The life of St Lucy of Syracuse
In the account cherished by the Church, Lucy secretly vowed her virginity to God and, after her mother was healed at the tomb of the martyr Agatha in nearby Catania, persuaded her to let her give away much of the family's wealth to the poor. This angered the young man to whom she had been unwillingly betrothed, who denounced her as a Christian to the governor Paschasius during the persecution under Diocletian. Sentenced to be dragged to a brothel, she could not be moved from where she stood; set afire, she remained unharmed; she was finally put to death by the sword, in the year 304.
The particulars of Lucy's story cannot be confirmed as history: the earliest surviving Acts date only from around the fifth century, well after her death, and much of the narrative repeats patterns common to other virgin martyr accounts of that age. The time and place of her death are considered reasonably certain even so. Her memory, among the most honored of the early virgin martyrs, spread quickly from Sicily through the whole Church.
