Saint Lucy – Blending Christian Legend with Norse Folklore
For most of us Catholics, Saint Lucy is the patron saint of the blind and diseases of the eyes. Some of us can recall memories of Saint Lucy statues – a young Roman-clad girl looking heavenward, holding a plate with her eyeballs on it. (I know – gross by today’s standard). I recall seeing elderly people walking past the life-size statue of Saint Lucy in the back of a New York City church in Little Italy, rubbing the eyeballs on the plate, and then rubbing their own eyes.
She was a 4th-century Roman Christian martyr from Sicily. She was tortured (eyes gouged out) and killed for her faith. She’s widely venerated in Europe. Her name – Lucy – means “Light.”
Saint Lucy Feast Day – December 13th
Her feast is celebrated in the Christian Church on December 13th, very close to the Winter Solstice. And being that her name means “light,” the feast day was likely chosen to further Christianize that season in a very pagan world. And that pagan / Christian tradition is well-blended in the celebrations of Saint Lucy in the Nordic Countries.
St Lucy Tradition in Sweden
During a terrible famine in Sweden, on the darkest night of the year, a beautiful girl “clothed in white and crowned with light” brought food across the vast expanse of ice on a sleigh led by reindeer. As her sleigh progressed forward, the ice melted behind her, the crops began to grow, and the famine ended.
Commemorating this miracle, on St. Lucy’s Day, the eldest daughter, dressed in white and wearing a lighted wreath on her head, wakes the household and presents “St. Lucia buns” and coffee.
There are great processions and celebrations throughout the country with young girls dressed in white with red sashes processing as they sing Sankta Lucia behind the lead girl, who wears a crown of candles.
It’s a festival of light that brings warmth and hope during the dark Scandinavian winter and celebrates the coming of the light.
I hope one day to be there to see this. What a memorable travel adventure that would be.
EUROPE REMEMBERS ST LUCY
Versions of this same tradition occur in Sweden, but also in Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland. There are similar stories of Lucy being seen after her death, bringing food to Christians hiding in the Roman catacombs. She wore a wreath of lit candles on her head to light the way as her arms were heavy with food.
She is celebrated in many parts of Europe on this day as the bringer of light and the end of the long, dark winter nights.
Happy Saint Lucy’s Day
