Feast of Saint Lucy

Lawrence Lew, OP via Flickr, licensed cc. 


Today we commemorate another advent saint  St. Lucy – her name means light!

Lucy was another victim of Diocletian’s Christian persecution.  Her story sounds similar to that of some other young virgin saints.   Lucy was raised a Christian by her mother, her father having died when she was a baby leaving her with a great inheritance.  She was known as a sweet, pious and devout young girl  Her mother, Eutychia, wanting the best for her daughter, made a match for her with a local pagan man.  But Lucy told her mother that she had devoted herself to a life of prayer and wanted to remain a consecrated virgin.  Her mother was persuaded when Lucy took her to the tomb of St. Agatha to pray and one of her mother’s afflictions was miraculously cured!

After that Lucy and her mother started selling off her dowry and all of their goods to give money to the poor.  When Lucy’s would-be fiance heard of this he became enraged and turned Lucy over to the authorities.

Again, like the other young virgin saints, she was to be sent to a brothel so that she might commit sexual sin, but when they tried to move her she was as heavy and immovable as a mountain. Finally, the local governor had her beaten and tortured.  Some say that her eyes were plucked out as part of that torture but that God restored them. This is why she is often pictured with eyeballs on a platter.

We do know that her death was so noble and courageous that it inspired the early Christians and her memory has been revered and passed down on to all of us!

St. Lucy is the patron of Sicily, virgins, blindness,


The most popular tradition to celebrate St. Lucy’s feast day is for the oldest girl in the household to wear a wreath with lit candles and wake everyone in the house with sweet rolls and coffee! This is one we made a few years ago with battery-powered candles. The sweet buns were real though!

Catholic Icing has some great ideas here.
For more information, see my Diigo links!