Lucia of Syracuse

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
St. Lucia, by Domenico Beccafumi (1486–1551)
Lucia before the judge cannot be moved, painting by Lorenzo Lotto , 1532

Lucia (* around 283 in Syracuse , Italy ; † 304 there ) is an early Christian consecrated virgin and martyr . She is venerated as a saint in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches , the Scandinavian and American Lutheran Churches and the Evangelical Church in Germany , or called to mind as a witness of faith. Her name Lucia means "the shining one", from the Latin lux "light". Saint Lucia is one of the saints named in the canon of the First Prayer .

Life

A grave inscription around 400 in the catacomb of San Giovanni in Syracuse and its mention in all martyrologies make it seem certain that she lived. By 600 there were already Lucia monasteries in Syracuse and Rome .

The earliest descriptions of her martyrdom are from the 5th or 6th century and were adorned with numerous miracles. According to these sources, Lucia was the daughter of a wealthy Roman citizen of Syracuse, who however died early. Her mother Eutychia wanted to marry her off, but Lucia had pledged her virginity for Christ's sake and was postponing the engagement. When her mother was healed of the ailments of the flow of blood on a pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Agatha after the prayer there, Eutychia agreed to the vow. Lucia's rejected bridegroom accused her of being a Christian in the Diocletian persecution. The judge Paschasius wanted to have them taken to a brothel, but a team of oxen and 1000 men could not move them either. After various tortures and miracles, she was finally killed with a sword stab in the neck. According to other traditions, her eyes were torn out.

Relics

The relics of St. Lucia in San Geremia in Venice in a silver shrine

Her relics are said to have been brought to Constantinople around 1038 and from there to Venice in 1204 after the city was stormed and sacked for three days by the Venetian Doge Enrico Dandolo, a bitter opponent of Orthodox Byzantium . There she was buried in the church of Santa Lucia . This was demolished in 1860 because space was needed for the Venezia Santa Lucia train station . Her relics were reburied in the nearby church of San Geremia e Lucia . In 1955, Angelo Roncalli , then Patriarch of Venice, later Pope John XXIII, had the saint's face covered with a silver mask to protect it from dust. In 1981 the relics of the saints were stolen, but could be found and brought back to the church that same year.

According to other reports, the relics of Lucia came to Corfinum at the beginning of the 8th century and to Metz in 970 .

Remembrance day

The feast day of St. Lucia is December 13th. It is often associated with rites of light, presumably because it fell temporarily on the winter solstice before the Gregorian calendar reform . Accordingly, there are also the following pawn rules :

  • In Santa Lucia, evening is close to morning.
  • Sankt Luzen prunes the day.

The saint is invoked with eye ailments, blood flow, sore throats and dysentery. She is the patroness of the poor, the blind, repentant prostitutes , sick children and the cities of Syracuse and Venice. The lawyers, farmers, electricians, glaziers, coachmen, cutlers, seamstresses, pedals , upholsterers, saddlers, tailors, scribes and weavers also have her as patroness .

In iconography , the saint is usually represented with the sword and the palm branch (both attributes of martyrdom ), the book, a wreath of roses or an oil lamp (both attributes of the consecrated virgins ), often with her torn eyes, which she in one Bowl carries.

On the island of St. Lucia , named after the saint , her memorial day is a public holiday.

regional customs

Kindergarten children during the Lucia Festival
Lucienhäuschen exhibition

In Sweden and other Nordic countries , the Lucia festival on December 13th is an integral part of pre-Christmas customs. It is characterized by the wearing of white robes and domestic elements such as traditional pastries and singing. The celebrations usually begin in the morning in the family and continue in kindergartens, schools and at work.

A special Swedish expression of the festival can be proven for the Middle Ages at the earliest . From this time there are reports of celebrations with which the rural population marked the end of pre-Christmas agricultural work and the beginning of the Christmas fast. The Lucia festival, on the other hand, has only developed into a national custom in the last hundred years. At the end of the 19th century, the Skansen open-air museum in Stockholm took up the Lucia traditions in western Sweden in order to preserve them for future generations. As a result, the Lucia Festival found a firm place in Swedish customs.

In Croatia, on the feast day of St. Lucia traditionally sown a little wheat in a bowl. The Luzienweizen is green until Christmas and is a symbol of new life and hope in the middle of winter. Sometimes the wheat is covered with a ribbon in the Croatian national colors (red, white and blue). Sometimes an apple or a candle is placed in the middle of the wheat. After the holidays, the grain is not thrown away, but given to birds.

In the Upper Bavarian district town of Fürstenfeldbruck , the so-called Lucienhäusenschwimmen takes place on December 13th every year . Over a hundred floatable building replicas made by students with burning candles as lighting are left to the current of the amperes when it gets dark .

In some areas of Bavaria , for example in the northern Upper Palatinate , in the district of Wunsiedel in Upper Franconia and in the area of Eichstätt and Ingolstadt , the name of Lucia was associated with pagan Perchten figures . As "Luzie", "Heuluzi" or "Luz", Lucia appeared here until the second half of the 20th century as a pre-Christmas child horror figure , similar to the woodpecker .

literature

Web links

Commons : Saint Lucy  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Erich Straßner: Berchtengestalten in Ostfranken. Reprint from the yearbook for Franconian regional research, volume 24, born in 1964.
  2. ↑ Harald Fähnrich about Luz and Specht on onetz.de .
personal data
SURNAME Lucia of Syracuse
BRIEF DESCRIPTION early Christian saint and martyr
DATE OF BIRTH at 283
PLACE OF BIRTH Syracuse , Italy
DATE OF DEATH 304
Place of death Syracuse