Today, Hélène Derieux introduces St Lucia of Syracuse (St Lucy), a very important martyr of late antiquity and celebrated since the Middle Ages. Her feast is today, on 13 December. She came from Sicily and was killed during the persecution under Diocletian in 304 A.D.

Like her, many young virgins who were martyred were highly honoured during the Middle Ages. Hélène recounts some of their stories and lists their “attributes”, that is, symbols of the way in which they were killed which frequently appear in later iconography.

For St Lucia, this attribute is her eyes, which were gouged out before she was killed by her executioner: this fact, combined with the etymology of her name, from Lux, led to traditions such as Lucia Morgan in Sweden in the 18th and 19th century, a special ceremony in which a chorus wears candles on their heads in a dark church, singing to the saint who triumphs over the darkness. Her feast day begins in the week considered by medieval calendars to mark the Winter Solstice, which gives extra meaning to this “festival of light”. In the past, this was all the more important, as this was one of the four weeks annually during which one celebrated the “Ember Days”, days of fasting and abstinence that prepared for the entry into each season, the Quatuor tempora.

To conclude, Hélène looks at the Alleluia sung for the Common of Virgins and Martyrs, whose verse comes from Psalm 44: "Diffusa est gratia in labiis tuis". This verse, which references the lips, "in labiis tuis", is suggestive of the original meaning of the word “martyr”, a witness to the Resurrection and a sign that speaks for itself, just as these young martyrs spoke louder than words with their very lives and blood.