Church of Saint Lucy

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Within the orthogonal urban fabric of the lower part of the historic center stands the small and charming Church of Saint Lucy, a Greek-cross-shaped building, unique of its kind in the town.

Chiesa di Santa Lucia

It was built at an uncertain date; the first evidence of its existence dates back to 1710, although the toponym of the same name had already appeared about thirty years earlier. Fallen into ruin in the first half of the 19th century, it was rebuilt in 1860 by local and Caltanissetta craftsmen at the will of a wealthy “bourgeois,” Giacomo Oddo, who also dedicated it to Our Lady of Providence, in memory of the small church under that title that had been closed and demolished to make room for the old town hall near Piazza Repubblica. The façade, built of squared local limestone blocks, shows Neoclassical and Renaissance inspiration, with a double-tiered dome placed at the junction of the two arms of the church. The main entrance is embellished with a refined portal. The majolica floor, installed in 2008 during the restoration of the building, reproduces the ancient pavement from Salerno. On the main altar stands the Madonna della Provvidenza, a 19th-century polychrome wooden sculpture by a Palermo artist, coming from the aforementioned church of Our Lady of Providence. The statue holds the Child in her left arm and, with her right hand, displays a pomegranate, symbol of fertility.

Several works by the San Cataldo painter Michele Butera (1789–1865) are also preserved: the Martyrdom of Saint Lucy (1836) and Saint Vincent Ferrer, both placed in the apse of the main altar; while the Madonna of Health (1863) and the Portrait of Giacomo Oddo (1863)—blind in one eye and wearing an earring to ward off evil forces—are kept in the sacristy. The feast of the Syracusan martyr is celebrated, as usual, on December 13, a day considered before the Gregorian reform (1582) to be the shortest of the year, as it coincided with the winter solstice.

This belief gave rise to a series of proverbs. In San Cataldo, the beginning of the bad season was greeted with two sayings: “Santa Lucì un passu di cucciu fì” (“Saint Lucy, the step of a sparrow”) or, instead of the sparrow’s hopping (cucciu fì), the “cuccì” was mentioned, the traditional meal made of wheat and chickpeas, also prepared for All Souls’ Day.

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