Daily Martyrology for December 13

About 304, in Sicily, St. Lucy. Her legend recounts that she was born in Syracuse of well-to-do parents and raised a Christian. She wanted to devote her life to God and give her possessions to the poor. When she resisted a Roman soldier’s sexual assault, he denounced her as a Christian. She was arrested and executed. Her name derives from a word meaning 'light', and she is a patron of those with eye troubles.

About 720, St. Odilia, abbess. According to her legends, she was born blind, and her father, a Frankish nobleman, wanted her killed. Her mother saved her, and Odilia was raised by the nuns at Baume-les-Dames near Besançon. She was cured of her blindness by Bishop Erhard of Regensburg (January 8), and thenceforth was called Odilia, “daughter of light”. She founded a monastery in an old castle called the Hohenburg in the diocese of Strasbourg. The monastery of St. Ottilien is located on the site of a chapel dedicated to her.

In 1671, Blessed Anthony Grassi, an Oratorian priest in Fermo. He was a renowned confessor and gentle superior.

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Our daily martyrology was written by Fr. Hugh Feiss, OSB. Copyright © 2008 by the Monastery of the Ascension, Jerome, ID 83338.