St. Agnes of Rome

Of all the virgin martyrs of Rome none was held in such high honour by the primitive church, since the fourth century, as St. Agnes.

In the ancient Roman calendar of the feasts of the martyrs (Depositio Martyrum), incorporated into the collection of Furius Dionysius Philocalus, dating from 354 and often reprinted, e.g. in Ruinart [Acta Sincera Martyrum (ed. Ratisbon, 1859), 63 sqq.], her feast is assigned to 21 January, to which is added a detail as to the name of the road (Via Nomentana) near which her grave was located. The earliest sacramentaries give the same date for her feast, and it is on this day that the Latin Church even now keeps her memory sacred.

Since the close of the fourth century the Fathers of the Church and Christian poets have sung her praises and extolled her virginity and heroism under torture. It is clear, however, from the diversity in the earliest accounts that there was extant at the end of the fourth century no accurate and reliable narrative, at least in writing, concerning the details of her martyrdom. On one point only is there mutual agreement, viz., the youth of the Christian heroine. St. Ambrose gives her age as twelve (De Virginibus, I, 2; P.L., XVI, 200-202: Haec duodecim annorum martyrium fecisse traditur), St. Augustine as thirteen (Agnes puella tredecim annorum; Sermo cclxxiii, 6, P.L., XXXVIII, 1251), which harmonizes well with the words of Prudentius: Aiunt jugali vix habilem toro (Peristephanon, Hymn xiv, 10 in Ruinart, Act. Sinc., ed cit. 486). Damasus depicts her as hastening to martyrdom from the lap of her mother or nurse (Nutricis gremium subito liquisse puella; in St. Agneten, 3, ed. Ihm, Damasi epigrammata, Leipzig, 1895, 43, n. 40). We have no reason whatever for doubting this tradition. It indeed explains very well the renown of the youthful martyr.

Sources

We have already cited the testimony of the three oldest witnesses to the martyrdom of St. Agnes:

St. Ambrose, De Virginibus, I, 2;
the inscription of Pope Damasus engraved on marble, the original of which may yet be seen at the foot of the stairs leading to the sepulchre and church of St. Agnes (Sant' Agnese fuori le muri);
Prudentius, Peristephanon, Hymn 14.
St. Ambrose

The rhetorical narrative of St. Ambrose, in addition to the martyr's age, gives nothing except her execution by the sword.

Pope Damasus

The metrical panegyric of Pope Damasus tells us that immediately after the promulgation of the imperial edict against the Christians, Agnes voluntarily declared herself a Christian, and suffered very steadfastly the martyrdom of fire, giving scarcely a thought to the frightful torments she had to endure, and concerned only with veiling, by means of her flowing hair, her chaste body which had been exposed to the gaze of the heathen multitude (Nudaque profusum crinem per membra dedisse, Ne domini templum facies peritura videret).

Prudentius

Prudentius, in his description of the martyrdom, adheres rather to the account of St. Ambrose, but adds a new episode: The judge threatened to give over her virginity to a house of prostitution, and even executed this final threat; but when a young man turned a lascivious look upon the virgin, he fell to the ground stricken with blindness, and lay as one dead. Possibly this is what Damasus and Ambrose refer to, in saying that the purity of St. Agnes was endangered; the latter in particular says (loc. cit.): Habetis igitur in una hostiâ duplex martyrium, pudoris et religionis: et virgo permansit et martyrium obtinuit (Behold therefore in the same victim a double martyrdom, one of modesty, the other of religion. She remained a virgin, and obtained the crown of martyrdom). Prudentius, therefore, may have drawn at least the substance of this episode from a trustworthy popular legend.

Agnes beatae virginis

Still another source of information, earlier than the Acts of her martyrdom, is the glorious hymn: Agnes beatae virginis, which, though probably not from the pen of St. Ambrose (since the poet's narrative clings more closely to the account of Damasus), still betrays a certain use of the text of St. Ambrose, and was composed not long after the latter work. (See the text in Dreves, Aur. Ambrosius der Vater des Kirchengesanges, 135, Freiburg, 1893.)

The Acts of the Martyrdom of St. Agnes

The Acts of the Martyrdom of St. Agnes belong to a somewhat later period, and are met with in three recensions, two Greek and one Latin. The oldest of them is the shorter of the two Greeks texts, on which the Latin text was based, though it was at the same time quite freely enlarged. The longer Greek text is a translation of this Latin enlargement (Pio Franchi de Cavalieri, St. Agnese nella tradizione e nella legenda, in Römische Quartalschrift, Supplement X, Rome, 1899; cf. Acta SS., Jan. II, 350 sqq). The Latin, and consequently, the shorter Greek text date back to the first half of the fifth century, when St. Maximus, Bishop of Turin (c. 450-470), evidently used the Latin Acts in a sermon (P.L., LVII, 643 sqq.). In these Acts the brothel episode is still further elaborated, and the virgin is decapitated after remaining untouched by the flames.

