Saint Lucy

13 December  ·  Memorial  ·  Red

The gravediggers bend to their work in the foreground and the small body lies between them, the mourners standing back against a wall that takes up half the sky. Lucy of Syracuse had consecrated her virginity to God and wished to give her wealth to the poor; the suitor to whom she had been betrothed against her will, angry at the loss of the fortune, denounced her to Paschasius, the governor of Sicily, in the persecution of Diocletian. Condemned to a house of shame, she could not be moved from where she stood; wood was heaped about her and lit, and did not harm her; she died by the sword, in the year 303. Her name is in the Canon of the Mass, and both the Latin and the Greek Churches keep 13 December. Her name means light, and her day once fell on the shortest of the year.

James Bridge, “St. Lucy”, The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 9 (1910): newadvent.org

The Gospel of the feast

¹Then shall the kingdom of heaven be like to ten virgins, who taking their lamps went out to meet the bridegroom and the bride. ²And five of them were foolish and five wise. ³But the five foolish, having taken their lamps, did not take oil with them. ⁴But the wise took oil in their vessels with the lamps. ⁵And the bridegroom tarrying, they all slumbered and slept. ⁶And at midnight there was a cry made: Behold the bridegroom cometh. Go ye forth to meet him. ⁷Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. ⁸And the foolish said to the wise: Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out. ⁹The wise answered, saying: Lest perhaps there be not enough for us and for you, go ye rather to them that sell and buy for yourselves. ¹⁰Now whilst they went to buy the bridegroom came: and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage. And the door was shut. ¹¹But at last came also the other virgins, saying: Lord, Lord, open to us. ¹²But he answering said: Amen I say to you, I know you not. ¹³Watch ye therefore, because you know not the day nor the hour.

Matthew 25:1–13, Douay-Rheims (Challoner)

In painting

The feasts of the year  ·  The Rosary