Happy Feast! (St Lucy does not take first place in the competition for Catholics who ended up in lives they did not want – that’s for the weekend. She’s just awesome.)

We all know about her patronage of the eyes and throat, but I think she makes a suitable patroness for other situations too, as per the following examples:

1) Women who have been wanted for something other than themselves. Her suitor wanted her money. It didn’t hurt that she was beautiful, but it was her wealth he coveted above all.

2) People who know that a terrible suffering is ahead of them. When St Lucy prayed at the shrine of the martyr St Agatha, the latter saint appeared to the former and said, “How can I refuse your prayers, when you are like me?” Does anyone think that St Lucy took that to mean, “like me … but not that much like me?” No, from that moment on, she knew what was coming, but she returned to her home and began her programme of almsgiving with perfect calm.

3) People who have been hurt by the vindictiveness of others. See, the above-mentioned suitor turned her in once he saw her giving away the riches that he wanted. He wasn’t moved by some kind of commitment to his own religion, or to the state, or to anything else. He was simply trying to get back at her.

4) People with scruples. She told her persecutors that if her hands were moved by force, her soul would remain untainted, because she did not will any idolatry. She knew her own will, so she was not touched by any fear of accidental sin.

St Lucy, pray for us!