Kontakion in the Fourth Tone Let the Church be clad today with royal purple in a splendid covering dyed in the chaste and hallowed blood of Martyr Agatha, and let it now cry: Rejoice, O thou boast of Catania.

Agatha the Martyr

Reading from the Synaxarion:

This Martyr, who was from Panormus (that is, Palermo) or perhaps
Catania of Sicily, was a most comely and chaste virgin. After many
exceedingly harsh torments, she gave up her spirit in prison at Catania in
251, because she did not consent to the seductions of Quintian, the
Governor of Sicily. At her burial, an Angel placed a stone tablet on her
grave inscribed with the words, "A righteous mind, self-determining,
honor from God, the deliverance of her father-land." The following
year this was fulfilled when Mount Etna erupted, spewing forth violent
fire from which Catania was manifestly saved by Saint Agatha's
prayers. The holy Martyr Agatha, the protectress and chief patroness of
Sicily, is, with perhaps the exception of Saint Agnes of Rome, the most
highly venerated Virgin Martyr of the West. Saint Damasus, Pope of
Rome, and Saint Ambrose of Milan both wrote in praise of her.

Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone
O Lord Jesus, unto Thee Thy lamb doth cry with a great voice: O my
Bridegroom, Thee I love; and seeking Thee, I now contest, and with Thy
baptism am crucified and buried. I suffer for Thy sake, that I may reign
with Thee; for Thy sake I die, that I may live in Thee: accept me
offered out of longing to Thee as a spotless sacrifice. Lord, save our
souls through her intercessions, since Thou art great in mercy.