After her martyrdom

We do not know with certainty in which persecution the courageous virgin won the martyr's crown. Formerly it was customary to assign her death to the persecution of Diocletian (c. 304), but arguments are now brought forward, based on the inscription of Damasus, to prove that it occurred during one of the third-century persecutions subsequent to that of Decius.

The body of the virgin martyr was placed in a separate sepulchre on the Via Nomentana, and around her tomb there grew up a larger catacomb that bore her name. The original slab which covered her remains, with the inscriptions Agne sanctissima, is probably the same one which is now preserved in the Museum at Naples. During the reign of Constantine, through the efforts of his daughter Constantina, a basilica was erected over the grave of St. Agnes, which was later entirely remodelled by Pope Honorius (625-638), and has since remained unaltered. In the apse is a mosaic showing the martyr amid flames, with a sword at her feet. A beautiful relief of the saint is found on a marble slab that dates from the fourth century and was originally a part of the altar of her church.

Since the Middle Ages St. Agnes has been represented with a lamb, the symbol of her virginal innocence. On her feast two lambs are solemnly blessed, and from their wool are made the palliums sent by the Pope to archbishops.

Do Catholics still zealously praise Virginity?
source : Canterbury Tales by Taylor Marshall

Saint Agnes, the Virgin Martyr

Today is the feast day of Saint Agnes, the thirteen year old virgin martyr. This morning I told her story to my students, and then I asked them (they are all Catholics), "Have you ever heard a sermon or heard a priest talk about virginity?"

They each answered, "No, I've never heard anything about virginity in Church."

If we simply thumb through the sermons of the Church Fathers, or read the lives of the saints we immediately discern that virginity was once something very important to the Catholics. The great saints and Fathers were preoccupied with promoting virginity in both young men and women. They preached about it and the encouraged it. Other than our traveling Catholic "chastity speakers," I don't know that this message is currently being proclaimed by the Church with the same intensity as in previous ages.

Saint Augustine, as did many of the Fathers, wrote a treatise On Virginity, in which he states that consecrated virgins receive "a unique and transcendent glory" (De Virginitate, 25).

Saint Thomas Aquinas taught that a special halo, the aureole, shall be given to consecrated virgins of both sexes in heaven. He writes:
I answer that, Where there is a notable kind of victory, a special crown is due. Wherefore since by virginity a person wins a signal victory over the flesh, against which a continuous battle is waged: "The flesh lusteth against the spirit," etc. (Galatians 5:17), a special crown called the aureole is due to virginity. (Summa theologiae, III-Supp. q. 96, a. 5)

Why then do we not presently hear the historic Catholic praise for virginity? The Mohammedans hold forth the false promise for their men gaining seventy-two virgins in heaven, but the Catholics no longer seem to hold forth the true promise that virgins gain a special place in Heaven.

Turning to the book of the Apocalypse, we find an army of virgins who are especially dedicated to Christ. These virginal saints have a special degree of sanctity:
And they sung as it were a new canticle, before the throne and before the four living creatures and the ancients: and no man could say the canticle, but those hundred forty-four thousand who were purchased from the earth. These are they who were not defiled with women: for they are virgins. These follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These were purchased from among men, the firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth there was found no lie: for they are without spot before the throne of God. (Apocalypse 14:3-5)
Here we see that virginity is outward sign of interior purity and a denotes an undivided devotion to Christ.

I think there are two reasons for our contemporary forgetfulness of sacred virginity. The first is that it is politically incorrect. That is, if you speak highly virginity you're going to hurt the feelings of those who are not virgins. While those have have abandoned their virginity through sin can receive forgiveness and grace, their mistake is no reason to not praise the ideal set forth in Sacred Scripture.

The second reason is that parents no longer stress and expect their children to be virgins. Fathers especially need to speak about virginity and encourage their children to be virgins, either until their wedding day or for all eternity. Virginity is perhaps the greatest gift that one can give to God, and it is certainly the most valuable gift that one can give to one's spouse on the day in which you receive the sacrament of Matrimony.

So tell you friends, tell your children, proclaim it from the housetops: Praise virginity. And may Saint Agnes pray for us.