Lucy and John

One of the lovely things about the shortening of the days in December is the Saints' Days that illuminate them. For those to whom this form of delighting in time is foreign, please be patient! These two days match one another.

Today is the f.d. of St Lucy (better known in Scandinavia and the Mediterranean as Santa Lucia), who was martyred for her faith in Christ in Syracuse, Sicily, in 303/4, in the particularly vicious persecution of Diocletian. You can find the rather gory details of her death, if you want, in e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Lucy or http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09414a.htm. In the early Julian Calendar, Dec 13th was the shortest day of the year (i.e. with the longest night), but her name means light (lux, lucis). So the remembrance is of her [light] in the darkness, of her being 'a burning and shining lamp' (like John the Baptist - John 5:35), in a deliberate reminiscence of the Light of Christ (John 1:5).

Tomorrow, 14th Dec., is the f.d. of St John of the Cross (1542-1591), the great 'mystical doctor' of the Roman Catholic Church (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08480a.htm; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_of_the_Cross), and lyrical Spanish poet. Some call him the 'Doctor of Nothingness [Nada]'; I call him the 'Doctor of Darkness', although the darkness he writes of ('The Dark Night') is in reality 'The Living Flame of [God's] Love' burning and en-flaming us. The Orthodox Church does not give the special status to darkness that the Western church does, since it is so coloured by the glory of the Resurrection. But for John, the darkness was proof of the night [of faith] and of our desire for God; the soul is held, cauterised and transfigured in the blinding brilliance of the glory of God: the darkness is held in the light.

Lucy (13th Dec.) points to the light of faith; John of the Cross (14th Dec.) to the night of faith.

Philip S