Agnes of Rome Agnes of Rome (c. 291 – c. 304) is a virgin–martyr, soaked up the blood with cloths. venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, and Lutheranism. She is one of seven women, who along with the Blessed Virgin, are commemorated by name in the Canon of the Mass. She is the patron saint of chastity, gardeners, girls, engaged couples, rape victims, and vir- gins. She is depicted in art with a lamb, as her name resembles the Latin word for “lamb”, agnus. The name “Agnes” is actually derived from the feminine Greek adjective “hagnē" (ἁγνή) meaning “chaste, pure, sacred”. Her feast day is 21 January. In pre-1970 versions of the General Roman Calendar an additional feast of the same saint is given one week later, on 28 January (see Tridentine Calendar). The 1969 revision removed this as Agnes depicted on the Royal Gold Cup a duplication of the 21 January feast.[1] Agnes was buried beside the Via Nomentana in Rome.[3] A few days after Agnes’s death, her foster-sister, Saint 1 Biography Emerentiana, was found praying by her tomb; she claimed to be the daughter of Agnes’s wet nurse, and was stoned to death after refusing to leave the place and reprimand- According to tradition, Saint Agnes was a member of the ing the pagans for killing her foster sister. Emerentiana Roman nobility born 291 AD and raised in a Christian [2] was also later canonized. The daughter of Constantine family. She suffered martyrdom at the age of twelve I, Saint Constance, was also said to have been cured of or thirteen during the reign of the Roman Emperor leprosy after praying at Agnes’s tomb. Emerentiana and Diocletian, on 21 January 304. Constance appear in the scenes from the life of Agnes on Agnes, whose name means “chaste” in Greek, was a beau- the 14th-century Royal Gold Cup in the British Museum. tiful young girl of wealthy family and therefore had many An early account of Agnes’s death, stressing her young suitors of high rank. Details of her story are unreliable, age, steadfastness and virginity, but not the legendary fea- but legend holds that the young men, slighted by Agnes’s tures of the tradition, is given by Saint Ambrose.[2] resolute devotion to religious purity, submitted her name to the authorities as a follower of Christianity.[3] The Prefect Sempronius condemned her to be dragged 2 Veneration naked through the streets to a brothel. Various versions of the legend give different methods of escape from this Agnes’s bones are conserved beneath the high altar in the predicament. In one, as she prayed, her hair grew and church of Sant'Agnese fuori le mura in Rome, built over covered her body.[4] It was also said that all of the men the catacomb that housed Agnes’s tomb. Her skull is pre- who attempted to rape her were immediately struck blind. served in a separate chapel in the church of Sant'Agnese In another the son of the prefect is struck dead, but re- in Agone in Rome’s Piazza Navona. vived after Agnes prayed for him, causing her release. There is then a trial from which Sempronius excuses him- self, and another figure presides, sentencing her to death. When led out to die she was tied to a stake, but the bun- 3 Patronage dle of wood would not burn, or the flames parted away from her, whereupon the officer in charge of the troops Saint Agnes is the patron saint of young girls. Folk cus- drew his sword and beheaded her, or, in some other texts, tom called for them to practise rituals on Saint Agnes’ stabbed her in the throat. It is also said that the blood of Eve (20–21 January) with a view to discovering their fu- Agnes poured to the stadium floor where other Christians ture husbands. This superstition has been immortalised 1 2 3 PATRONAGE in John Keats's poem, "The Eve of Saint Agnes". • Parish of St. Agnes Cathedral, Rockville Centre, NY • St. Agnes Catholic Church (Our Lady of Hope Parish), Blackwood, New Jersey • St. Agnes Catholic Church, Concord, California • St. Agnes Catholic Church, Morrisdale, Pennsylva- nia • St. Agnes Catholic Church, Phoenix, Arizona • St. Agnes Parish Almar, Caloocan Philippines • St. Agnes Mission, Mirando City, Texas • St. Agnes Catholic Church, West Chester, Pennsyl- vania • St. Agnes Catholic Church, Baltimore, Maryland • St. Agnes Catholic Church Waterloo, Ontario • St. Agnes Anglican Church, Kloof, South Africa 3.2 Schools • St. Agnes Catholic School, Roeland Park, Kansas • Santa Inés, Guarino, 1650. St. Agnes Catholic Grade School, Charleston, West Virginia • St. Agnes Catholic School, Springfield, Illinois 3.1 Churches • St. Agnes Elementary School, Ft. Wright, Kentucky • St. Agnes Catholic Church, Naples, Florida[5] • St. Agnes Convent School - Mumbai - India • Sant'Agnese in Agone • St. Agnes Convent School - Howrah - India • Sant'Agnese fuori le mura • St. Agnes Academy- Legazpi City, Albay, Philip- pines • Church of St Agnes, Cornwall, England • St. Agnes Academy - Houston, Texas • St. Agnes’ Church, New York City • St Agnes Catholic Grade School, Louisville, Ky • Mission Santa Inés, Solvang, California • St. Agnes Cathedral School, Rockville Centre, NY • St. Agnes Catholic Church, San Francisco, Califor- • St. Agnes Girl’s School, Balangoda, Sri Lanka. nia • St. Agnes Catholic School, Los Angeles, CA • St. Agnes Catholic Church, San Diego, California • St. Agnes Catholic Elementary School, Phoenix, • St. Agnes Catholic Church, Charleston, West Vir- AZ ginia • St. Agnes School, Concord, CA • St. Agnes Catholic Church, Baton Rouge, Louisiana • St. Agnes School, Kharagpur, West Bengal, India • St. Agnes Parish, Roeland Park, Kansas • St. Agnes School, Towanda, Pennsylvania • St. Agnes Parish, Springfield, Illinois • St. Agnes School, Cervantes, Ilocos Sur, Philippines • St. Agnes Catholic Church, Hubbard, Oregon • St. Agnes Catholic School, West Chester, Pennsyl- vania • St. Agnes Church, Little Village, Chicago, Illinois • St. Agnes School, Baltimore, Maryland • St. Agnes Anglican Parish, Grants Town, New Providence • St. Agnes Academy, Memphis, Tennessee 3 4 Legacy • Statue of Saint Agnes, Camarin, Caloocan City, Philippines The Congregation of Sisters of St. Agnes is a Roman • Santa Inês (Saint Agnes) Catholic religious community for women based in Fond by Francisco de Zurbarán du Lac, Wisconsin. It was founded in 1858, by Father Caspar Rehrl, an Austrian missionary, who established the sisterhood of pioneer women under the patronage of St. Agnes of Rome, to whom he had a particular devotion. 8 References It is customary on her feast day for two lambs to be [1] Calendarium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana brought from the Trappist abbey of Tre Fontane in Rome 1969), p. 114 to be blessed by the Pope. On Holy Thursday they are shorn, and from the wool is woven the pallium [2] “NPNF210. Ambrose: Selected Works and Letters - which the pope gives to a newly consecrated metropolitan Christian Classics Ethereal Library”. Ccel.org. 2005-06- archbishop as a sign of his jurisdiction and his union with 01. Retrieved 2009-01-21. [3] the pope. [3] “Our Patroness”, Saint Agnes Cathedral, Rockville Cen- tre, New York [4] “St. Agnes of Rome”, Antiochian Orthodox Christian 5 Iconography Archdiocese of North America Since the Middle Ages, Saint Agnes has been represented [5] http://www.stagnesnaples.org/ with a lamb, both the symbol of her virginal innocence [6] Kirsch, Johann Peter. “St. Agnes of Rome.” The Catholic and a pun on her name.[6] She is also represented as a Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Com- young girl in robes, holding a palm branch in her hand pany, 1907. 24 Apr. 2013 with a lamb at her feet or in her arms. 9 See also 6 In popular culture • List of Catholic saints Hrotsvitha, the tenth-century nun and poetess, wrote a play the subject of which was Saint Agnes. Grace An- dreacchi wrote a play based on the legends surrounding 10 External links the martyrdom of Saint Agnes. In the historical novel Fabiola or, the Church of the Cat- • The Life of St. Agnes of Rome, Virgin & Martyr of acombs, written by Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman in 1854, the Catholic Church Agnes is the soft-spoken teenage cousin and confidant of • Satucket.com, St. Agnes of Rome the protagonist, the beautiful noblewoman Fabiola. • Blogspot.com, St Agnes in literature 7 Gallery • “Saint Agnes” at the Christian Iconography website • “Of Saint Agnes” from the Caxton translation of the • 9th-century Mosaic in the church of St. Praxedes, Golden Legend Rome • Remarks on the feast of St. Agnes from St. Am- • 16th-century polychrome statue in Burgos Cathe- brose of Milan, On Virgins dral, Spain • Saint Agnes - The patron saint of young girls. • The saint’s statue is among those on the colonnade in St. Peter’s Square • Statue in a church on Gora Oljka • Saint Agnes (Massimo Stanzione) in Museu Na- cional d'Art de Catalunya • Matthias Grünewald, c. 1500, tempera on conif- erous wood, Kunsammlungen der Veste Coburg, Coburg. 4 11 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES 11 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses 11.1 Text • Agnes of Rome Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnes%20of%20Rome?oldid=632843177 Contributors: Malcolm Farmer, Ffaker, Andre Engels, Gianfranco, Panairjdde, Leandrod, Den fjättrade ankan, JASpencer, Jengod, Adam Bishop, Morwen, Dimadick, Gentgeen, Sander123, Mirv, Henrygb, Guy Peters, Gtrmp, Bobblewik, Utcursch, R. fiend, Jonel, MisfitToys, PFHLai, Gerald Farinas, Mike Rosoft, Discospinster, Rich Farmbrough, Wclark, ESkog, Izalithium, Lima, Art LaPella, Just zis Guy, you know?, Bill Thayer, Rpresser, Dral- wik, Askiser, CWood, Polylerus, Caeruleancentaur, Storm Rider, Jeltz, John Quiggin, Yamla, Snowolf, Wtmitchell, Sciurinæ, Pwqn, Alai, Spartacus007, Pcpcpc, Woohookitty, FeanorStar7, Brassica, PatGallacher, SP-KP, Chochopk, Hailey C.