On the beach where my father was born, it became a lifelong mission of mine to find one of these shells. My family calls them “St. Lucy’s eyes”.

It’s great luck to find these washed ashore, we call them “malocchios” (meaning evil eye, but it’s worn to ward off the evil eye/bad luck). This is family lore, the story my father told me mixed with a facebook post he sent me that is roughly translated to English.

The Santa Lucia shell protects its wearer from evil forces. The spiral symbolizes wisdom and knowledge, development and movement.

It is linked to the legend of Saint Lucia. A girl named Lucia prayed for years to the Virgin Mary to heal her mother’s incurable disease and received a miraculous recovery.

“Following this event, the girl devoted herself to the cult and devotion to Mary and tore out her eyes and threw them into the sea to avoid being diverted from her faith. Totally dedicated to prayer, Lucia began to perform miracles and, in response to this devotion, the Blessed Virgin restored her sight, giving her the most beautiful and luminous eyes ever seen. In Italy, the eye of Saint Lucia is commonly worn as protection from the evil eye.

These pendants are made from shells given to me by my family, found on their beach. I only have a few, once they are gone they are gone.

Petite measures approx. 7mm-8mm

Classic measures approx. 10mm-11.5mm

Large measures approx. 14mm-16.5mm