No. XXVII.

NOTES ON SHELLS FROM THE SHRINE OF SANTA LUCIA, NEAR FIGUERAS IN SPAIN,

BY

J. M. MACKINLAY, M.A., F.S.A. Scot.

[Read at a Meeting of the Society, held on 21st February, 1895.]

SOME shells connected with the cultus of St. Lucy in Spain came recently into my possession, and it has occurred to me that a few remarks bearing on them, with special reference to the legend of the Saint herself, might be interesting. Scottish antiquities form the usual subject of study in this Society, and it may seem a far cry from North Britain to the Spanish Peninsula; but in reality it is not so. In virtue of the place, held by these shells in folk-lore, they belong to the same class of objects as Barbreck's Bone and the Lee Penny, so familiar to the student of Scottish amulets.' They all have this in common that at one time or another they have been credited with the power of healing. The shells in question are believed to be efficacious in curing sore eyes. Multitudes in Spain have still a firm faith in them. The shells are sold to pilgrims frequenting the shrine of Santa Lucia, near Figueras. Figueras, it may be remembered, is a town of Catalonia, in the north-east of Spain, its name being derived from the Spanish figuera, a figtree. It is some 80 miles north-east of Barcelona, and lies below the strong fortress of San Fernando in a rich plain noted for its olives and rice. The town has manufactures of leather and paper, and there are gold and copper mines in its vicinity. It has a population of about 11,000. One can picture

Vide an article on Scottish Charms and Amulets by G. F. Black, in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. xxvii. pp. 433-526.

2 Vide Chambers's Encyclopaedia, sub voce Figueras; also Encyclopaedia Britannica.

to one's self the peasant with a load of country produce for Figueras, bending his steps to St Lucy's shrine in search of cure, or some afflicted burgher with hardly a thought for the apothecary going to the same spot on a similar errand. Mr. Black in his Folk-Medicine has a chapter on the connection of our Lord and the Saints with folk-cures, where he shows among other examples how St. Blase was invoked in cases of sore throat, and St. Apollonia for the cure of toothache. In like manner St. Lucy was believed to exercise her power in healing sore eyes.

To find the reason for this we have to glance at her legend. According to it St. Lucy was a Sicilian maiden, living at Syracuse, about the year 300 in the time of Diocletian. She was brought up from her cradle in the Christian faith, and, according to a practice then and afterwards regarded with favour, she resolved to devote herself to a life of virginity. She had a lover who was a pagan, and the young man besought her to reconsider her decision, but in vain. A miracle of healing, wrought on her mother at the shrine of St. Agatha, at Catania, confirmed the Saint in her resolve. With regard to the outstanding incident in her legend, Chambers remarks, "that on her lover "complaining to her that her beautiful eyes haunted him day and night, she "cut them out of her head and sent them to him, begging him now to leave "her to pursue unmolested her devotional aspirations. It is added that "Heaven, to recompense this act of abnegation, restored her eyes, rendering "them more beautiful than ever." 112 Alban Butler in his Lives of the Saints,3 mentions that in her Acts quoted by St. Aldhelm in the seventh century-the Acts themselves being of an earlier date-this incident is not mentioned. It seems to have been added later, but, when once added, it was not left in the background. It was too picturesque to be soon forgotten. Mrs. Jameson' is probably correct when she says, "The device of some of the early painters "to express her name Lucia, light, by the emblem of an eye or eyes placed

1 Folk-Medicine, pp. 92-93.

2 Book of Days, vol. ii. p. 687. A similar story is told of St. Medana in Galloway. Vide Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. xx. p. 88.

3 Vol. vii. p. 930.

Sacred and Legendary Art, vol. ii. p. 615. New edition, 1890.

near her, seems to have given rise to the invention of this additional inci"dent in her story, a signal instance of the conversion of the image or meta"phor into a fact." In mediaeval art her eyes are introduced sometimes rather grotesquely, e.g. when fixed upon a skewer-like awl, or placed in a cup or on a plate. In some representations the eyes are absent; and in harmony with her name she is portrayed as the light-bearer with a flaming lamp in her hand. The remaining incidents in her legend-from her refusal to sacrifice to the pagan deities to her martyrdom by a poniard wound-do not here concern us. The miraculous element enters largely into the narrative. It is still believed to show itself in the cures wrought at her shrine, near Figueras.

