Assistance for the visually impaired has come a long way since the technique of ‘couching’ cataracts was described three thousand years ago in Babylonia and the treatment of ocular ailments by dubious concoctions of ground-up animal, vegetable and mineral ingredients in Greek and Roman times. We have sophisticated surgical, laser and pharmacological treatments for eye disease, and a huge range of appliances for the improvement of vision. But what to do if all else fails – say a prayer? Perhaps. But to whom?
In Christian tradition there are many saints who are patron of, or connected with, a wide range of medical conditions and medical practitioners. Those saints most associated with sight are St Lucy, St Odilia and, to a degree, St Jerome.
St Lucy, whose name means ‘light’ is a patron saint of the blind and those with eye problems. Known as the Protector of Eyesight, she is also the patron saint of opticians and ophthalmologists (and firemen, sailors and her home town). Lucy was born in Syracuse, Sicily, in 284AD, of a wealthy Greek Christian family, and martyred during the reign of Diocletian in 304AD. There are several legends about her life, but the main one revolves around her secret vow at a young age to dedicate her virginity to God. Her father had died while she was an infant and her mother, suffering from an incurable disease and ignorant of the vow her daughter had taken, arranged for Lucy to be married, aged 14, to a pagan nobleman in order to secure her future.
Lucy persuaded her mother to make a pilgrimage with her to the tomb of St Agatha in Catania to pray for relief of her illness. Miraculously the illness was cured, whereupon Lucy revealed her vow and gained her mother’s consent to spend her dowry on the relief of the poor and commit her life to the service of God. As can be imagined, this did not go down well with her betrothed. With Diocletian’s persecutions of Christians in full swing at that time, Lucy’s husband-to-be denounced her as a Christian to the local governor.
Initially he ordered Lucy to bow down to idols, which she refused to do. As a punishment the governor ordered her to be forced into prostitution at a brothel; but as soldiers attempted to carry her away she miraculously became immovable. Sorcerers could not break the spell and, when an attempt was made to burn her was unsuccessful despite covering her in flammable oils, finally she was stabbed through the neck with a sword. Even then a miracle occurred that she lived long enough to receive Holy Communion before she expired, aged just 20.
Beautiful eyes
Lucy’s connection with sight, or the lack of it, comes from another part of the legend, of which there are two versions. In both cases her eyes were considered to be especially beautiful. One story has it that her eyes were put out as part of her torture. The other recounts that her eyes were greatly admired by her suitor and Lucy, fearful that this admiration was sinful, plucked out her eyes herself with a knife and sent them to him on a dish with the message: ‘Here hast thou what thou so much desired.’ In both variants God, in acknowledgement of Lucy’s bravery and religious devotion, restored her eyes, even more beautiful than before. Since the Middle Ages she has usually been depicted in paintings holding a dish containing two eyes.
Lucy’s feast day is December 13, one of the shortest – and, therefore, darkest – days in the old Julian calendar. In Sweden this day marks the start of the Christmas celebration, when the eldest daughter of a family dresses in a white robe and wears a wreath-crown of evergreens studded with candles in imitation of the similar crown Lucy used to wear when taking food and alms to fellow Christians hiding from persecution in underground catacombs.
St Odilia (or Odile) of Alsace and Strasbourg was born around 660AD to Adalric, first Duke of Alsace. He and his wife had been trying for some years to have a child; when their prayers were answered Adalric was full of rage that not only was it a girl, rather than the hoped-for boy, but the child was blind. He ordered the baby to be cast out or killed, but the family’s nurse spirited her away and looked after her, later to be brought up in a convent. At the age of 12 she was taken to be baptised by St Erhard of Regensburg, Bishop of Bavaria. At the moment of baptism Odilia miraculously became sighted and looked directly at the bishop, who said: ‘So, my child, may you look at me in the kingdom of heaven.’
[CaptionComponent="324"]Meanwhile, Adalric did have other children. His eldest son, Hugh, learned about his lost sister, found her and brought her home without permission from his father; who, on learning of his son’s actions, killed him in a fit of anger. As penance he accepted his daughter only to see her flee from home when betrothed by her father to a German duke. Some accounts have Adalric following her but being frustrated in his search by a cave opening up in a mountain to hide her; others have him finding her carrying grain to make food for the poor and giving alms for his soul’s sake, upon which he gave her a castle with all its lands and revenues to enable her to found a nunnery.
The Hohenburg Abbey was founded at the top of a steep hill, where, in a chapel near the convent church, Odilia was buried after her death on December 13, 720. Her tomb has since been destroyed, but there is still a shrine which is visited by those afflicted with eye disease. She shares her feast day with St Lucy, and is depicted in paintings mostly as an abbess with a book on which there are two eyes. She is sometimes associated with larkspur, which itself is noted for its herbal healing of eye conditions.
In the early part of the 20th century a ‘Guild of Opticians’ was established under the banner of the Guild of St Odilia. The December 23, 1938 edition of the Catholic Herald reports briefly on the 16th bulletin of the Guild of Opticians, noting, ‘Correspondence in The Optician on sterilisation, and a mission dedicated to St Odilia writing and asking for help, are among the items of general interest in this number.’ It also mentions that, ‘The bulletin is published by Mr Eric Bateman, to whom enquiries concerning the Guild should be addressed, at 52 South-street, Worthing, Sussex.’
[CaptionComponent="325"]St Jerome (331-420AD), translator of the Bible from Hebrew into Latin (the ‘Vulgate’ Bible) is the patron saint of spectacle makers. His patronage arises from his scholarship and the way artists indicated this aspect by often depicting him with spectacles – somewhat anachronistically, since he lived around eight centuries before their invention.
There are other saints, major and minor, who traditionally have some association with eyes. The archangel Raphael is a key figure in the Book of Tobit, through whose agency Tobit’s blindness is cured. Hence Raphael is considered a patron saint of eye disease and blind people. Saint Hervé (Harvey) of Brittany was born blind and raised in poverty by his poet mother, eventually becoming a monk and later abbot. Hervé, St Alice of Schaerbeek and St Clare of Assisi (founder of the ‘Poor Clares’) are also invoked regarding eye disease and the blind.
David Baker is an independent optometrist
