UPDATE:
One of you long-time readers here, FV, alerted me to the fact that his daughter contributed artwork for a post at NLM about St. Lucy. The idea was to contrast that hideous Jubilee mascot, the gay’d-up creepy Greta wannabe, Luce, with St. Lucy. Thanks to FV for this head’s up! I usually look at NLM but I appreciate the tip.
Here it is. I say, pretty talented! Fr. Z kudos.
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13 December was the darkest day – with the least length of sunlight – of the old Julian calendar. Hence, it was once the Winter Solstice.
Today in the Gregorian calendar is the feast of St. Lucy, whose name from the Latin lux, for “light”, reminds us who dwell in the still darkening northern hemisphere that our days will soon be getting longer again.
Lucy will usually be depicted in art with a lantern, or with a crown of candles, or – most commonly – with her own eyes on a platter.
Some accounts have Lucy slain by having her throat thrust through with sword. Other accounts say that to protect her virginity she disfigured herself by cutting her own eyes out and sending them to her suitor, a plot likely to discourage him. St. Lucy is therefore the patroness of sight.
St. Lucy shows up fairly often in Dante’s great Divine Comedy. She is first in the Inferno. It is Lucy who asked Beatrice to help Dante. In Purgatory the eagle that bears Dante upward in a dream is actually Lucy who is bearing him to the gate of Purgatory. Eagles, of course, are “eagle-eyed” and see very well. In the Paradiso she is placed directly across from Adam in the Heaven of the Rose. She can gaze directly at God.
Imagine. Our human, physical eyes will be enabled to see God. Our human eyes, in Christ and Mary, are already there.
St. Lucy was something of a patroness for Dante and that he was devoted to her because, as we glean from various works, he may have had a problem not just with his eyes but also struggling with sins of the eyes.
Next week we also have Ember Days, which in Advent come after the Feast of St. Lucy. Do you remember the little mnemonic poem? “Lenty, Penty, Crucy, Lucy”, or else “Fasting days and Emberings be / Lent, Whitsun, Holyrood, and Lucie.”
Ember Wednesday will be the Missa aurea.
In the meantime, let’s have a look at Lucy’s Collect in the Novus Ordo. While the Vetus Ordo oration is a solid and standard prayer, it isn’t as rich.
This prayer was not in the pre-Conciliar editions of the Missale Romanum. It is based on a prayer in the ancient Gelasian Sacramentary for St. Felicity (VIIII KALENDAS DECEMBRIS).
Intercessio nos, quaesumus, Domine, sanctae Luciae virginis et martyris gloriosa confoveat, ut eius natalicia et temporaliter frequentemus, et conspiciamus aeterna.
First, you will have immediately caught the elegant hyperbaton, the separation of intercessio and the adjective that goes with it, gloriosa. There is also a nice et… et construction.
Confoveo is “to cherish, caress, keep warm.” It is a compound of foveo which essentially is “to be hot, to roast”. It obviously deals with heat, flame, light. This is a good word for this time of year in the northern hemisphere (unless you are in, say, Florida).
Conspicio is “to look at attentively, to get sight of, to descry, perceive, observe”. We are obviously dealing the seeing and sight. This word should ring mental bells for the throngs of you readers who attended Holy Mass in the Novus Ordo celebrated in Latin. Conspicio is in the Collect for the 3rd Sunday of Advent, used in a an extremely clever way juxtaposed to exspecto. They share a common root. But I digress.
Natalicia refers to birthdays. In the Christian adaptation of this word, we are always referring to the saints being “born” into heaven.
CURRENT ICEL (2011):
May the glorious intercession of the Virgin and Martyr Saint Lucy give us new heart, we pray, O Lord, so that we may celebrate her heavenly birthday in this present age and so behold things eternal.
Perhaps you might say a prayer today to St. Lucy, that she will intercede with God and implore Him, for us in the vale of tears, to open the eyes of so many of our Church leaders.
Also, let anyone having problems with their eyes, literally, pray to St. Lucy for help.
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Something interesting about St Lucy in my life. About 13 years ago I had a dream where my dad’s older sister and I were walking in a building through endless rooms. Finally we found ourselves at the end of a grand staircase with a huge statue of St Lucy. When I woke up that morning I had voicemail from that aunt letting me know my father had died. My father was legally blind. I’d like to believe St Lucy was with him in those moments of his life.
Lovely story, Anneliese.
Fr. Zuhlsdorf, why is it that for today’s traditional Mass, we use the commons for a virgin not a martyr, when Lucy was indeed a martyr?
Ever since I had emergency eye surgery (a detaching retina), I have kept a devotion to St. Lucy; I credit her with keeping my eyesight intact. (The surgeon did his part, of course, but I had no loss to my eyesight.) I consider her one of my patronesses.
Anneliese’s story leaves me with a lump in my throat. Lovely artwork by FV’s daughter, by the way.
That is beautiful artwork. What a blessing to have such talent, and to use it for sacred purpose, even better. Is anyone else teaching about St. Lucy, Fr. Z? I bet there are a zillion things in the Catholic world we have heard about only by reading your blog over the years. Thank you for it, God bless you and yours.