Palermo e Santa Lucia siracusana

In Early Christian Sicily, the cult of the martyr Lucia has a remarkable fortune, so much so as to cross the borders of the island and to extend in the western and eastern Mediterranean; much is due to the pastoral work of the Popes, since the end of the fourth century.Palermo also participated in the promotion of the cult of the martyr, as attested by the Gregorian foundation of a Latin monastery dedicated to the saints Agatha and Maximus in Lucuscanum; indeed, the connection between the two saints Lucia and Agata is well known, not only by the well-known hagiographic texts, but also by the innovations introduced in the liturgy by Pope Gregory I. After the centuries of the Muslim rule, the icon of Lucia appears among the mosaics in the Palatine Chapel of Palermo (1130-1143), and to the reign of Guglielmo il Buono dates back the most ancient mention of a church of S. Lucia which, as it is shown by the Mongitore, into the village of "Borgo Vecchio" in Palermo.The continuity of the cult is attested throughout the late Middle Ages and the beginnings of the Modern Age by notarial documents relating to donations. In the Norman cathedral of Palermo, consecrated in 1185, before the renovations of 1781-1801 a chapel was entirely dedicated to Lucia, and a prominent place had her marble simulacrum in the monumental Gaginian tribune (1510-1574) that covered the apse area.