The Army

Yesterday Saint Lucy’s Day was celebrated in Sweden. It is said to be the longest night of the year and the story of Lucy, or ‘Lucia’, is beyond fascinating. Arriving at work at eight thirty in the morning, it was still close to pitch black outside, but I can’t say it was darker than normal.

Lucy was ordered to burn a sacrifice in honor of the Emperor. When she refused, she was sentenced to be put in a brothel to be defiled. Lucy is said to have replied:

“No one's body is polluted so as to endanger the soul if it has not pleased the mind. If you were to lift my hand to your idol and so make me offer against my will, I would still be guiltless in the sight of the true God, who judges according to the will and knows all things. If now, against my will, you cause me to be polluted, a twofold purity will be gloriously imputed to me. You cannot bend my will to your purpose; whatever you do to my body, that cannot happen to me.”

When the soldiers came to transport Lucy, the young woman was so filled with Holy Spirit that she had become quite immovable, heavy and stiff as a mountain. They were unable to drag her from her spot even when they tied her to a team of oxen. Since the soldiers could not move Lucy, they resolved to kill her on the spot.

She suffered her eyes being cut out and she was covered with oil and burned before her persecutors were able to kill her by sword.