Her name comes from the Latin word meaning “light,” and Queen Lucia’s crown lights up the darkness in the depths of night. Her candles flicker as their wax melts, and the flames dance and sway in the shadows. Queen Lucia brings comfort to adults, and awes little children with her halo of fire. Many photographs of this sort have been taken, of women wearing these crowns of candlesticks, especially in Scandinavia. But where does the tradition come from? We know that the feast of Queen Lucia falls just before the feast of Saint Thomas – perhaps she too is a saint honoured by the Church?
The Swedish tradition of wearing a crown of candlesticks dates back to the Roman era, and is indeed derived from the legend of Saint Lucia. But who was this early saint? According to apocryphal ancient texts, Lucia came from a wealthy Sicilian family. Her mother, Eutychia, had suffered from a bleeding disorder and swelling of the bowels for several years. There was no cure or remedy for her pain. As a follower of Sainte Agatha, one day Lucia decided to take her mother to visit Agatha’s shrine in Catania. There she prayed: “Saint Agatha! Wilt thou have pity on us, and through the grace of God heal my mother of all her ills and torments? I am at your mercy, and powerless. I am in desolation. Help me, Saint Agatha!”
Night had fallen, and Lucia could not sleep. Clouds had gathered in the sky, and for brief moments the city of Syracuse would be illuminated by flashes of white light. Suddenly, Saint Agatha visited the child. “Holy Lucia, my sister, why do you ask of me what you will soon yourself be able to give your mother? As I was made guardian of the city of Catania, so you shall be guardian of Syracuse.” The next day, a miracle occurred and Eutychia was cured. Lucy took the opportunity to persuade her mother to allow her to distribute a great portion of the wealth she had inherited from her father to the poor, to which Eutychia agreed. The pair went out each day and gave away all they possessed to the needy.
Before falling ill, Eutychia had betrothed Lucia to a suitor. The man grew angry when he learned that Lucia had taken a vow of chastity, in keeping with the traditions of Saint Agatha. Wrathful and forsaken, he reported Lucia to the local Roman authorities, who sentenced her to a life of prostitution in a brothel. She told Pascasius, her persecutor: “If you have me raped, my chastity shall only be doubly rewarded in heaven.” Furious, Pascasius ordered her to be covered in pitch, resin and boiling oil, then built a pyre around her and set it on fire. According to legend, she was untouched by the flames. The fire spread, but Lucy’s body remained whole. The flames rose up around her neck, but she felt nothing. The Romans were incensed at such insolence from a woman. They put Lucia to the sword, and as the blade sliced through her neck she died a martyr. The sky over Syracuse groaned, and the city was illuminated.
Lucia, like many early Christians in the centuries following Jesus’ resurrection, was the victim of Roman persecution. In an inscription dating from the year 400 AD, records can be found of two churches in Great Britain dedicated to the saint, at a time when the isles were still largely pagan. No-one knows when she was born, but she died in Syracuse, Sicily, in 304. She is the patron saint and protector of the people of Syracuse, and all the lands around it.
Such acts are not soon forgotten, and so the martyr is still celebrated by the church every 13 December.
Alan Alfredo Geday
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