Santa lucia

St. Lucia’s Day, festival of lights celebrated in Sweden, Norway, and the Swedish-speaking areas of Finland on December 13 in honor of St. Lucia. One of the earliest Christian martyrs, St. Lucia was killed by the Romans in 304 CE because of her religious beliefs.

St. Lucian Flag

Adventures of an artist.

St Lucy's Day Lussinatta took place on December 13. Lussi was a demon/witch who rode in the air with her followers called Lussiferda. Trolls and evil spirits and the dead where activeoutside and children who were bad could be taken away but Lussi who could sweep down the chimney and carry them away. If the family did not prepare for yule she would punish them. People stayed up all night to guard themselves from the evil lurking outside.

From www.catholic.org: Lucy's name is probably also connected to statues of Lucy holding a dish with two eyes on it. This refers to another legend in which Lucy's eyes were put out by Diocletian as part of his torture. The legend concludes with God restoring Lucy's eyes. More info on Saint Lucy here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Lucy

Raphael Vergos, About 1500

Palazzioto [<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0" target="_blank">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>], <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Santa_Lucia_palazzioto.jpg" target="_blank">via Wikimedia Commons</a>

This painting, by Spanish born Juan (Giovanni) Dò, depicts St. Lucy and derives from a similar composition by Jusepe Ribera, signed and dated 1635. Dò enli...

"Saint Lucy" - Twitter Search / Twitter

At National Gallery, London