Martyr put to death in Syracuse in the wake of the persecutions ordered by the Roman emperor Diocletian in the early fourth century. The veneration of Saint Lucy has radiated throughout the Christian Church since antiquity: alters and churches were built in her honor, her image was reproduced in mosaics and paintings, her name was introduced in the Roman, Milanese, and Ravenna liturgy.
In traditional devotion (and still today), Saint Lucy is invoked as a protector of the eyes and against ophthalmic diseases. Contrary to common belief, however, her story does not relate to eye mutilation, while it is said that she would have torn out her eyes to offer them to a man who had fallen in love with her. This episode refers to another figure, that of Blessed Lucy the chaste, who died at the beginning of the fifteenth century. The foundation of devotion to Lucy of Syracuse derives rather from a symbolic association of the saint with light (in a material or spiritual sense), as the etymological origin of her first name is related to the Latin “lux, lucis.” The hagiographer Jacques de Voragine confirms this idea in his Golden Legend: “Lucia dicitur a luce. Lux enim habet pulchritudinem in aspectione, quia ut dicit Ambrosius, lucis natura haec est, ut omnis in aspectu eius gratia sit… Vel Lucia dicitur quasi lucis via” (Legenda aurea, ed. by T. Graesse, Bratislava, 1890, 29-30). This etymology was certainly known by Dante (cf. VN XIII, 4).
Dante’s devotion to Saint Lucy is attested by his son, Jacopo, as well as by Graziolo de’ Bambaglioli, who writes: “Beata Lucia, in qua ipse Dantes tempore vitae suae habuit maximam devotionem.” Dante himself declares his faith to her in Inf. 2, 98. The poet’s attachment to her is explained by the serious eye disease that affected him in his youth, caused by the countless hours he spent reading (Cv III, IX, 15).
The passages of the Comedy where Saint Lucy appears (Inf. 2, 94-126; Purg. 9, 19-63; Par. 32, 136-138) should be read in light of these considerations. In the first two episodes, she appears symbolically, representing the grace that illuminates, the gift that God offers to man on his way to salvation and eternal life – it is not therefore hope nor Providence that she embodies, as some commentators have interpreted it.
At the beginning of the Comedy, Dante is lost in the Dark Wood. The Virgin Mary hastens to help him by sending Saint Lucy to Beatrice. The grace that God lavishes freely cannot operate without the cooperation of man who must contribute to his own salvation – by showing the will to save oneself (represented by Beatrice and love) and by looking for the necessary means to this end (embodied by Virgil, allegory of rationality). The allusion to the etymological basis of Lucy’s name (eyes – light – grace) is concretized by the eyes of Beatrice which push Virgil to action: “she turned away her eyes, now bright with tears” (Inf. 2, 116).
In the second canticle, Dante falls asleep in the valley of the princes and dreams of being carried aloft by an eagle (descended from the sky like lightning) who drops him off in front of the door of Purgatory. As Virgil explains to him, the eagle he dreamed of is actually Saint Lucy. The same act of grace that helped Dante to begin his journey in Purgatory allows him to advance on the road to enlightenment. Here again, the allusion to the eyes is present: “Here she set you down, but first her lovely eyes / showed me that entrance, standing open” (Purg. 9, 61-62).
Dante finds Saint Lucy in the Empyrean, next to Anne (whose name in Hebrew means “grace”) and in front of Adam (the first man to lose divine grace), who is near the Virgin Mary (mediatrix of all graces and symbol of the prevenient grace). Certainly, this place suits him best for its symbolism (the grace that illuminates) and for the personal devotion that the poet dedicates to him.
Consult the entry of the Enciclopedia Dantesca in Italian.
Entry taken from the Enciclopedia Dantesca published by the Istituto Treccani — Texts revised by the Centre d’études médiévales of the Université de Montréal.
Editing: Gabrielle Hamelin, Martyna Kander.
English translation: Brittany Buscio.