Author Topic: Saint of the day (Read 69163 times)

bookofbirds · « **Reply #150 on:** November 04, 2024, 08:06:36 PM »

Rest in Peace

Miseremini · « **Reply #151 on:** December 13, 2024, 12:25:43 PM »

December 13, Feast of St. Lucy, Virgin and Martyr

DECEMBER 14, 2018
SOURCE: FSSPX NEWS

Proof of the veneration for St. Lucy dates back to the very earliest days of Antiquity, with an epigraph in the catacombs of Syracuse. The epigraph is for a certain “Euskia, the irreproachable, who lived a good and pure life for about 25 years,” and died “on my Saint Lucy’s feast day, she for whom I cannot find appropriate words of praise.”
While it is impossible to know for certain the exact time and circuмstances of the saint’s passion, we do know what Tradition has passed down to us about her: St. Lucy came from a noble and wealthy family in Syracuse. The acts of her martyrdom report that she consecrated herself to Christ, then decided to give all her belongings to the poor and renounce marriage.
In the 6th century, the devotion to St. Lucy reached Rome and Ravenna. Her name is mentioned in both the Roman and the Ambrosian canons.
The reason for the fervent devotion of the popes for this martyr from Syracuse is unknown; it is probably due not only to the fame of her martyrdom, but also to the large number of Sicilians in Rome (Pope. St. Agatho was Sicilian), and to the fact that the popes must have been in close contact from the 4th century on with the pontifical managers of the Roman Church’s vast heritage in Sicily.
It was probably this double influence that led to the construction in Rome of many churches of St. Vitus, St. Euplius, St. Lucy, and St. Agatha, all Sicilian martyrs.
The antiphon for the Introit is taken from the psalm de virginitate, 44. “Thou hast loved justice, and hated iniquity: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.” This mysterious oil is the special glory granted in Heaven to the saints who practiced not only purity of heart but also integrity of the flesh.
The feasts of virgin martyrs are very special, as St. John Chrysostom explains so well, because in them Christ’s victory appears all the more glorious since their condition was so weak and feeble. Humanity’s revenge upon the devil is thus complete, since the enemy is vanquished by the one who was the first to fall.
Ever since the Gregorian calendar was created in the 16th century, December 13 is the first day on which the sun begins to set a little later than the day before in the northern hemisphere. The popular French saying, “on St. Lucy’s day, the days lengthen by a flea’s jump”, came from this observation. However, although the sun sets later than the day before, it continues to rise later as well; the days thus continue to shorten until December 21.
Source: Dom Schuster / Liber Sacramentorum / FSSPX.News – 12/13/2018

Author Topic: Saint of the day (Read 69163 times)

bookofbirds

Re: Saint of the day

Miseremini

Re: Saint of the day