This so angered Paschasius that he ordered the guards to remove her eyes.
According to later accounts, before she died she foretold the punishment of Paschasius and the speedy end of the persecution, adding that Diocletian would reign no more, and Maximian would meet his end. Lucy Before the Judge, by Lorenzo Lotto, 1523–32Ībsent in the early narratives and traditions, at least until the fifteenth century, is the story of Lucia tortured by eye-gouging. Finally, she met her death by the sword thrust into her throat. Bundles of wood were then heaped about her and set on fire, but would not burn. The Christian tradition states that when the guards came to take her away, they could not move her even when they hitched her to a team of oxen. When she refused, Paschasius sentenced her to be defiled in a brothel. Paschasius ordered her to burn a sacrifice to the emperor's image. News that the patrimony and jewels were being distributed came to Lucy's betrothed, who denounced her to Paschasius, the Governor of Syracuse. Give now to the true Savior, while you are healthy, whatever you intended to give away at your death." Įutychia suggested that the sums would make a good bequest, but Lucy countered, ".whatever you give away at death for the Lord's sake you give because you cannot take it with you.
With her mother cured, Lucy took the opportunity to persuade her mother to allow her to distribute a great part of her riches among the poor. Agatha came to Lucy in a dream and told her that because of her faith her mother would be cured and that Lucy would be the glory of Syracuse, as she was of Catania. Eutychia was persuaded to make a pilgrimage to Catania, in hopes of a cure. Her shrine at Catania, less than 50 miles from Syracuse, attracted a number of pilgrims many miracles were reported to have happened through her intercession. Saint Agatha had been martyred 52 years before during the Decian persecution. She arranged Lucy's marriage to a young man of a wealthy pagan family.Įutychia and Lucy at the Tomb of Saint Agatha, by Jacobello del Fiore However, Eutychia, not knowing of Lucy's promise, and suffering from a bleeding disorder, feared for Lucy's future. Like many of the early martyrs, Lucy had consecrated her virginity to God, and she hoped to distribute her dowry to the poor. Her mother's name Eutychia seems to indicate that she came from a Greek background. Her father was of Roman origin, but died when she was five years old, leaving Lucy and her mother without a protective guardian. Īccording to the traditional story, Lucy was born of rich and noble parents about the year 283 AD. John Henry Blunt views her story as a Christian romance similar to the Acts of other virgin martyrs. In medieval accounts, Saint Lucy's eyes were gouged out prior to her execution.Īll the details of her life are the conventional ones associated with female martyrs of the early fourth century. Jacobus de Voragine's Legenda Aurea was the most widely read version of the Lucy legend in the Middle Ages. The oldest archaeological evidence comes from the Greek inscriptions from the Catacombs of St. Her veneration spread to Rome, and by the sixth century to the whole Church. The single fact upon which various accounts agree is that a disappointed suitor accused Lucy of being a Christian, and she was executed in Syracuse, Sicily, in the year 304 during the Diocletianic Persecution. The oldest record of her story comes from the fifth-century Acts of the Martyrs. She is one of the best known virgin martyrs, along withĪgatha of Sicily, Agnes of Rome, Cecilia of Rome and Catherine of Alexandria. Lucia of Syracuse was honored in the Middle Ages and remained a well-known saint in early modern England. Her traditional feast day, known in Europe as Saint Lucy's Day, is observed by Western Christians on 13 December. She is one of eight women (including the Virgin Mary) explicitly commemorated by Catholics in the Canon of the Mass. She is venerated as a saint in the Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, and Eastern Orthodox churches. Lucia of Syracuse (283–304), also called Saint Lucia ( Latin: Sancta Lucia) or Saint Lucy, was a Christian martyr who died during the Diocletianic Persecution. The blind martyrs Perugia, Italy Mtarfa, Malta epidemics salesmen Syracuse, Italy throat infections writers Sasmuan, Pampanga Philippines 16 September (duplicate feast in pre-1970 General Roman Calendar) Ĭord eyes eyes on a dish lamp swords woman hitched to a yoke of oxen woman in the company of Saint Agatha, Saint Agnes of Rome, Saint Barbara, Saint Catherine of Alexandria, and Saint Thecla woman kneeling before the tomb of Saint Agatha.
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