About St. Lucy

ST. LUCY

283 — 304
Feast Day December 13
Patron Saint of the blind, eye troubles and ailments, virgins, blindness of truth and faith, authors, cutlers, laborers, martyrs, peasants and salesmen.

According to tradition, Lucy was born to rich and noble parents in the year 283 in Syracuse, Italy. Her father was of Roman origin, but his early death left her dependent upon her mother, whose name, Eutychia, seems to indicate that she was of Greek heritage.

Like so many of the early martyrs, Lucy had consecrated her virginity to God, and she hoped to devote all her worldly goods to the service of the poor.

Her mother arranged a marriage for her, but for three years she managed to postpone the marriage. Lucy prayed at the tomb of Saint Agatha to change her mother’s mind about her faith. As a result, her mother's long hemorrhagic illness was cured, and she consented to Lucy's desire to live for God.

Lucy’s rejected bridegroom, Paschasius, denounced Lucy as a Christian. The governor planned to force her into prostitution, but when guards went to fetch her, they could not move her even when they hitched her to a team of oxen. The governor ordered her to be killed instead.

Lucy warned Paschasius he would be punished. After a gruesome torture which included having her eyes gouged out, she was surrounded by bundles of wood which were set afire, but the fire quickly died out. She prophesied against her persecutors, and was then executed by being stabbed to death with a dagger.

When her body was being prepared for burial, they discovered her eyes had been restored. This and her name which means "light" led to her patronage with eyes; the blind, eye trouble, other eye ailments as well as blindness of truth and faith.