13 December: The Feast of Saint Lucy

For Christians, today is Saint Lucy’s Day. It commemorates the 4th-century martyr and saint Lucia of Syracuse who, according to legend, brought food and aid to Christians who were hidden in Roman catacombs by wearing a candle-lit wreath on her head (so she could carry as much food as possible in her hands). Lucy - or Lucia - means ‘light’ (derived from the Latin ‘lux’) and her feast day is seen as the arrival of the Light of Christ. The date also used to coincide with the shortest day of the year (before calendar reforms).

We’ve made this short video to let you take a close-up look at Francesco del Cossa’s beautiful 15th-century painting of Saint Lucy. She holds her saintly attribute, a pair of eyes, in reference to her martyrdom: apparently the Roman soldiers tried to force her into complacency by gouging out her eyes, but her eyes were miraculously restored. For this reason, Saint Lucy is patron saint to the blind.