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Saint Agnes of Rome by Domenichino (c. 1620) (Credit : Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Agnes of Rome is a virgin martyr, venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church. The stories surrounding St. Agnes’ life and death are varied. We know the place of her burial, her approximate age, and the place where she was martyred. Much less is known about her life, though there are many stories passed down since her martyrdom in the fourth century.

The Roman Catholic Church celebrates her feast day every Jan. 21, the day of her death. She was only about 12 or 13 year old when she was martyred in A.D. 304, but she has been honored by the Church for more than 1,700 years. She is one of several virgin martyrs commemorated by name in the Canon of the Mass, and one of many Christians martyred during the reign of the Roman emperor Diocletian.

Life and Martyrdom

Agnes was born in 291 into Roman nobility, and raised as a Christian. Her high-ranking suitors, slighted by her resolute devotion to religious purity, sought to persecute her for her beliefs. Her father urged her to deny God, but she refused, and she was dragged naked through the streets to a brothel, then tried and sentenced to death. She was eventually beheaded, after attempts for her to be burnt at the stake failed.

A few days after her death, her foster-sister Emerentiana was found praying by her tomb, and was stoned to death. Emerentiana was also later canonized. The daughter of Constantine I, Constantina, was said to have been cured of leprosy after praying at Agnes' tomb. She later built a basilica in Agnes' honor.

Veneration

There are accounts of Agnes' life going back to the late fourth and early fifth century, including one by the Roman Christian poet Prudentius called “The Passion of Agnes". 4th-century theologian St. Ambrose and Pope Damasus wrote accounts of her martyrdom as well. She is commemorated in the Depositio Martyrum of Filocalus (354) and in the early Roman Sacramentaries.

An anonymous author popularized her story through a biography, “The Life of St. Agnes of Rome: Virgin and Martyr,” written in French in the 1800s and translated to English soon after.

Since the Middle Ages, she has traditionally been depicted as a young girl with her long hair with a lamb (the symbol of her virginal innocence and her name), a sword, and a palm branch (an attribute of her martyrdom).

Today, the saint’s skull resides in a side chapel of the church Sant’Agnese in Agone in the Piazza Navona, Rome. Her body was buried in what is now known as the catacomb of St. Agnes, and her bones are still preserved in the Church of St. Agnes Outside the Walls, which was built over the catacomb where she was originally buried.

Patronage

Because of the nature of her martyrdom, the Church honors St. Agnes as the patron saint of girls, chastity, virgins, and victims of rape.

Blessing of the Lambs

On the feast of Saint Agnes, two lambs are traditionally brought from the Trappist abbey of Tre Fontane in Rome to be blessed by the Pope. In summer, the lambs are shorn, and the wool is used to weave the pallia, which the Pope gives on the feast of Saint Peter and Paul to the newly appointed metropolitan archbishops as a sign of his jurisdiction and their union with the pope. This tradition of the blessing of the lambs has been known since the 16th century.

Legacy

The Congregation of Sisters of St. Agnes is a Catholic religious community for women based in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, US. It was founded in 1858, by Father Caspar Rehrl, an Austrian missionary, who established the sisterhood of pioneer women under the patronage of Agnes, to whom he had a particular devotion.

The city of Santa Ynez, California is named after her.

Article by Catholic Time Staff