January 21 - St. Agnes

Since I’m a history buff and love original sources (not because I'm lazy or anything), I’m going to let St. Ambrose tell us about St. Agnes.  Agnes was a child martyr executed in Rome in the year 304, during the vicious persecutions of Diocletian.  Ambrose gave this sermon on Agnes's feast day about a century after her death.

 

St. Agnes is said to have suffered martyrdom at age twelve.  The cruelty that did not spare so young a child was hateful, but the power of faith in the child was greater.  Was there room for a wound in that small body?  The sword could barely strike her, yet she had the inner strength to strike back.  Girls of her age usually can’t even bear a parent’s angry glance.  They cry at needles’ pricks as though they were wounds.  Agnes, however, faced her persecutors fearlessly.  When they attempted to force her to worship at the pagan altars, she stretched out her hands and made the sign of the cross over the sacrificial fires.  She was not fazed by the chains they wrapped around her.  And she freely offered her body to the executioner’s sword.

 

The executioner used both threats and allurements to try to change her mind.  He encouraged young men to beg her to marry them.  But she answered, “I already have a spouse, and I will not offend him by pretending that another might please me.  I will give myself only to him who first chose me.  So, executioner, what are you waiting for?  Destroy this body that unwanted eyes desire.”

 

Agnes stood and prayed.  Then she bent down her neck.  The executioner trembled as though he himself had been condemned.  His right hand shook and his face grew pale, but the virgin showed no fear at all.

 

So in one victim, we have a twofold martyrdom of purity and faith, for Agnes both remained a virgin and also obtained martyrdom.

 

There exist ancient variations of the story of St. Agnes, with some possible basis in actual events.  It is said that she was beautiful, and many men sought to marry her, but she refused them for the sake of Christ.  When she refused the son of the prefect of Rome, he was angered and reported her as a Christian to the local magistrate.  When she refused to give up her faith, she was sentenced to death, but not before being stripped and dragged to a brothel, as it was unlawful to execute a virgin.  However, only one of the men dared try to touch her.  He was immediately struck blind, but Agnes healed him.  The magistrate ordered her to be burned anyway, but she survived this, and she was decapitated.

 The church "St. Agnes outside the walls" was built over her grave in the time of Constantine, remodeled in the seventh century, and still stands today.

While the details of her story have been blurred with time, her situation as a twelve-year old girl who willingly faced death for Christ has inspired Christians throughout the ages.  Agnes shows us that holiness does not depend on age, experience, or own efforts, but is a gift that God offers us all.