Though Captain Broughton, of H.M.S. “Providence,” was wrecked on Miyako-shima and subsequently visited Nafa in 1797, it was not till the “Alceste” and “Lyra” expedition in 1816–1817, under Captains Basil Hall and Murray Maxwell, that detailed information was obtained about Luchu. The people at that time showed a curious mixture of courtesy and shyness. From 1844 efforts were made by both Catholic (French) and Protestant missionaries to Christianize them, but though hospitable they made it clear that these efforts were unwelcome. Further visits were made by British vessels under Captain Beechey (1826) and Sir Edward Belcher (1845). The American expedition under Commodore M. C. Perry (1853) added largely to knowledge of the islands, and concluded a treaty with the Luchuan government.
See Basil Hall, Account of a Voyage of Discovery to the West Coast of Corea and the Great Loo-choo Island (London, 1818); Comm. M. C. Perry, Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan, 1852–1854 (Washington, 1856); B. H. Chamberlain, “The Luchu Islands and their Inhabitants,” in the Geographical Journal, vol. v. (1895); “Contributions to a Bibliography of Luchu,” in Trans. Asiatic Soc. Japan, xxiv. (1896); C. S. Leavenworth, “History of the Loo-choo Islands,” Journ. China Br. Royal Asiatic Soc. xxxvi. (1905).
LUCIA (or Lucy), ST, virgin and martyr of Syracuse, whose name figures in the canon of the mass, and whose festival is celebrated on the 13th of December. According to the legend, she lived in the reign of Diocletian. Her mother, having been miraculously cured of an illness at the sepulchre of St Agatha in Catania, was persuaded by Lucia to distribute all her wealth to the poor. The youth to whom the daughter had been betrothed forthwith denounced her to Pascasius, the prefect, who ordered that she should be taken away and subjected to shameful outrage. But it was found that no force which could be applied was able to move her from the spot on which she stood; even boiling oil and burning pitch had no power to hurt her, until at last she was slain with the sword. The most important documents concerning St Lucy are the mention in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum and the ancient inscription discovered at Syracuse, in which her festival is indicated. Many paintings represent her bearing her eyes in her hand or on a salver. Some artists have even represented her blind, but nothing in her Acta justifies this representation. It is probable that it originated in a play upon words (Lucia, from Lat. lux, light), just as St Clair is invoked in cases of eye-disease.
See O. Caietanus, Vitae sanctorum Siculorum, i. 114–121 (Palermo, 1657); Ioannes de Ioanne, Acta sincera sanctae Luciae (Palermo, 1758); Analecta Bollandiana, xxii. 492; Cahier, Caractéristiques des saints, i. 105 (Paris, 1867). (H. De.)
LUCIAN (d. 312), Christian martyr, was born, like the famous,
heathen writer of the same name, at Samosata. His parents,
who were Christians, died when he was in his twelfth year.
In his youth he studied under Macarius of Edessa, and after
receiving baptism he adopted a strictly ascetic life, and devoted
himself with zeal to the continual study of scripture. Settling
at Antioch when Malchion was master of the Greek school he
became a presbyter, and, while supporting himself by his skill
as a rapid writer, became celebrated as a teacher, so that he is
regarded as the founder of the famous theological school of
Antioch. He did not escape suspicion of heresy, and is represented
as the connecting link between Paul of Samosata and
Arius. Indeed, on the deposition of the former (A.D. 268) he
was excluded from ecclesiastical fellowship by three successive
bishops of Antioch, while Arius seems to have been among his
pupils (Theodoret, Hist. Eccl. i. 3, 4). He was, however, restored
before the outbreak of persecution, and the reputation won
by his high character and learning was confirmed by his courageous
martyrdom. He was carried to Nicomedia before Maximin
Daza, and persisting in his faith perished on the 7th of January
312, under torture and hunger, which he refused to satisfy with
food offered to idols. His defence is preserved by Rufinus
(ix. 6; on Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. ix. 9). His remains were
conveyed to Drepanum in Bithynia, and under Constantine
the town was founded anew in his honour with the name of
Helenopolis, and exempted from taxes by the emperor (A.D. 327)
(see Chron. Pasch., Bonn ed., p. 527). Here in 387, on the anniversary
of his death, Chrysostom delivered the panegyrical
homily from which, with notices in Eusebius, Theodoret and the
other ecclesiastical historians, the life by Jerome (Vir. Ill. cap.
