The Lucian Year opened last December 13th in Syracuse, in honor of the patron saint Saint Lucia, who was born in the Sicilian city in 283 and was martyred there in 304. The culmination of the Year will be the arrival of the relics on December 14th of the saint which are preserved in the sanctuary church dedicated to her in Venice. Lucia returned to Syracuse in 2004 on the occasion of the 17th centenary of her martyrdom and a second time in 2014, on the basis of an agreement with the patriarchate of Venice which provides for a visit of the mortal remains of the patron saint to her city every ten years .
Her relics will remain in Syracuse from 14 to 26 December, then they will be moved to two towns that always have her as patron saint – on the 26th in Carlentini, in the Syracuse area, and on the 27th in Belpasso, archdiocese of Catania – finally they will be in the Cathedral of Catania on 28 and 29 December. On the 30th they will leave for Venice.
In recent days, however, the Syracuse city council has gone further, approving a motion calling for the definitive return of Saint Lucia to the city. An act that refers to the way in which Syracuse lost the precious relics. After the Arab occupation of Sicily, the Syracusans had hidden the body of the saint in a secret place. In 1039 the Byzantine general Giorgio Maniace managed to discover it and take possession of the relics, bringing them as a gift, together with those of Saint Agatha, to the Empress Theodora. From there they were stolen by the Venetians, who conquered the Byzantine capital in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade.
However, the archdiocese responded to the move by the Syracuse city council with a statement. It “thanks the civic assembly” with its motion “wanted in the Lucian Year proclaimed by Archbishop Monsignor Francesco Lomanto to pay homage to the patron saint in order to respond to a legitimate desire of the Syracusans”. However, it is added, «the full ecclesial communion that our Church experiences with the patriarchate of Venice, always attentive to the needs of popular devotion towards Saint Lucia, must make us consider that the historical event relating to the body of the patron saint must be contextualized in the context that it is proper to him, that is, that of the providential perspective of history, thus delivering the desire of the people of Syracuse to the plans of good and love of God and to the intercession of Saint Lucia herself”.
The archdiocese therefore hopes “that the sentiment of the Syracusan people expressed by the civic assembly can be translated into concrete interventions aimed at valorising the Santa Lucia neighborhood which houses the testimonies of the Syracusan martyr”.
