Lucy is only referenced indirectly in VirgilвЂ™s discourse within the narrative and doesnвЂ™t appear the reasons for her appearing in this intermediary role are still somewhat unclear to scholars, although doubtless Dante had some allegorical end in mind, perhaps having Lucy as a figure of Illuminating Grace or Mercy or even Justice. She has instructed Virgil to guide Dante through Hell and Purgatory. The legend concludes with God restoring LucyвЂ™s eyes.Дante also mentions Lucy in The Inferno Canto II as the messenger вЂњof all cruelty the foeвЂќ sent to Beatrice Portinari from вЂњThe blessed DameвЂќ (Divine Mercy), to rouse Beatrice to send Virgil to DanteвЂ™s aid. Lucy was represented in Gothic art holding a dish with two eyes on it. It should be noted that another account refers this loss of eyes to before her martyrdom, claiming that in response to a suitor who admired her beautiful eyes, вЂњshe cut them out and sent them to him, asking to be left in peace thereafter.

Lucy is frequently shown holding her eyes on a golden plate.ДЄn episode of LucyвЂ™s passion that has been most vivid to her devotГ©s ever since the Middle Ages: having her eyes torn out. She was miraculously still able to see without her eyes. As final torture, her eyes were gouged out. Even with a dagger through her throat she prophesied against her persecutor. The Christian tradition states that when the guards came to take her away they found her so filled with the Holy Spirit that she was stiff and heavy as a mountain they could not move her even when they hitched her to a team of oxen. You cannot bend my will to your purpose whatever you do to my body, that cannot happen to me If now, against my will, you cause me to be polluted, a twofold purity will be gloriously imputed to me. If you were to lift my hand to your idol and so make me offer against my will, I would still be guiltless in the sight of the true God, who judges according to the will and knows all things.

No oneвЂ™s body is polluted so as to endanger the soul if it has not pleased the mind. Lucy replied that she had given all that she had: вЂњI offer to him myself, let him do with his offering as it pleaseth him.вЂќ Sentenced to be defiled in a brothel, Lucy asserted: Her rejected pagan bridegroom denounced Lucy as a Christian to the magistrate Paschasius, who ordered her to burn a sacrifice to the EmperorвЂ™s image. Give now to the true Savior, while you are healthy, whatever you intended to give away at your death.вЂќ News that the patrimony and jewels were being distributed came to the ears of LucyвЂ™s betrothed, who heard from a chattering nurse that Lucy had found a nobler Bridegroom. Euthychia suggested that the sums would make a good bequest, but Lucy countered, вЂњвЂ¦whatever you give away at death for the LordвЂ™s sake you give because you cannot take it with you. Saint Agatha appeared in a vision to Lucy and said, вЂњSoon you shall be the glory of Syracuse, as I am of Catania.вЂќ At that instant Eutychia was cured.Д®utychia had arranged a marriage for Lucy with a pagan bridegroom, but Lucy urged that the dowry be spent on alms so that she might retain her virginity. They stayed up all night praying, until they fell asleep, exhausted.

Her mother, Eutychia, had suffered four years with a вЂњbloody fluxвЂќ but Lucy having heard the renown of Saint Agatha the patroness of Catania, вЂњand when they were at a Mass, one read a gospel which made mention of a woman which was healed of the bloody flux (dysentery) by touching of the hem of the coat of Jesus Christ,вЂќ which, according to Legenda Aurea, convinced her mother to pray together at Saint AgathaвЂ™s tomb. Her Roman father died when she was young, leaving her and her mother without a protecting guardian. All the details are conventional ones also associated with other female martyrs of the early 4th century. Her veneration spread to Rome, so that by the 6th century the whole Church recognized her courage in defense of the faith.Д«ecause people wanted to shed light on LucyвЂ™s bravery, legends grew up, reported in the Acta that are associated with her name. Ironically, St LucyвЂ™s history is shrouded in darkness: all that is really known for certain is that she was a martyr in Syracuse, Italy during DiocletianвЂ™s persecutions of A.D.

Lucy means вЂњlightвЂќ, with the same Latin root, lux. Prayer to Saint Lucy of Syracuse patroness of the blind and of eye problems.She is one of seven women, excluding the Blessed Virgin Mary, commemorated by name in the Canon of the Mass. Saint Lucy of Syracuse, Her feast day in the West is December 13, by the unreformed Julian calendar the longest night of the year she is the patron saint of blindness.

Lucy in my eyes