No, not Lucy Ricardo of I Love Lucy fame, but an early nun named Lucy living at a time when all you saw of a nun was her face. A nobleman falls in Lucy thinking her face is stunning and he wants to marry her. However, Lucy doesn’t want to get married and prefers to remain a nun so she thinks to herself “What can I do to my face to get this man off my back?”
Lightning strikes with the notion of gorging out her eyeballs. So she does and immediately Mary gives her a new set of eyeballs. In art she’ll hold a plate with her original eyeballs that are a different color than the new ones Mary has given here.
The nobleman loses complete interest in Lucy and she becomes the patron saint of vision issues. If you’ve problems with your vision and you ask for Lucy’s help, and she grants it, you’ll place a milargo (tin medal of an eyeball) by her image as thanks for her help. Appreciation for favors granted is a constant component of Mexican culture.
So whenever you see an image of St. Lucy notice the hundreds of eyeballs around her thanking for her help with someone’s vision.
Right now you’ll see St. Lucy’s image around town as the Society for the Blind, called St. Lucy’s, is having a fundraiser that includes her plate-carrying image. Also, most anytime you go to an eye doctor in Mexico the office complex will be called St. Lucy’s.
Not surprising, the name Lucy means light.
Joseph Toone is the Historical Society’s short-story award winning author of the SMA Secrets book series. All books in the series are Amazon bestsellers in Mexican Travel and Holidays. Toone is SMA’s expert and TripAdvisor’s top ranked historical tour guide telling the stories behind what we do in today’s SMA. Visit HistoryAndCultureWalkin