December, 10 2021
by Rev. Karen Fitz La Barge
Have you ever heard of Saint Lucia’s Day? This Nordic Christmas tradition involves young people dressed in white, with the girls all wearing red sashes and carrying candles. One young woman is selected to portray St. Lucia and to wear a wreath with seven candles on her head. The children all process and sing a traditional song together in veneration of an ancient young woman.
But who was Saint
Lucia anyway? Saint Lucia, commonly
known as St. Lucy was born to rich and noble parents around 283 AD in the city
of Syracuse on the Island of Sicily. Her mother was widowed young and was in bad
health. Worried about her daughter’s
future, she quietly betrothed Lucy to be married to a young man from a wealthy
pagan family. However, Lucy herself was
a faithful believer in Jesus Christ. Her
own plans for her future were that she would serve the church and that she
would give away her dowry to the poor.
Tradition says that one of the things that brought Lucy delight was to
bring supplies to the persecuted Christians who were hiding in the catacombs
from the Roman government. In order to
free up her hands to carry more food and water to the people, tradition says
that Lucy would walk the catacombs with candles secured to a wreath on her
head. Her coming, as a light in the
darkness, always brought joy to the frightened and hungry people hiding from
the authorities. Wanting to do more, Lucy began to use her dowry funds to help persecuted
people.
But Lucy’s young pagan fiancée
was furious when he heard about what Lucy was doing with her dowry. That fortune was supposed to become his! In
retribution for her actions, the young man publicly accused Lucy of being a
Christian. It was a crime that was
punishable by death. Ultimately, it was ordered that Lucy was to be
burned. Bundles of wood were brought and
stacked around her, but mysteriously the wood refused to catch fire. While some later traditions claim that Lucy
made a prophesy against the Governor and the Emperor, and that the Governor had
her eyes gouged out, the traditions all agree that Lucy died by having a sword
cut her throat on December 13th, 304 AD. Hers is earliest story recorded
in the fifth century book, The Acts of the Martyrs. By the sixth century, Lucy’s story had spread
to the entire known world, and as far north as England. In the old Roman Julian
calendar, her death date of December 13th was the winter solstice, the longest
night of the year. With the name of
Lucy, literally meaning, “light”; the celebration of the life of this young martyr
and her dedication to the God of light brought comfort to the early Christians
who were surrounded by unbelievers. It
was a celebration of the light of Christ coming to drive away the forces of
darkness.
Today, our modern calendars have
the date of the winter solstice falling on December 21st. The light is coming soon! May each of us remember this year that Christ
is always the light in our personal darkness, giving every single one of us the
light of hope, even in our darkest days.