Saintly Immobility, the Gouged-Out Eye, and the Severed Breast: The Metamorphosis of St Lucy in Early Iberian Art and Literature

This article focuses on the representation of St Lucy in early Iberian art and literature, considering the extent to which her identity becomes subject to procedures of evolution. In some artworks, Lucy is characterized as the saint who could not be moved either by men or yokes of oxen. Yet in others she is presented either as the saint who was blinded, or more radically, as a figure who suffers a forced mastectomy. The article argues that her example, which raises broader implications for the study of hagiography and of identity in general, shows that we should avoid focusing on representations of saints that are confined exclusively either to art or to literature.