Saint Lucia Tattoo Meaning

Light, sight, and the saint who brings light back through the darkest of the year.

Saint Lucia is the bearer of light through the darkest of the year — the martyr whose name means 'light,' the patron of sight and of the blind, who in the long northern winter returns each December as a crowned figure of candles leading light back into the longest night. To carry Saint Lucia is to carry light, sight, and the saint who brings light back through the darkest of the year — the martyr of Syracuse, the festival of light in the deep of winter, the promise that light returns even through the darkest season.

Saint Lucia is one of the early Christian martyrs, bound to light and to sight: Lucy of Syracuse (c. 283–304 CE) was martyred under Diocletian — according to tradition, her eyes were gouged out and restored, or she gouged them out herself; she is the patron saint of the blind, of writers, and of those with eye diseases. Lucy, a young Christian woman of Syracuse in Sicily, was put to death during the persecutions of the emperor Diocletian, becoming one of the venerated virgin-martyrs of the early Church.

Her association with eyes and sight comes from the traditions of her martyrdom: in some accounts, her eyes were gouged out as part of her torture and then miraculously restored; in others, she removed her own eyes (to discourage a suitor who admired them, or in the course of her sufferings), and they were given back to her by God. Because of these traditions, and because her very name, Lucia, means 'light' (from the Latin lux), she became the patron saint of the blind, of those with diseases of the eyes, and of sight itself — as well as of writers. Her name and her story bind her inseparably to light and to seeing. The Catholic Saint Lucia is thus the martyr of light and sight — Lucy of Syracuse, whose name means 'light' and whose story made her the patron of the blind and of sight. Lucy of Syracuse, martyred under Diocletian, is the patron saint of the blind and of sight, her name meaning 'light.' The Catholic Saint Lucia is the martyr of light and sight — Lucy of Syracuse (c. 283–304) was martyred under Diocletian, according to tradition her eyes gouged out and restored, or she gouged them out herself, the patron saint of the blind, of writers, and of those with eye diseases; a young Christian woman of Syracuse in Sicily put to death during Diocletian's persecutions, one of the venerated virgin-martyrs of the early Church — her association with eyes and sight coming from the traditions of her martyrdom (in some accounts her eyes gouged out as torture and miraculously restored, in others removed by her own hand and given back by God) and because her very name, Lucia, means 'light' (from the Latin lux), so that she became the patron of the blind, of those with eye diseases, and of sight itself, her name and story binding her inseparably to light and to seeing.

The name Lucia derives from the Latin lux — light. Her feast day (December 13) falls near the winter solstice and was historically the longest night of the year in the Julian calendar. The Scandinavian tradition of Lucia — which has little direct connection to the historical Sicilian martyr — absorbed earlier pagan midwinter light ceremonies into the Christian feast day. The image of the crown of candles is one of the most beautiful in Christian folk tradition: the woman who lost her eyes carries the light on her head, her hands free, walking forward. The traditional Lucia song (Santa Lucia) was written in Naples in the early 19th century and originally had nothing to do with the saint — it was a song about the Santa Lucia quarter of Naples. It became the Lucia hymn through a process of folk adoption.

Saint Lucia across cultures

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