Feast of St. Lucy (December 13)

While not much is known of St. Lucy, she is still a very popular saint. Lucy means "light" and her feast used to be celebrated on the winter equinox until the Gregorian calendar came into use. Lucy was born in Syracuse around 284 AD. She was a devote Catholic, but her mother arranged for her to be married to a pagan. Instead, Lucy gave away her dowry to the poor and refused to marry. The pagan ratted her out to to the magistrate Paschasius who had her arrested. She was jailed and condemned to a brothel, but when the guards came for her she could not be moved...they even hooked up an ox to drag her! Later they tried to burn her and that didn't work, either. So they stabbed her through the throat.

Lucy is often pictured holding a tray with two eyeballs on it. One story is that her persecutors pulled them out; another story says she herself plucked them and sent them to a guy who thought they were beautiful. Either way, St. Lucy is the patron saint of the blind.

St. Lucy is particularly revered in Scandinavian countries, which had been Catholic until the Reformation. The festival of St Lucy lives on, as you can see in the video. The girl with the candles on her head is portraying St. Lucy (remember, her name means "light"). The song is weird - it's a song about the beauty of the Santa Lucia area around Naples, Italy. The lyrics are changed so that they celebrate St. Lucy's victory over darkness.

By the way, she still could see after her eyes were taken away...