Saint of the light - Mary Manning
Mary Manning talks with Saint Lucy whose feast day is 13 December.
Saint Lucy died in 304 in Syracuse. She is venerated in the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox churches, the Anglican Communion and the Lutheran Church.
Saint Lucy is the patron saint of martyrs, authors and writers, cutlers and glaziers, labourers, peasants, saddlers, salesmen and stained glass workers, the cities of Perugia in Italy and Syracuse in Sicily, and several illnesses including eye problems and throat infections.
MM Like some of other early female martyrs, it is believed that your Roman father died when you were young, leaving your Christian mother, Eutychia, to arrange a marriage for you. But you had other ideas.
L The oldest record of my story comes from accounts of saints' lives written in the fifth century, so long after my death that you might wonder how much is fact and how much legend. These accounts say I refused to marry the pagan man my mother had chosen for my husband and that I vowed to remain a virgin. My mother supported my decision when she was miraculously cured of a long-standing illness after we both prayed all night at the tomb of Saint Agatha.
MM How did the man you were expected to marry respond when he learnt that your mother would give your dowry to charity because you intended to remain a virgin?
L He was so angry he denounced me as a Christian. This was the time of the last and most severe of the Roman Empire's persecutions and I was already at risk because of bringing food and drink to Christians hiding in dark underground tunnels. Paintings show me wearing a wreath of candles to light my way in the tunnels.
The Romans sentenced me to be defiled in a brothel but tradition has it that the guards who came for me found me so filled with the Holy Spirit that even a team of oxen could not move me. They tried to burn me, and even with a dagger through my throat I spoke out against my persecutor. My eyes were gouged out but I was miraculously able to see without them. Paintings show me with the oxen, the dagger and my eyes on a golden plate.
MM Are you known as 'the way of the light' because of these stories about candles and your eyes?
L There is also my name Lucia which comes from the Latin lux meaning light and the date of my martyrdom which according to the Julian calendar was the shortest day of the year. The Gregorian calendar altered the shortest day to 21 December but did not change my feast day, and I have remained associated with lengthening days and increased sunlight. Many legends and ceremonies have developed in association with my name.
MM Can we look more at the way you are remembered at Christmas in Scandinavia and other parts of the world.
L It is thought that Viking traders, who travelled even to the Mediterranean, may have taken my legends home with them. Over a thousand years before your time, King Canute of the Norsemen declared that Christmas would begin with my feast day and last for a month. It was a good day to choose because after that the long winter days start to get lighter.
On the morning of St Lucia's day a young girl dressed up as Saint Lucy in a white gown with a red sash, and with a crown of lingenberry and candles on her head goes from house to house with her followers singing songs dedicated to Lucia, and offering food and drink. The procession is in memory of me travelling around with food for the poor. It also refers to a legend in which I bring a ship full of food over a lake during a famine in Scandinavia and another celebrated in Syracuse where two ships loaded with wheat are said to have arrived, one with me at the helm dressed in white and again with candles on my head. This is the explanation given for the cuccia, or cooked wheat, which is an ingredient in all the foods of the Scandinavian festival.
MM Other countries have similar celebrations. Can you tell us about some of them.
L Many celebrations involve food, which seems right for Christmas time. In Switzerland a Saint Lucy hands out gifts to the girls while Father Christmas gives them to the boys. In Venice people celebrate by enjoying fried cheese. Italians eat small cakes or biscotti shaped like eyes, light huge bonfires, and conduct evening candlelight processions, all in honour of Saint Lucy.
In Hungary, Croatia, and other European nations there is a tradition of planting wheat grains on Saint Lucy's Day so the shoots are well grown by Christmas. This recalls the Eucharist which is made from wheat and brings to mind Christ's parables about wheat.
MM We have talked about the many paintings of you featuring incidents and motifs from your story. You have also gained a place in literature.
L I am pleased to be remembered every year in Stockholm when a girl chosen as the 'Lucy Bride' is crowned by the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. I also believe I am mentioned by Dante in Inferno Canto 11 as the messenger sent to Beatrice to rouse her so that she will send Virgil to Dante's aid. It is unclear what Dante had in mind by this inclusion but I feel he must have held me in some regard. And then John Donne remembers me in his wonderful poem 'A Nocturnal Upon St Lucy's Day, Being The Shortest Day'.
MM can you leave us with some thoughts for Christmas?
L One thought is the belief that on the eve of St Lucia's day miracles occur at the stroke of midnight. Anyone awake at the midnight hour might hear animals speaking or observe running water turned into wine.
Another is that Christmas is a time for singing so you might add 'Santa Lucia', the Neapolitan boatman’s song made famous by Enrico Caruso (and also sung by Elvis Presley) to your Christmas song sheet. Here are some of the words to get you singing.
Sul mare luccica l’astro d’argento.
Placida è l’onda, prospero è il vento.
Venite all’agile barchetta mia,
Santa Lucia! Santa Lucia!
Over the sea shines a silver star.
Placid is the wave. Fair is the wind.
Come to my swift little boat,
Santa Lucia, Santa Lucia.
