(ABOUT A.D. 303.)
[Roman Martyrology, modern Anglican Kalendar, and Greek Menaea. The
Greeks commemorate her on Jan. 14th, 21st, and July 5th. Her Acts,
attributed to S. Ambrose, are a rhetorical recension of her genuine
Acts. S. Ambrose refers to S. Agnes in lib. I. De Virginibus, and
in his Commentary on Ps. civ., and in lib. I. c. 4 of his offices.
There is also a hymn of Prudentius, relating the Acts of this
famous martyr. The Acts are sufficiently elegant to be really by S.
Ambrose, and are far superior in style to those of S. Sebastian,
falsely attributed to him.]
S. Jerome says that the tongues and pens of all nations are employed in
the praises of this Saint, who overcame both the cruelty of the tyrant,
and the tenderness of her age, and crowned the glory of chastity with
that of martyrdom.[107] S. Augustine observes that her name signifies
chaste in Greek, and a lamb in Latin. She has been always looked upon in
the Church as a special patroness of purity. We learn from S. Ambrose
and S. Augustine, that she was only thirteen years old at the time of
her death. She suffered in the persecution of Diocletian. Her riches and
beauty excited one of the young nobles of Rome, the son of the prefect
of the city, to attempt to gain her hand in marriage. To him she
answered, "I am already engaged to one--to him alone I keep my
troth."[108] And when he asked further, her answer was, "He has already
pledged me to Him by his betrothal ring, and has adorned me with
precious jewels. He has placed a sign upon my brow that I should have no
other lover but he. He has showed me incomparable treasures, which he
has promised to give me if I persevere. Honey and milk have I drawn from
His lips, and I have partaken of His body, and with His blood has he
adorned my cheeks. His mother is a virgin, and His father knew not
woman. Him the angels serve, His beauty sun and moon admire; by His
fragrance the dead are raised, by His touch the sick are healed. His
wealth never fails, and His abundance never grows less. For Him alone do
I keep myself. To Him alone in true confidence do I commit myself. Whom
loving I am chaste, whom touching I am clean, whom receiving I am a
virgin."
The youth repulsed, and filled with jealousy against the unknown lover,
complained to the father of Agnes, who was much disturbed, doubting
whether she were mad, or had given her heart to some one without his
knowing it. By degrees it transpired that Agnes was a Christian.
Thereupon Symphronius,[109] the governor, sent for her parents, and
they, alarmed for her safety, urged her to submit, and marry the young
man. She, however, constantly refused, declaring that she desired to
remain a virgin. "Very well," said the Governor; "then become a vestal
virgin, and serve the goddess in celibacy."
"Do you think," answered Agnes, "that if I have refused your living son,
of flesh and blood, that I shall dedicate myself to gods of senseless
stone?"
"Be not headstrong," said Symphronius; "you are only a child, remember,
though forward for your age."
"I may be a child," replied Agnes; "but faith dwells not in years, but
in the heart."
"I will tell you how I shall deal with you," cried Symphronius. "You
shall be stripped, and driven naked into a house of ill-fame, to be
subjected to insult and outrage." Then the clothes were taken off the
slender body of the girl, and she was forced out into the street. In
shame she loosened the band that confined her abundant hair, and let it
flow over her body, and cover her. "You may expose my virtue to insult,"
said she to the prefect, "but I have the angel of God as my defence. For
the only-begotten Son of God, whom you know not, will be to me an
impenetrable wall, and a guardian never sleeping, and an unflagging
protector."
And so it was. For when she was placed in the brothel, the room was
filled with light, and an angel brought her a robe, white as snow, to
cover her nakedness. And also, when the governor's son burst in at the
door in tumultuous exultation, the angel smote him, that he fell
senseless on the ground.[110] Thereupon there was an uproar, and the
people said, she had slain him by her enchantments. But when he was come
to himself he was ashamed, and the governor feared. Therefore he
committed the sentencing of Agnes to the deputy, Aspasius, who ordered
that she should be immediately executed. And all the people rushed after
her, crying, "Away with the witch, away with her!"
Then a fire was kindled, and Agnes was placed upon the pyre. But she,
lifting up her hands in the midst of the fire, prayed, "O Father
Almighty, who alone art to be worshipped, feared, and adored, I give
Thee thanks for that through thy holy Son, I have escaped the threats of
the profane tyrant, and with unstained footstep have passed over the
filthy slough of lust; and now, behold, I come to Thee, whom I have
loved, have sought, and have always longed for. Thy name I bless, I
glorify, world without end."[111] And she continued, "So now I am
bedewed with the Holy Ghost from on high; the furnace grows cold about
me, the flame is divided asunder, and its heat is rolled back on them
that quickened it. I bless Thee, O Father of my Lord Jesus Christ, who
permittest me, intrepid, to come to Thee through the fires. Lo! what I
have believed, that now I see; what I have hoped for, that now I hold;
what I have desired, that now I embrace. I confess Thee with my lips,
and with my heart, I altogether desire Thee. I come to Thee one and true
God, who with our Lord Jesus Christ, thy Son, and with the Holy Ghost,
livest and reignest through ages of ages. _Amen._" And when she had
finished praying, the fire became wholly extinct; then Aspasius, the
deputy, ordered a sword to be thrust into her throat. "But," said he
suddenly, "why is she not bound?" The executioner turned over a quantity
of manacles, and selected the smallest pair he could find, and placed
them round her wrists. Agnes with a smile, shook her hands, and they
fell, like S. Paul's viper, clattering at her feet.[112] Then she calmly
knelt down, and with her own hands drew forward her hair, so as to
expose her neck to the blow.[113] A pause ensued, for the executioner
was trembling with emotion, and could not wield his sword.[114]
As the child knelt alone, in her white robe, with her head inclined, her
arms crossed modestly upon her bosom, and her locks hanging to the
ground, and veiling her features, she might not inaptly have been
compared to some rare plant, of which the slender stalk, white as a
lily, bent with the luxuriance of its golden blossom. "And thus, bathed
in her rosy blood," said the author of the Acts, "Christ betrothed to
Himself his bride and martyr."
Then her parents, having no sorrow, but all joy, took her body, and
placed it in a tomb on their farm, not far from the city, on the
Numentan road. But there being a great crowd of Christians following,
the pagan mob and soldiers pursued them, and drove them away with stones
and weapons. But Emerentiana, who was the foster-sister of Agnes, a holy
virgin, though only a catechumen, stood intrepid and motionless by the
tomb, and there she was stoned to death.
After her death Agnes appeared in glory to her parents.
From the heavenly regions
Girt with heavenly legions,
Eight days past, her home she sought;
And a lamb, the whitest,
Loveliest, purest, brightest,
In her loving arms she brought.
"These thou seest, my mother
These, and many another,
Are my blest companions now."
Relics, in the church of S. Agnes, at Rome; portions at Utrecht; a few
small particles at Rouen, in the church of S. Ouen; at Melun; in the
Cathedral at Cologne; in the Court Chapel at Brussels; and in the Jesuit
Church at Antwerp.
In art, she appears (1) with a lamb, or (2) with an angel protecting
her, or (3) standing on a flaming pyre, or (4) with a sword.