77), but especially from the account by S. Metaphrastes (cited
at length in Bernhardy’s notes to Suidas, s.v. νοθεύει), the facts
above given are derived. See also, for the celebration of his day
in the Syriac churches, Wright, Cat. of Syr. MSS. p. 283.
Jerome says that Lucian wrote Libelli de fide and several letters, but only a short fragment of one epistle remains (Chron. Pasch., ed. Dindorf, i. 516). The authorship of a confession of faith ascribed to Lucian and put forth at the semi-Arian synod of Antioch (A.D. 341) is questioned. Lucian’s most important literary labour was his edition of the Greek Old Testament corrected by the Hebrew text, which, according to Jerome (Adv. Ruf. ii. 77), was in current use from Constantinople to Antioch. That the edition of Lucian is represented by the text used by Chrysostom and Theodoret, as well as by certain extant MSS., such as the Arundelian of the British Museum, was proved by F. Field (Prol. ad Origenis Hexapla, cap. ix.).
Before the publication of Field’s Hexapla, Lagarde had already directed his attention to the Antiochian text (as that of Lucian may be called) and ultimately published the first part (Genesis, 2 Esdras, Esther) of a provisional reconstructed text. The distinguishing marks of the Lucianic recension are thus summarized by S. R. Driver, Notes on Heb. Text of Samuel, p. li. seq.: (1) The substitution of synonyms for the words employed by the Septuagint; (2) the occurrence of double renderings; (3) the occurrence of renderings “which presuppose a Hebrew original self-evidently superior in the passages concerned to the existing Massoretic text,” a peculiarity which makes it very important for the criticism of the Hebrew Bible. From a statement of Jerome in his preface to the gospels it seems probable that Lucian had also a share in fixing the Syrian recension of the New Testament text, but of this it is impossible to speak with certainty. He was associated in his work with the Hebraist Dorotheus.
See, generally, A. Harnack’s art. in Hauck-Herzog, Realencyk. vol. xi., and for “remains” Routh, Rel. Sac. iv. 3-17. A full account of his recension of the Septuagint is given in H. B. Swete’s Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek, p. 81 sqq.; and a good account of his doctrinal position in the prolegomena to the volume on Athanasius in the series of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (p. xxviii.) and A. Harnack’s History of Dogma, especially vol. iv.
LUCIAN [Λουκιανός] (c. A.D. 120–180), Greek satirist of the Silver Age of Greek literature, was born at Samosata on the Euphrates in northern Syria. He tells us in the Somnium or Vita Luciani, 1, that, his means being small, he was at first apprenticed to his maternal uncle, a statuary, or rather sculptor of the stone pillars called Hermae. Having made an unlucky beginning by breaking a marble slab, and having been well beaten for it, he absconded and returned home. Here he had a dream or vision of two women, representing Statuary and Literature. Both plead their cause at length, setting forth the advantages and the prospects of their respective professions; but the youth chooses Παιδεία, and decides to pursue learning. For some time he seems to have made money as a ῥήτωρ, following the example of Demosthenes, on whose merits and patriotism he expatiates in the dialogue Demosthenis Encomium. He was very familiar with the rival schools of philosophy, and he must have well studied their teachings; but he lashes them all alike, the Cynics, perhaps, being the chief object of his derision. Lucian was not only a sceptic; he was a scoffer and a downright unbeliever. He felt that men’s actions and conduct always fall far short of their professions and therefore he concluded that the professions themselves were worthless, and a mere guise to secure popularity or respect. Of Christianity he shows some knowledge, and it must have been somewhat largely professed in Syria at the close of the 2nd century.[1] In the Philopatris (q.v.), though the dialogue so called is generally regarded as spurious, there is a statement of the doctrine of the Trinity,[2] and the “Galilaean who had ascended to the third heaven” (12), and “renewed” (ἀνεκαίνισεν) by the waters of baptism, may possibly allude to St Paul. The doctrines of the Λόγος and the “Light of the world,” and that God is in heaven making a record of the good
- ↑ In the Alexander (25) we are told that the province of Pontus, due north of Syria, was “full of Christians.”
- ↑ Philopatris, 12, ὑψιμέδοντα Θεὸν μέγαν ἄμβροτον οὐρανίωνα, υἱὸν Πατρὸς, Πνεῦμα ἐκ πατρὸς ἐκπορευόμενον, ἔν ἐκ τριῶν καὶ ἐξ ἑνὸς τρία, a passage which bears on the controverted procession “a Patre Filioque.”
