Martyr Lucy the Virgin and Companions at Rome

Life and Martyrdom

The synaxarion relates that while still quite young Lucy was taken captive and carried off into a foreign land by Rexius, a man who held the office of Vicarius. He sought to compel her to sacrifice to idols, but she remained firm in her faith. He thereafter granted her and her servants a separate house, where they lived in solitude and spent their time in prayer.

By the account of the tradition, Rexius came to hold Lucy in deep respect, asking her prayers before his military campaigns and returning victorious; under her influence he himself accepted Christianity and is said to have longed for martyrdom. After some twenty years, when Diocletian began to persecute Christians, Lucy asked Rexius to return her to Italy. Leaving his retinue and family behind, he went with her to Rome.

There, the synaxarion relates, the Roman prefect Aelius sentenced them to be beheaded with the sword. After them the companions Antoninus, Lucian, Isidore, Dion, Diodorus, Cutonius, Arnosus, Capicus, and Satyrus were likewise beheaded.

Identity and Tradition

Lucy of Campania belongs to the pre-schism Western saints venerated within the undivided Church. Several distinct martyr-legends bearing the name Lucy circulated in the Western tradition, and hagiographers have at times conflated a Roman Lucy with Lucy of Syracuse; the July 6 commemoration of the Campanian virgin and her companions is preserved as its own entry in the Orthodox synaxarion.