258 THE MAGIC OF JEWELS AND CHARMS
passionately
in love with her, and wrote to her that her wonderful eyes pursued him
even in his dreams. Moved by the Scripture text, "If thine eye offend
thee, pluck it out," and longing to save the youth from sensual
passion, Lucia cut out her beautiful eyes, placed them on a dish, and
sent them to her lover with the following message: "Here thou hast what
thou so ardently desirest ; I beseech thee leave me in peace." Very
naturally, this saint is believed to cure all diseases of the eye.
For
protection against highway robbers and thieves, St. Nicholas (December
6), Bishop of Myra, in Lycia, was invoked. Legend relates of this saint
that he restored to life three boys who had been murdered at an inn by
the wicked innkeeper, a wretch who was in the habit of making away with
his guests and then utilizing their bodies to enrich his menu. This
tale accounts for the fact that, under the familiar name of Santa
Claus, St. Nicholas is the patron-saint of children.
St.
Barbara (December 4), born in Heliopolis, is appealed to for protection
against lightning and injury by firearms. For this reason the gun-room
on a ship is called in French the samte-barhe. The legend, as
usual, gives us the origin of the belief in the saint's special powers,
for her heathen father is said to have been killed by a stroke of
lightning, because of his having denounced his daughter, as a
Christian, to the Roman authorities, and then executed judgment upon
her with his own hands. Of St. Barbara the legend says : "She was a
fair fruit from an evil tree."17
Beneath
portraits or images of St. Christopher (July 25) there often appears a
Latin verse to the effect that whoever gazes on the image will not
suffer from faintness or exhaustion on that day. As the saint is said
to have been of great
** Symeonis Logothetœ, cognomento Metaphraste, " Opera Omnia," ed. Migne, Parisiis, 1864, vol. iii, col. 315.
