His feast is celebrated on December 13.
Saint Lucius was born in Syracuse, a city in the Roman province of Sicily, in the year 283. His parents were Eutychia and Lucius, wealthy noblemen. She lost her father during childhood and Luca was raised in the Christian faith. She consecrated herself to God at a very young age and kept her vow of virginity a secret.
Her mother urged her to marry a young pagan. To avoid marriage, Luca persuaded her mother to go to Catania to pray at the tomb of Santa Cat to obtain the cure of some hemorrhages. She accompanied her mother herself, and God heard her prayers and healed her mother. Then, Luca told his mother that he wanted to consecrate himself to God and distribute his fortune among the poor. Filled with gratitude for heaven’s favor, Eutychia gave her permission. Luca’s suitor was deeply indignant at her and betrayed the young woman as a Christian before the pro-consul Pascasio. Diocletian’s persecution of the Christians was then in all his fury.
She was arrested and brought before a judge, who pressed her as hard as he could to convince her to apostatize from the Christian faith. She replied: “It is useless for me to insist. I will never be able to separate myself from the love of my Lord Jesus Christ.”
The judge asked her: “And if we subject her to torture, will she be able to resist?”
The girl replied, “Yes, because those of us who believe in Christ and try to live a pure life have the Holy Spirit who lives in us and gives us strength, intelligence and courage.”
The judge then threatened to take her to a brothel to forcefully subject her to disgrace. She replied: “The body is contaminated only if the soul is conscious.” Saint Thomas Aquinas, the greatest theologian of the Church, admired this response from Saint Luca. It corresponds to a profound principle of morality: There is no sin if evil is not consented to.
They could not carry out the sentence because God prevented the guards from moving the young woman from the place where she was. They also tried to tie her hands and feet, but no matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t. Pascacio upon learning of what happened, condemns Luca for witchcraft and for which she was taken to the stake, but the fire did not affect her at all. Seeing this, she ordered her eyes gouged out, but despite being blind she continued to see. Pascacio, enraged, sentenced her to be beheaded. It was the 13th day of December in the year 304. She knelt down ready for her deathblow. She was beheaded, but even with her throat cut, the young woman continued to exhort the faithful to put their duties with God before those of creatures, until the companions of faith, who were around her, sealed their moving testimony with the word “amn”.
She is the patron saint of sight because, when Luca was in court, even without eyes, he still saw. That is why she is represented with a tray with two eyes. She is also the patron saint of electricians and dressmakers. As for cities, she is the patron saint of Syracuse and Venice (Italy).
The historicity of Santa Lucia was proven with the discovery, in 1894, of a sepulchral inscription from the year 380, with her name in the Syracuse catacombs. In Rome already in the sixth century she was very honored and Pope Saint Gregory gave the name of this saint to two female convents that she founded in the year 590.
PRAYER TO SAINT LUCA
Oh blessed and kind Santa Luca! Universally recognized by the Christian people as a special and powerful advocate of sight; full of confidence we come to you asking for the grace that our eyes remain healthy and that the use we make of our eyes is always for the good of our soul, without ever disturbing our minds by dangerous objects or spectacles, and that everything sacred or religious that they see becomes a healthy and valuable reason to love our Creator and Redeemer Jesus Christ more and more every day, whom, through your intercession, oh our protector, we hope to see and love eternally in the Celestial homeland. Amen.
OTHER PRAYERS TO SANTA LUCA
Saint Luca, who received your name from the light, I trustingly come to You so that you can reach me the heavenly light that preserves me from sin and the darkness of error.
I also implore you to preserve the light of my eyes, with an abundant grace to use them according to the will of God.
Make, Saint Lucy, that, after having venerated you and having thanked you for this prayer, I can finally enjoy in Heaven the eternal light of God.
So be it.
NOVENA TO SAINT LUCA
WAY TO PRAY THIS NOVENA
It begins on December 5 and ends on the 13th, the day Santa Luca is celebrated. In any case, it can also be prayed at any other time of the year, in which it is intended to obtain from the Lord some grace specialthrough the intercession of Saint Lucy.
Kneeling in front of some altar or image of him, make the sign of the cross. Next, the act of contrition is prayed:
“My Lord Jesus Christ, God and true Man, Creator, Father and Redeemer of mine, because You are who You are, Infinite Goodness, and because I love You above all things, it weighs me with all my heart that I have offended you; it also pains me because you can punish me with the pains of hell. Helped by your divine grace, I firmly propose never to sin again, confess and fulfill the penance that was imposed on me. Amen.”
Once the act of contrition has been made, the two preparatory prayers will be said to God and to the Saint, which will serve to begin the Novena, saying three Our Fathers and three Hail Marys at the end of it; It will continue with the two proper prayers of the day. And after making the plea, it will conclude with the special prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ. Those who make this novena will confess and take communion on the first day of it, or at least on one of the nine.
