This Prayer to St. Lucy asks God, through the intercession of the virgin martyr of Syracuse, to preserve the light of faith in our souls and to keep our eyes in good health. The traditional Collect of her feast, December 13, follows.
O God, our Creator and Redeemer, mercifully hear our prayers that as we venerate Thy servant, St. Lucy, for the light of faith Thou didst bestow upon her, Thou wouldst vouchsafe to increase and to preserve this same light in our souls, that we may be able to avoid evil, to do good and to abhor nothing so much as the blindness and the darkness of evil and of sin.
Relying on Thy goodness, O God, we humbly ask Thee, by the intercession of Thy servant, St. Lucy, that Thou wouldst give perfect vision to our eyes, that they may serve for Thy greater honor and glory, and for the salvation of our souls in this world, that we may come to the enjoyment of the unfailing light of the Lamb of God in paradise.
St. Lucy, virgin and martyr, hear our prayer and obtain our petitions.
St. Lucy, by Francesco del Cossa (c. 1473–1474), National Gallery of Art, Washington. Public domain.
Hearken unto us, O God, our Savior, that as we rejoice in the festival of blessed Lucy, Thy virgin and martyr, so we may be instructed by the affection of pious devotion. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.
Pray it on December 13, her feast in the heart of Advent, or whenever you or someone you love suffers from trouble with the eyes. Name the person in your intention, and let prayer accompany good medical care. The prayer follows Catholic Culture, and the Collect is from the traditional Roman Missal (propers for December 13).
St. Lucy was a virgin and martyr of Syracuse in Sicily who gave her life for Christ in the persecution of Diocletian, about the year 304. Her name is among the martyrs remembered in the Roman Canon of the Mass. EWTN’s account tells her story.
Her name comes from the Latin lux, light, and Christians have long asked her prayers for those with diseases of the eyes. Sacred art often shows her holding her eyes on a dish or stem, a sign of this patronage drawn from later legend.
Her feast is December 13. Falling in Advent, near what was once the shortest day of the year, it has long been kept as a feast of light awaiting the coming of Christ.
