. Lucy

On Dec. 13, lights sparkle through the “darkness” of the Advent season from the Scandinavian countries to Acadiana territory in Louisiana in festivals celebrating of the feast of St. Lucy.

Although St. Lucia, or St. Lucy, which means “light” or “lucid,” was blinded in a cruel martyrdom she is seen as pointing the way to the birth of Christ at Christmas.

St. Lucy, who is venerated in the Catholic, Anglican, Eastern Orthodox and Lutheran churches, was born 283 A.D. in Syracuse, Italy. She was a young child when she lost her father but her mother, Eutychia, encouraged her to grow in piety and religion. St. Lucy consecrated her virginity to God but did not tell her mother. She thwarted advances of potential suitors.

Her mother, according to tradition, arranged for her to marry a pagan man, Paschasius.

At the tomb of St. Agatha, St. Lucy prayed for her mother to change her mind, and her mother was cured of a hemorrhage. Her mother then agreed to let St. Lucy live the life of piety as she wished. Her suitor became irate at being rejected.

There are two versions of how St. Lucy lost her eyes. In one version, she plucked out her eyes and gave them to her suitor, who liked her beautiful eyes.

In another version, her suitor turned her over to a judge and she was sentenced to a life of prostitution. But it is said she “did not budge” on her commitment to God as she could not even be moved when the guards hitched her to a team of oxen. It was then ordered that she would be killed.

Her eyes were torn out during a gruesome torture. Even when her persecutors surrounded her with wood and set it on fire, the fire quickly went out. They finally stabbed her to death with a dagger.

St. Lucy is often depicted holding a golden dish containing her eyes. She is also depicted with a dagger, lamp or two oxen and a palm branch, which indicates martyrdom.

Additionally, you will sometimes see St. Lucy with a wreath of candles on her head because it is told she wore them to see better when she took supplies to prisoners in the catacombs during the persecution of the Emperor Diocletian. 

Since her death, St. Lucy has been memorialized in Dante’s “Divine Comedy” and is one of only seven female saints to be memorialized in the Canon of the Mass.

Even today, St. Lucy’s name is considered the “lights of the skies.” 

In addition to being celebrated in Italy, St. Lucy became a light of Christ to the Scandinavians, who had resonated with her story because, prior to the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, her feast day coincided with the winter solstice, 

or the shortest day of the year.

In the Scandinavian countries, each country selects its own St. Lucia designee, who is followed in a procession by girls dressed in white and wearing lights on their head and boys dressed in costumes like pajamas singing traditional songs.

Closer to home, on the Saturday closest to Dec. 13 St. Martin de Tours Church in St. Martinville hosts a St. Lucy Festival of Lights, which is celebrated by families and the wider community.