This article is about the Christian saint. For other meanings, see Saint Lucia (disambiguation)

Saint Lucy (Santa Lucia)
Saint Lucy, by Domenico Beccafumi, 1521, a High Renaissance recasting of a Gothic iconic image (Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena)
Virgin and Martyr
Born	trad. ca 283 AD[1] Syracuse
Died	trad. 304 AD Syracuse
Honored in	Roman Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Churches Anglican Communion Lutheran Church
Canonized	Pre-Congregation
Major shrine	San Geremia, Venice
Feast	13 December 16 September (duplicate feast in pre-1970 General Roman Calendar)[2]
Attributes	cord; 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, Barbara, Catherine of Alexandria, and Saint Thecla; woman kneeling before the tomb of Saint Agatha
Patronage	blind; martyrs; Perugia, Italy; Mtarfa, Malta; epidemics; salesmen, Syracuse, Italy, throat infections, writers

Saint Lucy (283–304), also known as Saint Lucia or Santa Lucia, was a wealthy young Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint by Roman Catholic Church, Anglican, Lutheran, and Orthodox Christians. Her feast day in the West is 13 December; with a name derived from Lux, Lucis meaning "Light", as she is the patron saint of those who are blind. Saint Lucy is one of the few saints celebrated by members of the Lutheran Church among the Scandinavian peoples, who take part in Saint Lucy's Day celebrations that retain many elements of Germanic paganism.

Saint Lucy is one of seven women, aside from the Blessed Virgin Mary, commemorated by name in the Canon of the Mass. Hagiography tells us that Lucy was a Christian martyr during the Diocletian persecution. She consecrated her virginity to God through pious works^[3] refused to marry a pagan betrothed, and had her wedding dowry distributed to the poor. Her betrothed pagan groom denounced her as a Christian to the governor of Syracuse, Sicily. Miraculously unable to move her or burn her, the guards took out her eyes with a fork. In another version, Lucy's betrothed admired her eyes, so she tore them out and gave them to him, saying, "Now let me live to God".

St. Lucy

The oldest record of her story comes from the fifth-century accounts of saints' lives.^[3] By the 6th century, her story was widespread, so that she appears in the Sacramentary of Pope Gregory I.^[4] At the opening of the 8th century Aldhelm included a brief account of her life among the virgins praised in De laude virginitatis, and in the following century the Venerable Bede included her in his Martyrology.^[5] In medieval accounts, Saint Lucy's eyes are gouged out prior to her execution. In art, her eyes sometimes appear on a tray that she is holding.

Until 1861 relics of Saint Lucy were venerated in a church dedicated to her in Venice; after its demolition, they were transferred to the church of San Geremia.

The Roman Catholic calendar of saints formerly had a commemoration of Saints Lucy and Geminianus on 16 September. This was removed in 1969, as a duplication of the feast of her dies natalis on 13 December and because the Geminianus in question, mentioned in the Passio of Saint Lucy, seems to be a merely fictitious figure,^[2] unrelated to the Geminianus whose feast is on 31 January.

Life and works[link]

Lucy's Latin name Lucia shares a root (luc-) with the Latin word for light, lux. "In 'Lucy' is said, the way of light" Jacobus de Voragine stated at the beginning of his vita of the Blessed Virgin Lucy, in Legenda Aurea, the most widely-read version of the Lucy legend in the Middle Ages.

Eutychia and Lucy at the Tomb of Saint Agatha, by Jacobello del Fiore

Because people wanted to shed light on Lucy's bravery and fortitude, legends grew up, reported in the acta that are associated with her name. All the details are conventional ones also associated with other female martyrs of the early 4th century.^[6] Her Roman father died when she was young, leaving her and her mother without a protecting guardian. Her mother, Eutychia, had suffered four years with dysentery but Lucy had heard the renown of Saint Agatha, the patroness of Catania, "and when they were at a Mass, one read a gospel that made mention of a woman who was healed of the dysentery by touching of the hem of the coat of Jesus Christ," which, according to the Legenda Aurea, convinced her mother to pray together at Saint Agatha's tomb. They stayed up all night praying, until they fell asleep, exhausted. Saint Agatha appeared in a vision to Lucy and said, "Soon you shall be the glory of Syracuse, as I am of Catania." At that instant Eutychia was cured.