Let us now ask why the shells possess a healing power. A saint's shrine is supposed to be the embodiment of the saint's influence. Hence objects coming from a shrine are the bearers of whatever good influence is inherent in the shrine. St. Lucy had to do with eyes in a special way. Her shells, therefore, can cure eye diseases. Such a mode of arguing is common enough in connection with folk-cures. Instances of this sort of reasoning might be cited from Scottish hagiology. Thus St. Fillan's Bell, used in the ritual connected with his Holy Pool in Strathfillan, and the stone, known as the chariot of St. Conval, that once lay beside the river Cart, near Renfrew,3 were believed to have the power of healing through their connection with St. Fillan and St. Conval respectively. Water, too, from holy wells was credited with healing power for a similar reason. It is worth noting that certain sacred springs were specially resorted to for the cure of sore eyes. Such were St. Wallach's Well, in Glass parish, close to the Deveron, and St. John's Well, at Balmanno, in Marykirk Parish, Kincardineshire. The writer of the article

For an account of her pictures see Mrs. Jameson's book already referred to; and for a list of her symbols, Husenbeth's Emblems of Saints (3rd edition), 1882, p. 133.

4 Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. x. p. 607.

5 Chambers's Book of Days, vol. i. p. 6.

on Comrie, in the Old Statistical Account of Scotland,' remarks in reference to the influence of St. Fillan, that "at the foot of the hill (Dunfillan), there is a "basin made by the saint on the top of a large stone, which seldom wants water, even in the greatest drought; and all who are distressed with sore eyes must wash them three times with this water." Near the farmhouse of Wester Auchleskine, at Balquhidder, in Perthshire, once stood a boulder with a hollow in it. The water that gathered in the hollow was deemed so efficacious for the cure of sore eyes, that the boulder was called in Gaelic, Clach-nan-Sul-the stone of the eyes. In 1878 it was blasted by order of the road trustees, and the fragments were used as road metal. To whatever cause the power of the Clach-nan-Sul was due, and perhaps St. Angus, the patron saint of the district, laid a spell upon it, there is no doubt that the other objects named, in common with St. Lucy's shells, derived their virtue from their saintly associations.

The mode of applying the shells is curious, and suggests the reflection that the cure must be almost as painful as the disease. The pilgrim, after receiving the shell, inserts it under the lower lid of the eye, near the bridge of the nose. The watering of the eye, consequent on this, is supposed to effect the cure. The shells in question are not shells in the ordinary sense of the word. Wishing to be clear as to the precise nature of the objects, I showed them to Professor John Young, who kindly supplied the desired information. Each shell, he tells me, is the calcareous operculum of a species of turbo, or whelk, and forms, as the term implies, the lid or cover closing the mouth of the shell proper. The smooth side is the one exposed to view, and the other is the side attached to the creature within the shell. These opercula are picked up

on the Mediterranean coast.

St. Lucy's Day is the 13th of December. On her festival, prognostications regarding the weather used to be made. In Sardinia it is said that "if St. Lucy's day be bright, Christmas day will be dark with snow; but if the snow fall on St. Lucy, Christmas will be clear and sunny." Swainson, who quotes

1 Ib. vol. xi. p. 181. This Fillan is the Saint who gives name to Saint Fillans, at the foot of Loch Earn, not the Fillan connected with the district of Strathfillan.

Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. xxi. p. 85.

this proverb, refers to the fact, that the 13th of December was reckoned in the old Calendar as the shortest day of the year. Hence the saying

"Lucy light"

"The shortest day and the longest night."

It is rather remarkable that a saint whose very name implies brightness should be commemorated in the depth of the dark season, but perhaps we should look for an explanation in the circumstance that toward the middle of December is the very time when we stand most in need of light.

A Handbook of Weather Folk-Lore, by Rev. C. Swainson, p. 152.