13 December - Lucie lived in Syracuse with her mother Eutychie. Since her childhood she venerated Christ and the Sicilian Virgin Martyr Saint Agatha. Her mother suffered from an inflammation of the entrails and blood loss, without healing for four years.
One day Lucia decided to take her to Agatha's tomb in Catania and ask her to be healed. St. Agatha appeared the following night to Lucia and declared to her: "Virgin Lucia, my sister, why do you come to ask me what you will soon be able to grant yourself to your mother? As I have been established guardian of the city of Catania, you will be established guardian of the city of Syracuse". The next day, Eutychie regained his health. Following this recovery, Lucia asked her mother for permission to distribute to the poor all that she was entitled to from her father's inheritance, which Eutychie granted. The two of them began to give everything they owned to the poor on a daily basis. In addition, Lucia told her mother that she had secretly taken a vow of perpetual virginity since childhood.
But before learning her daughter's vow of chastity, Eutychie had promised Lucia to a young man. He became violently angry when he learned that his fiancée wanted to remain a virgin and that she was selling all the fortune he had coveted, to distribute it to the unfortunate. He therefore went to denounce his fiancée to Consul Pascasius, as an enemy of the deities of the Empire. The persecution of Diocletian was raging and the judge welcomed this denunciation with joy. Lucia was then summoned to renounce her Christian faith. Faced with the young virgin's refusal, the consul declared to her:
"You will change your language when you are tortured.
- My language will not change," replied Lucia, "the Lord Himself made this recommendation to the servants of God: "When you stand before kings and judges, do not bother about what you should say; it is not you who will speak, but the Holy Spirit who is in you".
- So the Holy Spirit is in you?
- Yes," replied Lucia, "those who live in piety and chastity are the temples of the Holy Spirit.
- Well," exclaimed Pascasius then, "I am going to lead you into a place of debauchery, so that your virginity may be lost, the Holy Spirit no longer finds refuge in his own temple and abandons you....
- If you have me raped, my chastity will be doubly rewarded in heaven".
Irritated by this courage, Pascasius gives the order to drag Lucia into a brothel in order to have her raped by debauchees. But the Holy Spirit intervenes, and makes Lucia's body perfectly immobile and untransportable. Even with a team of a thousand men and a thousand pairs of oxen, she cannot be moved. Pascasius is enraged and has pitch, boiling resin and oil poured over her, and then has her surrounded by a pyre that is set on fire. But the flames do nothing to her and she continues to sing in the fire the praises of Christ. Then a sword is thrust down her throat, but she does not die immediately. A priest comes to bring her communion, after which she only gives up her soul.
In Europe, the day of Saint Lucia is celebrated in a very special way. In Sweden, for example, a girl called Lucia is chosen for the occasion. This girl leads the procession of women. Those named Lucia wear a white dress, a red belt and a crown of candles around her head. The other women each carry a lighted candle. The lit candle is the symbol of the fire that did not dare to burn Lucia, at the time of her martyrdom. The red belt is the sign of her martyrdom. Hymns are sung in honor of Saint Lucia, the procession enters a house to finish and continues with Christmas carols. It is not only in Sweden that such a tribute to St. Lucia is practiced, but throughout Europe and the United States, each country has its own way of celebrating it. For example, Scandinavia, Italy, France, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway... each has its own way of celebrating Saint Lucia.
