Saint Agnes

From Free net encyclopedia

For other uses, see Saint Agnes (disambiguation).

Saint Agnes of Rome
Image:Saintagnes.jpg
Virgin and Martyr
Venerated in	Roman Catholic, Angelican, and Eastern Churchs
Feast	January 21
Attributes	Lamb, Dove, being sacrificed
Patronage	affianced couples; betrothed couples; bodily purity; chastity; Children of Mary; Colegio Capranica of Rome; crops; engaged couples; gardeners; Girl Scouts; girls; rape victims; diocese of Rockville Centre, New York; virgins
A short hymn or prayer Christ made my soul beautiful with the jewels of grace and virtue. I belong to Him whom the angels serve. St. Agnes

Saint Agnes (feast day: January 21) is a virgin martyr and saint of the Roman Catholic Church and its Eastern Rites. She is also acknowledged in the Church of England and its Anglican Communion as well as in Eastern Orthodoxy. She is the patron saint of chastity, gardeners, girls, engaged couples, rape victims and virgins.

She is also known as Saint Agnes of Rome and Saint Ines. Her feast day is January 21; since the reform of the Church's calendar following the Second Vatican Council, she is no longer commemorated on January 28, the date of her birth. Hundreds of churches are named in honour of Saint Agnes; two major well-known churches are dedicated to her. She is depicted in art with a lamb as her name resembles the Latin word agnus, which means "lamb." The name "Agnes" is actually derived from the feminine Greek adjective hagnē (ἁγνή) meaning "chaste" or "sacred." Hrosvit of Gandersheim wrote a play about Saint Agnes in the 10th century.

An interesting custom is observed on her feast day. Two lambs are brought from the Trappist abbey of Tre Fontane in Rome to the pope to be blessed. On Holy Thursday they are shorn, and from the wool is woven the pallium which the pope gives to a newly consecrated archbishop as a sign of his jurisdiction and his union with the pope.

[edit]

Biography

According to her legend, Saint Agnes was a member of the Roman nobility born c. 291 and raised in a Christian family. She suffered martyrdom at age 13 during the reign of the Eastern Roman Emperor Diocletian, on January 21 304.

The prefect Sempronius wished her to marry his son, and on her refusal condemned her to death. Roman law did not permit the execution of virgins, so he ordered her to be raped beforehand; but her virginity was, according to the legend, miraculously preserved. When led out to die she was tied to a stake, but the bundle of wood would not burn, whereupon the officer in charge of the troops drew his sword and struck off her head.

Her bones are conserved in the church of Sant'Agnese fuori le mura in Rome, built over the catacomb that housed Agnes' tomb.

Saint Agnes is the patron saint of young girls; folk custom called for them to practice rituals on Saint Agnes' Eve (20th-21st January) with a view to discovering their future husbands. This superstition has been immortalised in John Keats' poem, "The Eve of Saint Agnes." She is represented in art as holding a palm-branch in her hand and a lamb at her feet or in her arms. In the Christmas carol Good King Wenceslas, the peasant lived "right against the forest fence, by Saint Agnes' fountain".

[edit]