Eutychia had arranged a marriage for Lucy with a pagan bridegroom, but Lucy urged that the dowry be spent on alms so that she might retain her virginity. Euthychia 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. Give now to the true Savior, while you are healthy, whatever you intended to give away at your death."^[7] News that the patrimony and jewels were being distributed came to the ears of Lucy's betrothed, who heard from a chattering nurse that Lucy had found a nobler Bridegroom.

Lucy Before the Judge, by Lorenzo Lotto, 1523-32

Her rejected pagan bridegroom denounced Lucy as a Christian to the magistrate Paschasius, who ordered her to burn a sacrifice to the emperor's image. Lucy replied that she had given all that she had: "I offer to Him myself, let Him do with His offering as it pleases Him." Sentenced to be defiled in a brothel, Lucy asserted:

The Christian tradition states that when the guards came to take her away they found her so filled with the Holy Spirit that she was as stiff and heavy as a mountain; they could not move her even when they hitched her to a team of oxen. Even after she had a dagger through her throat, she prophesied against her persecutor. Unfounded, and absent in the many narratives and traditions, at least until the 15th century, is the story of Lucia tortured by eye-gouging. The emblem of the eyes on the cup, or plate, must be linked simply to popular devotion to her, as protector of sight, because of her name, Lucia (from the Latin word "lux" which means "light").^[8][9] In paintings St. Lucy is frequently shown holding her eyes on a golden plate. Lucy was represented in Gothic art holding a dish with two eyes on it (illustration above). The legend concludes with God restoring Lucy's eyes.

Dante also mentions Lucia in Inferno Canto II as the messenger "of all cruelty the foe" sent to Beatrice from "The blessed Dame" (Divine Mercy), to rouse Beatrice to send Virgil to Dante's aid. She has instructed Virgil to guide Dante through Hell and Purgatory. Lucia is only referenced indirectly in Virgil's discourse within the narrative and doesn't appear. According to Robert Harrison, Professor in Italian Literature at Stanford University and Rachel Jacoff, Professor of Italian Studies at Wellesley, Lucia's appearance in this intermediary role is to reinforce the scene in which Virgil attempts to fortify Dante's courage to begin the journey through the Inferno.^[10]

Lucy may also be seen as a figure of Illuminating Grace or Mercy or even Justice.^[11] Nonetheless Dante obviously regarded Lucia with great reverence, placing her opposite Adam within the Mystic Rose in Canto XXXII of the Paradiso.

In Mark Musa's translation of Dante's Purgatorio, it is noted that Lucy was admired by an undesirable suitor for her beautiful eyes. To stay chaste she plucked out her own eyes, a great sacrifice for which God gave her a pair of even more beautiful eyes. It is said in Sweden that to vividly celebrate St. Lucy's Day will help one live the long winter days with enough light.

Lucy's name also played a large part in naming Lucy as a patron saint of the blind and those with eye-trouble. She was the patroness of Syracuse in Sicily, Italy.

Relics[link]

Sigebert (1030–1112), a monk of Gembloux, in his sermo de Sancta Lucia, chronicled that her body lay undisturbed in Sicily for 400 years, before Faroald II, Duke of Spoleto, captured the island and transferred the body to Corfinium in the Abruzzo, Italy. From there it was removed by the Emperor Otho I in 972 to Metz and deposited in the church of St. Vincent. It was from this shrine that an arm of the saint was taken to the monastery of Luitburg in the Diocese of Speyer - an incident celebrated by Sigebert himself in verse.

