Today, December 13, is the memorial of Saint Lucy.
Patron saint of the blind & people with eye problems.
Lucy was a rich, young Christian of Greek ancestry. She was raised in a pious family. She consecrated her virginity to Christ. Her Roman father died when she was young. Her mother, Eutychia, arranged a marriage for her. For three years she managed to keep the marriage on hold, due to the fact that she only recognized Jesus as her bridegroom. Lucy, wanting to make Eutychia change her mind, prayed at the tomb of St. Agatha.
Not only did Eutychia change her mind, her long hemorrhagic illness was cured. The mother even allowed Lucy to dedicate her life to God.
Meanwhile, the jilted pagan groom Paschasius branded Lucy a Christian to the Sicilian governor. As the governor hated Christians, he had Lucy arrested and sentenced her to forced prostitution. When guards went to fetch her, they could not move her even when they hitched her to a team of oxen.
The governor ordered her killed instead. Among the tortures done to her was having her eyes pulled out by a fork. Next, she was placed on pieces of wood which were set on fire. The fire went out. She was finally executed by being stabbed to death with a dagger. Lucy is listed in the prayer “Nobis quoque peccatoribus” in the Canon of the Mass.