Great Grandmother's Kitchen

St. Lucy's Liturgy

This post is obviously a little late, but I wanted to touch on it before the month was up.  Saint Lucy is a very interesting figure.  Her story is that she was a young woman in ancient Sicily during the reign of Diocletian.  A devout Christian, she converted her mother by curing her illness by praying at the tomb of Saint Agatha.  Her intended fiance, however, was unmoved, and betrayed her as a Christian.  Legends differ about the bowl she usually carries containing a pair of eyes.  In some versions, her eyes are removed as part of her torture by the local governor, in others, she plucks them out and gives them to her admirer,  begging him to leave her alone to worship God. 

by Mary MacArthur

Lucy comes from the same root word as light, and between her name and story, she is the patron of eyesight, including the blind.  While she is celebrated in many countries, receiving special devotion in Italy and Catholic parts of Switzerland.

It is in Scandinavia, particularly Sweden, however, that devotion to Saint Lucy took an interesting twist.  There, she has attributes that she doesn't have elsewhere, and still has a strong tradition despite centuries of Lutheran majority, and a strong secular modern culture. 







The oldest daughter in a house will get up before light, put on a white dress with a red sash, and wear a wreath with candles in her hair.  She then will serve hot drinks and breakfast to her family.  Processions, involving Lucy and her followers, children dressed in white, with silver crowns for the girls and tall pointed hats with stars for the boys, will go to schools, elder care centers, and other public places as well. 



White, red, green wreaths and candles...none of which belong to St. Lucy in her native Italy.  It's enough to make one think, "well, huh".  Especially since the 12th or  13th was the Solstice for many years in the old Julian Calendar.  What is the Scandinavian St. Lucy a memory of, exactly?  What did the Catholic tradition mesh with, and allow to continue?  Why are her little saffron buns often referred to as Kattr--cats?  At this point, St. Lucy makes me ask more questions then she answers, but the traditions linked to her--her light shining in the darkness--make this something worth further investigation. 

Recipe here.