The subsequent history of the relics is not clear. On their capture of Constantinople in 1204, the French found some relics attributed to Saint Lucy in the city, and Enrico Dandolo, Doge of Venice, secured them for the monastery of St. George at Venice. In 1513 the Venetians presented to Louis XII of France the saint's head, which he deposited in the cathedral church of Bourges. Another account, however, states that the head was brought to Bourges from Rome where it had been transferred during the time when the relics rested in Corfinium. The remainder of the relics remain in Venice: they were transferred to the church of San Geremia when the church of Santa Lucia was demolished in the 19th century to make way for the new railway terminus. A century later, on 7 November 1981, thieves stole all her bones, except her head. Police recovered them five weeks later, on her feast day. Other parts of the corpse have found their way to Rome, Naples, Verona, Lisbon, Milan, as well as Germany and France.^[12]

Saint Lucia procession in Sweden.

Popular celebration[link]

Her brief day was commonly thought to be the shortest day of the year, as can be seen in John Donne's poem, "A Nocturnal upon St. Lucie's Day, being the shortest day" (1627). The poem begins with: "'Tis the year's midnight, and it is the day's," and expresses, in a mourning piece, the withdrawal of the world-spirit into sterility and darkness, where "The world's whole sap is sunk.".^[13]

This timing, and her name meaning light, is a factor in the particular devotion to St. Lucy in Scandinavian countries, where young girls dress as the saint in honor of the feast. A special devotion to St. Lucy is present in the Italian regions of Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Veneto, Trentino-Alto Adige, in the North of the country, and Sicily, in the South.

The feast is a Catholic celebrated holiday with roots that can be traced back to Sicily. On 13th of every December it is celebrated with large traditional feasts of home made pasta and various other Italian dishes, with a special dessert of wheat in hot chocolate milk. The large grains of soft wheat are representative of her eyes and are a treat only to be indulged in once a year.

In Omaha, Nebraska, the Santa Lucia Festival is celebrated each summer. It was founded in 1925 by Italian Immigrant Grazia Buonafede Caniglia, and continues to this day. A statue of Saint Lucy is paraded through the streets of downtown Omaha, along with a First class relic, made of the physical body of Saint Lucy.

List of dedications to Saint Lucy[link]

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

• St. Lucy's Church (Manhattan) (parish established 1900, present church built 1915)
• St. Lucy's Church, Newark, New Jersey
• Church of St. Lucy, Santa Luċija, Gonzo, Kerċem, Malta
• Saint Lucie County, Florida
• St. Lucy's National Shrine at Micoud, Saint Lucia, West Indies
• St. Lucia's Church, Kotahena, Colombo, Sri Lanka
• The Order of St. Lucy
• St.Lucia Church, Poonapity, Kaddaikadu, Puttlam, Sri Lanka
• The Free Church of Santa Lucia

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Saint Lucy

See also[link]

• Saint Paraskevi, a female, Eastern saint frequently displayed with eyes on a plate

References[link]

External links[link]

• Jacobus de Voragine, Legenda Aurea: St. Lucy (e-text, in English)
• "Cara Santa Lucia..." (Italian)
• "St. Lucy" from New Advent's Catholic Encyclopedia.
• Representations of Saint Lucy

Luis Joaquín Quintana Santos (December 25, 1951 – July 27, 2009) was a professional baseball player who played two seasons for the California Angels of Major League Baseball. Quintana was born in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico.

On July 27, 2009, Quintana was found dead in his car after a crash in West Palm Beach, Florida.^[1] Officials from the Palm Beach County sheriff's office indicated that Quintana had died of natural causes while driving.^[1] Quintana's family announced their intention to take his remains back to Vega Baja, Puerto Rico for burial.^[1]

References[link]

1. ^ ^{a b c} "Ex-Angels pitcher Luis Quintana, 57, dies in Fla.", The Associated Press, July 28, 2008.

External links[link]

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference

This biographical article relating to a Puerto Rican baseball pitcher is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e