Saint Lucy: Light of Clarity
Lucy teaches clergy and lay leaders the courage of uncompromising clarity when truth costs everything.
- Refused to hide her faith: In Roman Syracuse, during Diocletian’s persecution, the teenage Lucy openly wore her baptismal faith like a lamp in daylight. When ordered to burn incense to the emperor, she answered: “My body may be offered, but my soul belongs to the living God.”
- Eyes gouged out: Tradition says the judge ordered her eyes torn out after she declared, “Those who live chastely make their bodies temples of the Holy Spirit.” Miraculously, God restored her sight more radiant than before.
- Died with eyes fixed on heaven: Dragged to a brothel, then burned, then stabbed, she prophesied the end of persecution and died praising Christ—never blinking.
Leadership Lessons for Catholic Leaders
Lucy (from Latin lux = light) reminds ministers that clarity is charity. In an age of compromise and blurred doctrine, we must speak truth with eyes wide open, even if they gouge them out.
Her last words: “I see what I believe.” True shepherds refuse dimmed lamps.
