Of Santa Lucia (December 13), born in Syracuse on the island of Sicily, a strange legend is told. A young man fell 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 _sainte-barbe_. 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.”[496] 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 size and strength, the worshipper at his shrine was believed to acquire some of his physical power. [Illustration: SANTA BARBARA French school, 1520. Leaf of a triptych in the Museum of Budapest. ] The cure of diseases of the tongue was the province of St. Catherine of Alexandria (November 25), who was famed for her eloquence as well as for her devotion to the study of the Scriptures. St. Roch, who was born in Montpelier toward the end of the thirteenth century (d. August 16, 1327), is regarded as the special guardian of those afflicted with plague or pestilence. In his lifetime he went from place to place ministering to those who suffered from the plague until finally he himself succumbed to this malady. So great was the repute of St. Roch’s curative powers that the Venetians are said to have stolen his body from Montpelier, where it was interred, and transported it to Venice, that they might have ever-present help in the numerous pestilences from which this city suffered, because of the constant commercial intercourse with the East.