Saint Lucy
Lucia of Syracuse (283 – 304 AD), also called Santa Lucia (in Latin: Sancta Lucia) and better known as Saint Lucy, was a Roman Christian martyr who died during the Diocletianic Persecution. She is venerated as a saint in Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Christianity. She is one of eight women (including the Virgin Mary) explicitly commemorated by Catholics in the Canon of the Mass. Her traditional feast day, known in Europe as Saint Lucy's Day, is observed by Western Christians on 13 December. Lucia of Syracuse was honored in the Middle Ages and remained a well-known saint in early modern England. She is one of the best known virgin martyrs, along with Agatha of Sicily, Agnes of Rome, Cecilia of Rome, and Catherine of Alexandria.
Quotes about
[edit]- Lucia, nimica di ciascun crudele
- Lucia, enemy of every cruel person.
- Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy, Hell, II, 100.
- Lucia, a noble maiden from Syracuse, hearing talk throughout Sicily of the fame of Saint Agatha, went to her tomb with her mother Euticia, who had been suffering from blood loss for four years and whom the doctors had been unable to cure. It so happened that during the celebration of Mass that day, the passage from the Gospel was read in which it is said that the Lord healed a woman from that same illness. Lucia then said to her mother: ‘If you believe what has been read, believe that Agatha always has beside her the one for whom she suffered martyrdom. Therefore, if you touch her tomb with faith, you will immediately regain your health.’
- When everyone had left, the mother and daughter remained in prayer at the tomb. Lucia fell asleep and saw Agatha before her, adorned with precious stones, surrounded by angels, who said to her: 'My sister Lucia, virgin devoted to God, why do you ask me for what you yourself could obtain for your mother? Behold, thanks to your faith, she is healed.
- Jacobus de Voragine, Legenda aurea, Alessandro and Lucetta Vitale Brovarone (editors), Einaudi, Torino, 1995, p. 34 (in Italian). ISBN 88-06-13885-5.
- [13 December] Memorial of Saint Lucy, virgin and martyr, who, while she lived, kept the lamp lit for her coming Bridegroom, and once she was put to death for Christ, she merited to be wedded to Him, thus possessing the Light that never goes out.
- Martirologio Romano, translation into Italian by the Istituto San Clemente I Papa e Martire (Stefano Calvi), vatican.va.
- Vittorio Paliotti, Santa Lucia, TEN, 1993, pp. 9-11.
- ‘However bad things may go for you, at least may your eyes be spared,’ the beggar wishes, invoking Saint Lucy, patron saint of the eyes.
- Saint Lucy, condemned to work in a brothel, preferred to face the stake, which left her unharmed; and in Naples, more than one Filumena Marturano, who took to the streets to escape the oppressive heat of a basement flat, imagines harmless blackmailing flames. It is almost surprising that such a saint was born in Syracuse and not at the foot of Vesuvius.
- Saint Lucy is, from a strictly historical point of view, the place where the city of Naples was born.
- “May Saint Lucy preserve your sight”, the Neapolitan beggar has been repeating for centuries, holding out his hand on street corners, and with that phrase he gives the exact measure of the importance attached in Naples to the “faculty of sight”, a primary good that constitutes the extreme wealth of the poor and the ultimate health of the sick.
