St. Lucy

Who they were

Lucy was a young woman of Syracuse, in Sicily, killed in the persecution under Diocletian in 304. The reliable core is small: she existed, she was martyred, and her veneration is ancient, her name stands in the Roman Canon of the Mass, where it has been said daily for some fifteen centuries. The tradition says she had secretly vowed herself to God, gave her dowry to the poor, and was denounced by the man she refused to marry. The association with eyes came later, from her name, Lucia, from lux, light, and from a medieval story that her eyes were taken and restored. Her feast falls in the darkest week of December, and in Scandinavia it is still kept with candles.

Why people turn to St. Lucy

The name and the story together: light, in the season and in the eyes. Invoked for failing sight, eye disease, eye surgery, and by the blind.

How to ask their intercession

Name the person and what is happening to their sight. Ask her to pray for them and for the surgeons and specialists doing the work. ---