An Afternoon with St. Lucy

Saint Lucy is one of seven women, aside from the Blessed Virgin Mary, commemorated by name in the Canon of the Mass. Hagiography tells us that Lucy was a Christian during the Diocletian persecution. She consecrated her virginity to God, refused to marry a pagan, and had her dowry distributed to the poor. Her would-be husband denounced her as a Christian to the governor of Syracuse, Sicily. Miraculously unable to move her or burn her, the guards took out her eyes with a fork. In another version, Lucy's would-be husband admired her eyes, so she tore them out and gave them to him, saying, "Now let me live to God".

The parish of Saint Lucy ("St. Lucy") is the northern-most area in the country of Barbados. Saint Lucy is known for being the only parish of Barbados out of the eleven to be named after a female patron saint, Saint Lucy of Syracuse. Saint Lucy is also a peninsula, surrounded on three sides by the Atlantic Ocean to the north, east and west. To the south lies the neighboring parish of Saint Peter.

As the crow flies, Saint Lucy is the most distant part of Barbados from the capital city Bridgetown, and remains one of the least populated parts of the island because its remoteness.

We continued on our northbound journey. In this shot, the road narrows to one lane that accommodates traffic from both directions. Note the tall sugar cane fields on both sides of the road. As cane can be very sharp, we pulled in our arms to prevent touching the stalks as we passed.

Barbados interior - February, 1991

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