Tomorrow 13th December is the Feast Day of Saint Lucia or Saint Lucy. She is saint and early Christian martyr who lived between the years 283 AD and 304 AD in Syracuse on the island of Sicily in the Roman Empire. Her name comes form the latin word lux meaning light.
As a context to this, the Christianity that existed in the first 3 centuries AD was not the Christianity that we know and have seen in the last 1700 years.
The Roman Empire officially adopted Christianity in 380 AD and it was granted legal status by the emperor Constantine only about 70 years before that. This was the beginning of the Roman Catholic Church and all of the institutional religious Christianity that followed.
So in that context, Lucia lived before this time, and was one of the last martyrs to die in the last persecution of Christians by the Roman Empire (not the last ever persecution of Christians).
The Christianity before 300 AD was naturally closer to the original teachings, and had more in common with Gnostic thought, although there were already groups who had a more in common with Orthodox Christianity.
In many ways, Christianity was an underground grass roots movement and they met in secret in the Catacombs (underground tunnels). There are also records of women being bishops in the early Christian communities but this is another story for another post. The heavily patriarchal aspect came later.
The irony is that Lucia became a saint in the very same Catholic Church that would possibly have seen her and her peers as heretics if she would have lived later.
The story goes that Lucia came from a wealthy Christian family but was promised to marry a non-Christian when her father died and the family was without a male guardian. She instead vowed to remain unmarried and to give her dowry to Christians who were hiding from persecution in the catacombs.
Lucia wore a crown of candles to light her way through the underground tunnels and brought food to the people hiding. The man who was meant to marry her subsequently reported her to the Roman authorities and they decided to have her sold into slavery as punishment. The legend has it that the guards who came to arrest her were not able to remove her. They then decided to kill her immediately by pouring oil over her and setting her on fire, but she wouldn't burn. They were finally able to kill her by sword. Later stories say that Lucia foretold the end of persecution before her death.
The miraculous things that she did when they tried to kill her, if true, shows that she was a spiritual master. What happened to her shows resemblance to later persecutions of spiritually adept women, and some men, during the Inquisition and the so called Witch Burnings or Burning Times.
If Lucia had lived and been persecuted during the Inquisition she would very likely have been seen as a witch for her spiritual powers. The institutionalised Churches at the time of the Inquisition did not want people to have a direct connection with God or their own Divine Source, what is also called Gnosis - direct experience of the Divine.
Saint Lucia Day has become a lasting tradition in Sweden, my home country, and it has become linked to Jul (Christmas) and advent. Girls dress up as Saint Lucia, with a crown of candles, a white robe like dress and and a red belt to symbolise her martyrdom.
It’s unclear why it has become a tradition here but most probably it’s because she is a light bringer, and because December is so dark and cold in Scandinavia, this is very welcomed.
13th December used to fall on the Winter Solstice, which is now 21st December. There may also be links to the Norse goddess Sol or Sunna, who’s name means sun and represents the return of lighter days.
13th December has been seen in Swedish folk tradition as a night when the veil to the spiritual realm is especially thin. During the celebrations children, and some adults, also dress up as angels or tomtar, a type of elemental beings in Swedish folklore slightly similar to the gnomes. I love and embrace all of the different layers and the syncretism of this holiday.
On the beginning of this particular light portal of December 2020 I invite Saint Lucia to guide us and for the angels and elementals to be present.
Art by Theophilia, Unknown and Lennart Helje
