I betrothed you to one husband in order to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. The Church honors today the memory of St. Lucy who is believed to have been martyred in Sicily around the year 304 AD during the persecution of emperor Diocletian. She has been venerated by the Church from antiquity, for which reason her name is mentioned in the Roman Canon. Because of her name, she is the patroness of those afflicted with diseases of the eye. In Scandinavia, St. Lucy is associated with the festivals of light. She is the patroness of Syracuse and all Sicily.
St. Lucy is venerated and honored in the Church as a virgin martyr, and although information about the circumstances of her martyrdom remains scanty, we can safely assume that her betrothal to Christ played a major part in her choosing to die for the faith and to honor her betrothal to Christ. Like the other virgin martyrs in the history of the Church who chose death rather than separating themselves from Christ, St. Lucy understood herself to be the bride of Christ. The stories of the early martyrs usually fill us with awe as we marvel at the courage with which they faced both their executioners and their manner of death. But as St. Paul has reminded us in the First Reading, the courage to witness to the faith to the point of martyrdom is grace that is given to an individual by the Lord. It is not a personal achievement about which one can boast or take credit. However, we cannot take for granted the sacrifices that martyrs continue to make. For even though such grace is given by the Lord, an individual would still need to unite his/her will to Jesus Christ. This is what St. Lucy as well as the rest of the martyrs did. Even though they were as human as we are and were probably afraid at some point in their respective ordeals, they drew their strength from the Lord (Responsorial Psalm). And this is the reason why we venerate St. Lucy today even as we ask for her intercession so that we too can courageously defend the faith and honor the name with which we have been called (Christians).