Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Thursday 14 December 2023

St Lucy


Yesterday was the feast of St Lucy. 

She is a Sicilian Virgin Martyr saint from Syracuse with a long and widespread cult whose legend, together with the history of her veneration, are set out by Wikipedia at Saint Lucy

Despite her continuing naming in the Roman Canon I suspect she is one of those saints who has become less venerated in recent generations by contrast to that of earlier centuries. Most notably her cult survives in Lutheran Scandinavia - notably Sweden - due to it coinciding with what was the date of the Winter Solstice in the Julian Calendar as explored in a quite detailed article about her cult on Wikipedia which can be seen at Saint Lucy's Day Some of these traditions link to those associated with St Barbara about which I linked the other day.

I have posted about her in 2011 at St Lucy
and at much greater length about her delineation in art in 2015 at St Lucy That article is based around a submission to the Medieval Religion discussion group by John Dillon.
 
This year the website of the New Liturgical Movement has an account of her relics, which are now enshrined in Venice, at The Relics of St Lucy

St Lucy Pray for us


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