The Saints Who Made Christmas: Lucy

At the crack of dawn, Kateri opened her eyes, looking around the room. It was a dark winter’s morning and the sun was not yet up. At first, Kateri considered falling back to sleep, mentally groaning at the thought of losing sleep before school. But when her eyes settled on the white robe that was draped over her wooden desk chair, Kateri jumped out of bed with a passion. It was the thirteenth of December, and Kateri had a mission of love that not even the coldest Wisconsin winters could keep her from. 

Careful not to wake the sisters that shared her room, Kateri changed from her warm pajamas into the thin white robe that she had set out the night before. Quickly tying a sash around her waist, Kateri grabbed the little wreath from the desk and dashed out of her bedroom on tiptoes. 

The oven clock read 5.52am when Kateri arrived at the foot of the stairs. Mother was busy in the kitchen making breakfast for the children to eat before they got ready to go to school. 

“Good morning, Saint Lucy,” said Mother cheerily, planting a kiss on Kateri’s cheek. Kateri smiled and looked around the kitchen for the sweet bread she had delicately prepared the night before, long after her younger siblings had gone up to bed. Kateri 

went over to the counter and grabbed her tray, piling the little loaves of sweet bread onto it. Mother set a pitcher of hot chocolate onto the tray beside the buns and Kateri added four little mugs. Nodding at the assemblage of warm breakfast treats, she readjusted the wreath atop her head and trekked back up the stairs to the bedrooms of her siblings. 

After knocking on the door to the boys’ room, Kateri opened it. The sleepy eyes of her younger brothers, Ambrose and Joseph, immediately lit up as they saw their older sister coming to greet them with breakfast in bed. After serving the boys, Kateri moved on to her own bedroom, where her younger sisters Zelie and Gemma were fast asleep in their bed. Opening the door, light flooded into the room behind her and she went to wake up her sleeping sisters. 

“Good morning, guys,” said Kateri with a smile. “I brought you breakfast!”

Zelie and Gemma reached for their early morning treats with squeals of delight. This was what made Kateri want to continue doing it every year - beyond the seemingly everlasting tiredness that was involved in waking up before the roosters, there were always jolly smiles to look forward to, and Kateri would never trade those for the world!

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Can you imagine a time when it was illegal to be a Christian? In a faraway country called Italy, a long time ago, it was. The Italian Christians, however, were a fierce bunch, not afraid of what earthly rulers would do to them if they decided to follow Jesus, so they held Masses in secret and supported each other under cover of darkness. Many Christians were even killed because they believed in Jesus! But even with the threat of death over their heads all the time, the Christians did not stop loving Jesus and sharing the Good News with those who had never heard His name. They were fearless people, unafraid of death, because they knew that death was the way to meet the man they honored more than the most powerful king - Jesus!

One of these fearless people was a young woman named Lucy. She promised Jesus that she would never get married and consecrated her life to the service of the suffering Christians who were in deep trouble with the leaders of their country. When she was only twenty years old, Lucy’s acts of kindness towards Christians in danger were discovered by the government and she was put to death. She died when she was still very young, but she was inspiring to the other Christians, and soon her story spread. Eventually, Lucy became one of the first saints honored by the Catholic Church because of her bravery and compassion for Christians. 

One of Saint Lucy’s most famous kindnesses began underground, but eventually spread all over the world. Lucy would bring food and prayers to the Christians hiding underground in the catacombs wearing a wreath of candles to light her way. Now, on her feast day, girls and boys all over the world participate in pageants and processions, or wake up their siblings with warm breakfast treats, just like Kateri’s story!

Even though we are no longer we are not facing death for Jesus in America, we can still look to Saint Lucy as an example for how we should act towards people who are being persecuted. We don’t have to stop celebrating Saint Lucy when the sun sets on her feast day - we can celebrate it all year ‘round through our kind works towards others! Saint Lucy knew Jesus was inside of every person. Let’s follow her example and see people not as objects, but as Temples of the Holy Spirit!