In the darkest days of the winter we celebrate the feast day of Santa Lucia (Saint Lucy) bringer of light.

Saint Lucy’s Day is celebrated on 13th December, especially in Scandinavia and Italy. In Scandinavia Santa Lucia is represented as a young girl in a white dress wearing a crown of candles on her head. The girl brings light and hope in the longest, darkest days of winter. In Italy Santa Lucia is seen as a heroine – an early Christian martyr who died for her faith – she is the patron saint of sight, vision and wisdom. You can see Lucia (Lucy) in the fantastic 6th century mosaics of Ravenna (bottom right). Possibly the first time she appears, by name, in a work of art.

_{Santa Lucia, Church of Santa Lucia & San Geremia, Venezia (left, centre). Mosaic of Santa Lucia, Ravenna (right)}

LUCY’S STORY – Lucy was a young woman from a noble family who lived in Siracusa, Sicily. Sicily was a very important Greek colony for hundreds of years. It was the home of Archimedes the celebrated Greek mathematician and engineer. When Lucy was growing up Siracusa was a Roman city. Lucy was a Christian at a time when being Christian meant that you could be persecuted for your faith. One day she went on a pilgrimage to visit the tomb of Saint Agatha, a very important holy woman. Here according to legend Lucy had a special visitation from the saint, who promised to cure her mother of a life-threatening blood disorder. When she got home, Lucy saw that her mother had in fact been cured. As a thank you to Saint Agatha she decided to dedicate her life to Christ and to spend each day helping the poor of Siracusa.

News of Lucy’s generosity and kindness spread rapidly through Sicily and people would visit her asking for help. She became very well known as a generous person, frequently giving money, food and gifts to the poor. The young man to whom she was betrothed was furious that Lucy was giving away all her possessions and money. A dowry that he felt was rightfully his! So he betrayed her to the local Roman officials, announcing that she was Christian and should therefore be punished. The Romans arrested Lucy and put her in prison. She was found guilty of being a Christian. The Roman soldiers prepared a large fire to burn her at the stake. However, when they lit the fire, the flames moved away from her body, refusing to touch her, physically avoiding contact with her flesh. It was as if the flames recognised that Lucy was a saintly person. She emerged from the fire unscathed. Lucy spoke eloquently about her faith and predicted that persecution of the Christians would not continue for much longer. In fact she was quite right – less than ten years later the Edict of Milan was passed by Emperor Constantine giving Christians the ability to worship freely throughout the Roman Empire. Sadly, it was too late for Lucy.

The Romans felt angered and humiliated by Lucy’s ability to survive their huge bonfire and a young soldier was ordered to kill her, which he did by cutting her throat. She died on 13th December, 304 AD. Many years later, the place where she fell in Siracusa, became the exact location for the Basilica of Santa Lucia, a magnificent church dedicated to the worship of St Lucy and the Christian faith. The Feast Day of Santa Lucia is celebrated annually on the day of her death. In Siracusa there is a huge and colourful procession every year worthy of a Dolce and Gabbana Fashion Show!

THE MARTYRDOM OF LUCY – As often happens with saints and martyrs, their story grows and is embellished over time. Lucy’s story was no exception. After her death her remains were placed in the catacombs of Siracusa, Sicily. However the number of visitors was so great that the relics had to be moved. By the beginning of the sixth century Lucy’s fame was so great that a basilica was built for her in Siracusa. Around the same time, she was sufficiently well-known to feature in the special prayers of Pope Gregory, many miles away in Rome. When Siracusa was invaded by the Saracens in the eighth century the saintly Lucy’s body was moved, firstly to Abruzzo in Southern Italy and then to Constantinople. At the time Constantinople was the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire.

A few centuries later, in 1204 to be precise, the Venetians enter Saint Lucy’s story. It was during the Fourth Crusade when Doge Enrico Dandolo of Venice embarked on a looting and stealing spree in the Byzantine city of Constantinople. The Bronze Horses of St Mark’s and The Four Tetrarchs were both stolen by the Venetians and shipped to Venice. At the same time Dandolo also decided to transport (steal) the relics of St Lucy and take them back to Venice. They were placed in the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore, on an island just across the lagoon from St Mark’s Basilica. However, the island was too small for the great number of worshippers and visitors that her relics attracted. In 1279, on St Lucy’s Day, a tragedy occurred when several pilgrims drowned after their boat capsized.  After this the Senate decided that the relics should be moved to the centre of Venice.  So, Lucy’s remains were moved once again – and eventually laid to rest in a church built especially for her in Cannaregio, adjacent to the Grand Canal. The painting below by Guardi shows the Church of Santa Lucia (left hand side) around 1780.