PRAYER TO THE ETERNAL FATHER FOR EVERY DAY
My God and my most loving Father, who by your infinite goodness alone, created the heavens and the earth at the beginning of the world, making everything out of nothing; You, Lord, who with great wisdom govern everything, and with admirable providence order it in the most conducive way to your honor and glory: I beg you, Lord, penetrate my heart with a ray of true vocation to make this novena, and that I pray to you. Teach me, as a most wise Master, to ask for what best suits me for the spiritual health of my soul, arranging everything for your greatest service, which I hope to achieve from your goodness and infinite mercy. Amen.
PRAYER TO SANTA LUCA FOR EVERY DAY
Glorious Virgin and Martyr Saint Lucia, whom the Lord warned from infancy with the blessings of his grace, choosing you the Eternal Father for his worthy daughter, the sovereign Son for his beloved wife, and the divine Spirit for his pleasant habitation, I beseech you My Holy Trinity, you have given me a devout fervor to celebrate this novena in your honor, and that just as your blessed soul began to serve God, inflamed with the ardor of his love, not desisting from such a noble commitment, until reaching to possess him laureate of the two crowns of virgin and martyr, so I get, through your powerful intercession, a true love for him so that loving him and serving him in this life, I can later see him and enjoy him in eternal bliss. Amen.
Now to obtain the grace that is requested, three Our Fathers and three Hail Marys are said and the prayers corresponding to the day of the novena are continued. Then it concludes with the final prayer to Our Lord Jesus Christ.
FINAL PRAYER TO OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST FOR EVERY DAY.
My Lord Jesus Christ, true God and man, who for your infinite love alone descended from heaven to earth, and dressed in the sack of human nature in the most pure womb of Mary Most Holy, our Mother and Lady, and pitied that the enemy common, like a butcher wolf, would have preyed on my poor soul, you suffered cruel torments, until you died outrageously nailed to a tree, resurrecting glorious on the third day triumphing over death and the devil. Do not allow, Lord, that because of my fragility I become a slave of such a fierce enemy, rather give me the help of your grace to form an act of true contrition, with which I regret having offended you, just for being you who you are, with firm resolution not to offend you again: and grant me the request that I make in this novena, and to persevere in your holy service until the end of my life, so that my soul can later see you and enjoy you for eternities in glory, where you live and you reign in unity with the Father and the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.
GIVE FIRST
Begin by saying the Act of Contrition and the two preparatory prayers, with the three Our Fathers and three Hail Marys, and then the following deprecations for this day will be said:
DEPRECATORY PRAYER TO THE LORD
Merciful Eternal Father, perennial source from which flow infinite streams of mercy, with which the barren earth of human hearts is watered, and from whose liberal hand all good things descend into this valley of tears, remember, Lord, that by the great love that you have for us, allow us to invoke you with the sweet name of Father; and that thus, looking at us as children, forgetting our ingratitude, your mercy moves to help us; and passing your love forward, you command us, through the mouth of your most precious Son and our Lord Jesus Christ, to knock at the doors of mercy, committing at the same time your divine word to open them, and grant us whatever we worthily ask of you. So I beg you, my God, grant me the grace I ask for in this novena, to your greater honor and glory. Amen.
DEPRECATORY PRAYER TO SAINT LUCA
Oh pious Virgin and Martyr Santa Luca, whose innocent life was a whole host life, offered as a holocaust to the true God, suffering for his divine love the cruelest torments invented by the rage of tyrants, until giving the last breath to the blades of a sword; Reach me, my Santa, that imitating your piety, know how to offer the Lord as a reward for my sins any work, setback and persecution that I suffer. Likewise, I hope to achieve the grace that I ask for in this novena, if it is for the greater glory of God, your honor and the spiritual good of my soul. Amen.
Now, raising your heart to Jesus, you humbly and confidently ask him, through the merits of the Saint, for the grace you want to achieve.
It concludes with the plea and with the final prayer to Our Lord Jesus Christ of every day.
DAY SECOND
Begin by saying the Act of Contrition and the two preparatory prayers, with the three Our Fathers and three Hail Marys, and then the following deprecations for this day will be said:
DEPRECATORY PRAYER TO THE LORD
Eternal God, who to give men a mirror of humility, you sent your only Son into the world, dressed in the garb of a slave, being King of kings and Lord of lords, grant me, my God, I saw myself with the eyes of meditation on the smooth glass of its virtues, where in each one I will find many examples of humility to imitate, and at whose sight I will know my smallness. I am dust, Lord, from dust is my beginning and to dust I will return; do not allow this vile dust to rise, moved by the wind of vanity and self-love to blind my eyes of understanding, persuading me that I am something, when I am nothing in reality. Grant me: also, the grace that I beg of you in this novena, and the one who gets to know me, so that he annihilates and humiliates me. Amen.
DEPRECATORY PRAYER TO SAINT LUCA
Oh innocent Virgin and Martyr, Santa Luca, burning rose of charity, whose perfect virtue you showed, when having gone to the…