| HISTORY |
| Santa Lucia was a young Sicilian
girl, from Siracusa that lived around the 3rd or 4th Century |
|
| Lucia was a rich girl, probably beatutiful
and a bride-in-waiting to a youngster from the same city
of Siracusa. She was desitned to live the life of many
other girls in the 3rd-4th century, and namely that of
a wife and mother. |
| Her father was probably called Lucio, in
line with a Roman rule that stated that the daughters
had to carry the name of their father. Her mother was
called Eutychie or Eutichia. |
| Following a serious haemorrhage
that hit her mother Eutychie, Lucia decided to go to Catania
to pray on the tomb of the martyr Agata. Here God chose
her for a big project: through an apparition of Agata,
she was asked to dedicate her life to the poorest, to
the suffering and to the neglected. On her return to Sicily,
she started to put in place this project: She broke her
engagement, and started going around the city catacombs
to distribute her marriage gift (“dota”) to
the poorest people of the city. |
| The abandoned boyfriend did not
accept this decision, probably due to his attraction to
her family riches rather than a result of pure love! Otherwise
there would be no other plausible reason to explain why
the guy decided to accuse Lucia of being a Christian in
front of Pascasio, the roman prefect. |
| It is worth pointing out that
these were considered as Christian dark ages, a period
of persecution led by Diocleziano. Paradoxically they
were a period of big test for Christian faith, such as
the one provided by Lucia. She was arrested, threatened
and tortured to renounce to her faith, but she did not
accept. |
| On seeing this, Pascasio condemned
her to death, but before that he sent her to a prostitutes
‘house’; Lucia said that “the body can
only be contaminated if the soul accepts” and consequently
not even six men and six mules managed to move her from
where she was. |
| Before her execution, Lucia managed
to receive the Eucharist and made two prophecies: that
of the death of Diocleziano, which happened a few years
later as announced, and also the end of Christian persecution,
which happened in 313AC, with the Edict of Constantine,
which declared religious tolerance. |
| Her burial and remains are subject
to 2 traditions: |
| Metz : Lucia’s
body remained in Siracusa until VIII AC. Then the Duke
of Spoleto, Faroaldo, on conquering Siracusa took her
in Abruzzo, at Corfinium (the present Pentima). The Emperor
Ottone I, the Great, visited Italy in the 10th Century,
together with Teodorico, the Bishop of Metz. They discovered
Lucia’s remains in Corfinium, and in 969 took the
remains to France. |
| Constantinople:
In 822, Maniace, a Byzantine General transferred the remains
of Santa Lucia from Siracusa to Constantinople, in order
to take them in a safe place, in view of an invasion threat
from the Saracens. In 1204, during the Crusade, Enrico
Dandolo, the Doge of Venice, took the remains at St George’s
monastery in Venice. In 1280, the remains were put at
a church which he dedicated to Santa Lucia. Her remains
are now conserved in the church of Santi Geremia e Lucia
in Venice, Italy. |
| In 1894, a burial scripture was found in
St John’s catacomb in Siracusa, which confirm the
very old cult, and consequently the existence, of the
saInt, which has devotions around the world. In this scripture,
written in Greece, there is a homage to Euschia, who died
in Santa Lucia’s feast day. |
|
| Except this scripture (below),
any information about Santa Lucia is derived from the
“Passione”, a narration of popular tradition. |
|
| This information
has been translated and adapted from the site Cara
Santa Lucia. Special thanks for their authorisation
to traslate and publish this information. |
| Last Update: December
2005 |