But this was not the end of Lucy’s journey. In 1861 the construction of a train station ‘ferrovia’ began in Venice. The land where the church of Santa Lucia stood was needed as the new ‘piazza’ for the railway station. The church was demolished to make way for the new station and Lucy’s remains were moved, yet again, to the Church of San Geremia – chiesa di San Geremia where a sanctuary dedicated to Santa Lucia was created. As recognition of Lucy’s importance as a saint the station was named after her – Venezia Santa Lucia. It’s a great shame that the rather beautiful Palladian style church was demolished. A visit to the Santuario di Lucia is strongly recommended – Santuario di Lucia

_{Portrait of Santa Lucia – Palazzo Chigi, Sassoferrato (left). Photo of Church of Santa Lucia – demolished in 1861 and lastly the Church of San Geremia & Sanctuary of Santa Lucia, Venezia}

THE STORY OF ST LUCY was recounted in detail by Jacobus da Varagine in his book ‘The Golden Legend’ of the 13th century. Jacobus was the Archbishop of Genova and a religious scholar. He compiled a book about the lives of the saints. Originally written by Jacobus in Latin, it was later translated into English, French and Spanish. It was one of the first books to be printed by William Caxton in England, when the brand new technology of the printing press had just arrived. The first ‘Golden Legend’ edition in English appeared in 1483. It was so popular that it was reprinted nine times over the next twenty years. That’s a best seller in medieval terms!! Lucy was one of the best known of the virgin martyrs, along with Agatha of Sicily, Agnes of Rome, Cecilia of Rome, and Catherine of Alexandria

Lucy is associated with vision and light and courage. She is the patron saint of opticians. Even today in Italy people travel to the Sanctuary of Santa Lucia in Venice to pray for friends and family members with eye disease. She is sometimes depicted with a bowl containing two eyes. Her story was embellished in the Middle Ages to include her ‘plucking her eyes out’ when a young admirer had commented on their beauty. She also appears in Dante’s Divine Comedy – when Dante is travelling through the ‘inferno’ and needs a guiding light. Later Lucy carries a sleeping Dante to the entrance to Purgatory. The symbolism here is that Lucy ‘bringer of light’ can escort Dante from the darkness into the light. Of course this symbolism wasn’t lost on the Roman Church who loved the idea of dark to light and saintly behaviour leading to salvation. She appears again for good measure in ‘Paradiso’.

_{Santa Lucia by Francesco da Cossa (left) and Santa Lucia by Carlo Crivelli (right)}

Meanwhile, if you want a really good ‘festa’ or party the place to go is Sicily. Every 13th December the city of Siracusa celebrates their patron saint ‘Santa Lucia’. There’s a huge parade through the city and a life-size silver statue of Lucia is carried at shoulder height through the piazzas and streets of the town. People crowd the streets to pay their respects, meet friends and neighbours and maybe pop into the church for a quick prayer. The dagger in the neck of the saint reminds us of her untimely end. Even Caravaggio, artistic genius and larger-than-life character of his day painted the saint in 1608 (see below). His dark and atmospheric painting is the ‘Burial of Santa Lucia’.

For me Santa Lucia is a breath of fresh air, a beam of light and a joyful bright horizon. All of which are positive forces against the dark, cold nights of the northern hemisphere in winter.

_{A silver statue of Lucia with dagger in neck, paraded through the streets of Siracusa every 13th December.}

_{Caravaggio’s Burial of Santa Lucia – 1608 (left) – Santa Lucia by Palma Il Giovane – 1628 (right)}

_{Almanach – 18th C. of saints names, including Lucy – 13th Dec and two other important Lucy characters.}

Notes:

• I’ve written about Santa Lucia before: The legend of St Lucy – that’s Santa Lucia in Italy
• I’ve also written about other saints including: St Catherine of Alexandria
• The mosaics of Ravenna depict Santa Lucia – early 6th century – possibly for the first time by name: Ravenna – mosaics from the east…
• I’ve been writing about Italy, Journeys, Life and Art for the last ten years – you can read numerous articles that I’ve written at: www.greyhoundtrainers.com
• I also run a travel company, creating unique journeys in Italy, Greece and (in 2025) Turkiye. These are small group trips. Perhaps you might like to join us: Unique journeys – 2025
• Note: The painting of Santa Lucia by Carlo Crivelli c. 1476 – was painted for an altar piece in Ascoli Piceno – Marche region of Italy. It is in the National Gallery, London – NG 788.12 (not on view).

……………..…Here’s to the bringer of light.…………

December, 2024