A Table of Light: Blessed Feastday of St Lucia
I may be biased since she is one of my patron saints, but i feel St Lucia is so dear! There is just something about her, something that refuses to let go of the magic of life. And talk about a Sonshine bearer! On her feastday as celebrated in the Nordic lands, she even transforms humble serving into a profound work of light.
I personally consider St Lucia the patron saint of former pagans (she definitely reflects the "pagan door", see CS Lewis's stuff), the patron saint of mending from violation (her persecuters tried to violate her in the deepest ways, straight to the soul), and the special patron saint of those longing to embrace a way of serving that brings joy and light rather than harms and demeans. A bit about her life, from Wikipedia:
"Saint Lucy of Syracuse, also known as Saint Lucia, Santa Lucia, or Saint Lukia, (traditional dates 283-304) was a rich young Christian martyr who is venerated as a Saint by Catholic and Orthodox Christians. Her feast day in the West is December 13, by the unreformed Julian calendar the longest night of the year; she is the patron saint of blindness. Lucy is one of the very few saints celebrated by the Lutheran Swedes, Finland-Swedes, Danes, and Norwegians, in celebrations that retain many indigenous Germanic pagan pre-Christian midwinter light festivals. She is one of seven women, excluding the Blessed Virgin Mary, commemorated by name in the Canon of the Mass...
(St Lucia) was a Christian while Diocletian was persecuting and martyring Christians. She consecrated her virginity to God, refused to marry a pagan, and had her dowry distributed to the poor. Her would-be husband denounced her as a Christian to the governor of Syracuse. Miraculously unable to move her (they tried to move her to a brothal to be violated "in order that the Holy Spirit would leave her" it says in some sources) or burn her, the guards stabbed her and killed her.
The oldest record of her story comes from the fifth-century accounts of saints' lives known as actae. By the sixth century, her story was widespread. St. Aldhelm wrote an account of her life, and the Venerable Bede included her story in his Martyology. In medieval accounts, St. Lucy's eyes are gouged out prior to her execution. In art, her eyes sometimes appear on a plate that she's holding.
Lucy means "light", with the same Latin root, lux, as "lucid," which means "clear, radiant, understandable." "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."
A Very Blessed Feastday of St Lucia, Bearer of Light : )
Dearest Saint Lucia, Please Pray for Us....
