Lucia (Lucy) was a wealthy Sicilian maiden who suffered martyrdom at Syracuse
under Diocletian. She refused marriage offers, because she, as so many of the early martyrs, had consecrated her virginity to
God, and she hoped to devote all her worldly goods to the service of the poor. Eventually she was accused by her suitor to the
persecuting authority. The judge ordered that she should be violated in a brothel, but she was made miraculously immovable;
he then tried to have her burnt, also unsuccessfully; so she was finally killed by the sword. Her iconography is based on these
Acts, her usual emblem being her eyes, which were reputed to have been torn out and miraculously restored. Saint Lucy is
celebrated on December 13th.