Lucia of Syracuse was honored in the Middle Ages and remained a well-known saint in early modern England.

[4] The single fact upon which various accounts agree is that a disappointed suitor accused Lucy of being a Christian, and she was executed in Syracuse, Sicily, in 304 AD, during the Diocletianic Persecution.

Jacobus de Voragine's Legenda Aurea was the most widely read version of the Lucy legend in the Middle Ages.

John Henry Blunt views her story as a Christian romance similar to the Acts of other virgin martyrs.

Her shrine at Catania, less than 50 miles (80 km) from Syracuse, attracted a number of pilgrims; many miracles were reported to have happened through her intercession.

The earliest evidence of Lucy’s veneration is the grave stele of Euskia, which was discovered in the catacombs of Syracuse, Sicily and is now housed in the Museo archeologico regionale Paolo Orsi.

[10] By the sixth century, her story was sufficiently widespread that she appears in the procession of virgins in the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna[11] and in the Sacramentary of Pope Gregory I.

It was from this shrine that an arm of the saint was taken to the monastery of Luitburg in the Diocese of Speyer – an incident celebrated by Sigebert in verse.

Another account, however, states that the head was brought to Bourges from Rome, where it had been transferred during the time when the relics rested in Corfinium.

A number of traditions incorporate symbolic meaning of St. Lucy as the bearer of light in the darkness of winter, her feast day being 13 December.

[4] She is also the patron saint of ophthalmologists, authors, cutlers, glaziers, laborers, martyrs, peasants, saddlers, salesmen, stained glass workers, photogrammetry, and of Perugia, Italy.

[18] At the Piazza Duomo in Syracuse, the church of Santa Lucia alla Badia used to house the painting Burial of St. Lucy by Caravaggio.

She is also the patron saint of the coastal town of Olón, Ecuador, which celebrates with a week-long festival culminating on the feast day 13 December.

The emblem of eyes on a cup or plate apparently reflects popular devotion to her as protector of sight, because of her name, Lucia (from the Latin word "lux" which means "light").

[21] According to Robert Pogue Harrison and Rachel Jacoff, Lucia's appearance in this intermediary role is to reinforce the scene in which Virgil tries to fortify Dante's courage to begin the journey through the inferno.

Lucy's light symbolism also explains why Dante tells this evening scene in Purgatorio 9 through the lens of the dawn.

[25] Sicilians recall a legend that holds that a famine ended on her feast day when ships loaded with grain entered the harbor.

This usually takes the form of cuccìa,[26] a dish of boiled wheat berries often mixed with ricotta and honey, or sometimes served as a savory soup with beans.

In Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and parts of Finland, girls and boys dressed as Lucy or different roles associated with Christmastide, such as carry Saint Stephen or gingerbread men, walking in procession as songs are sung.

Lucia celebrations are held in various places such as schools, churches, offices and hospitals, traditionally combined with eating saffron buns and gingerbread cookies.

On the 13th of every December it is celebrated with large traditional feasts of home-made pasta and various other Italian dishes, with a special dessert called cuccìa, made of wheatberries, butter, sugar, chocolate, and milk.

Hymns to the saint, known as the Gozos, as well as the Spanish version of the Ave Maria are chanted during the dawn procession, which is followed by a Mass.

Lucia, Asturias town in midwestern Cebu, thousands of devotees used to visit her parish to celebrate and venerate her sainthood.

Along with their veneration to her are the hope in faith that her Holy water is instrumental in channeling Almighty God's grace and blessings in the form of protection, purification and healing from illness particularly eye disorders to them as she is best known for being the Patron Saint of the blind.