Artist Rendition of St. Agatha's Martyrdom |
St. Agatha, Virgin and Martyr
Her story
Agatha, daughter
of a distinguished family and remarkable for her beauty of person, was
persecuted by the Senator Quintianus with avowals of love. As his proposals
were resolutely spurned by the pious Christian virgin, he committed her to the
charge of an evil woman, whose seductive arts, however, were baffled by
Agatha's unswerving firmness in the Christian faith. Quintianus then had her
subjected to various cruel tortures.
Especially inhuman seemed his order to have her breasts cut off, a
detail which furnished to the Christian medieval iconography the peculiar
characteristic of Agatha. But the holy
virgin was consoled by a vision of St. Peter, who miraculously healed her. Eventually she succumbed to the repeated
cruelties practiced on her.
“After suffering the most severe torments
humanly imaginable, so terrible that even the townspeople--Christian, Jewish,
and pagan--demonstrated against the governor, St. Agatha was crowned gloriously
with sacred martyrdom on the 5th day of February. “
Both Catania and
Palermo claim the honour of being Agatha's birthplace. Her feast is kept on 5
February; her office in the Roman Breviary is drawn in part from the Latin
Acts. Catania honours St. Agatha as her
patron saint, and throughout the region around Mt. Etna she is invoked against
the eruptions of the volcano, as elsewhere against fire and lightning. In some places bread and water are blessed
during Mass on her feast after the Consecration, and called Agatha bread.
First Century Mosaic of St. Agatha |
Excerpt taken
from New Advent, Catholic Encyclopedia
APA citation.
Kirsch, J.P. (1907). St. Agatha. In The
Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved May 25, 2012 from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01203c.htm
and
All Merciful Saviour Orthodox Mission: http://www.allmercifulsavior.com/icons/Icons-Agatha.htm
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