Feasts, Obligatory and Optional Memorials of Saints
- Lucy, virgin and martyr
- Eustratius and Companions, martyrs
- Judoc or Josse
- Aubert of Cambrai, bishop
- Odilia or Ottilia, virgin
St. Lucy: (died probably in Sicily c. 304 A.D. under Diocletian). Born in Syracuse, Sicily of noble and wealthy parents, she intended to give her fortune to the poor. However, she was a victim of an attempted rape during the Diocletian persecution of Christians. When she resisted, she was denounced as a Christian, arrested, tortured, and killed.
A pious story say that because she had very beautiful eyes, she tore out her own eyes, and offered it to the rapist whom she resisted strongly. This is the reason for her being depicted in art as carrying a tray with two eyes. She is now patroness of those afflicted with diseases of the eye and associated with festivals of light, especially in Scandinavia. The popular song Santa Lucia commemorates her. St. Lucy is mentioned in the Roman Canon and made patroness of Syracuse and all Sicily.
St. Odilia (660-720 A.D.) was an abbess. She is the patron saint of the sightless because of a pious story that describes her as being born without sight. The story goes on to say that at her baptism, she was given back her sight. Devotion to St. Odilia is popular in Germany, France and the Netherlands.
December 13 Saints in the Byzantine Calendar
- Sts. Eustratius, Auxentius, Eugene, Mardarius and Orestes, Martyrs
- St. Lucy, Virgin-Martyr