e-Newsletter Issue No. 07 (195) - DECEMBER 2008

SAINT FOR THE MONTH

ST. LUCY

Feast Day – 13th December
Lucy, whose name means ‘Light’, kept the light of her faith burning and is now enjoying the eternal wedding banquet. She was martyred for being a Christian in A.D. 304 during the persecution of Diocletian. The fact the she is still mentioned in the first Eucharistic prayer of the Mass indicates the great respect that the Church has for her.

One story about her portrays Lucy as a young Christian struggling against the pagan influences of friends and of society. because of her deep longing for Jesus, Lucy vowed to remain unmarried. When her fiancé found out, he reported her to the government for the crime of being a Christian. She proved her faithfulness to Christ by giving her life for Him.

St. Lucy’s pictures show with an eye, sword and palm beside her. palm and sword is because of her martyrdom. Lucy’s feast comes during Advent, when we wait for the coming of the Christ our light. Customs have developed around her feast. In Scandinavian countries young girls dress in white dresses with red sashes (symbolizing martyrdom). They carry palms and wear crowns of candles on their heads. In Sweden the girls dressed as Lucy carry rolls and cookies in procession as songs are sung. A Hungarian custom is to plant a few grains of wheat in a small pot on St. Lucy’s feast. By Christmas there will be little green sprouts-signs of life coming from death. It symbolizes the fact that, like Lucy, we really enter new life when we die.