According to tradition, Agnes was a beautiful young Roman girl of noble birth. After rejecting many suitors, she was denounced as a Christian and sent to a house of prostitution as her punishment. When a young man ventured to touch her, he lost his sight, but then regained it in answer to her prayers.
At the age of 12, St. Agnes was beheaded in Rome on January 21, 304 during the reign of the Roman Emperor Diocletian. Agnes was martyred because she would not worship the goddess Minerva.
Agnes was buried on the Via Nomentana in a catacomb eventually named for her.
Agnes was venerated as a saint at least as early as the time of St Ambrose, based on an existing homily. A church was built over her tomb about 350.
She is the patron saint of girls and chastity. The saint's association with purity and innocence made Agnes a very popular name until the end of the seventeenth century.
In art Agnes is often portrayed with a lamb, a symbol of innocence.
On January 21, her traditional feast day, two lambs are blessed at her church in Rome. Their wool is then woven into palliums (bands of white wool), which the pope confers on archbishops as a token of their jurisdiction.
Source Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia
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| Santa Inés, Guarino, 1650. |
At the age of 12, St. Agnes was beheaded in Rome on January 21, 304 during the reign of the Roman Emperor Diocletian. Agnes was martyred because she would not worship the goddess Minerva.
Agnes was buried on the Via Nomentana in a catacomb eventually named for her.
Agnes was venerated as a saint at least as early as the time of St Ambrose, based on an existing homily. A church was built over her tomb about 350.
She is the patron saint of girls and chastity. The saint's association with purity and innocence made Agnes a very popular name until the end of the seventeenth century.
In art Agnes is often portrayed with a lamb, a symbol of innocence.
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| Saint Agnes by Domenichino |
On January 21, her traditional feast day, two lambs are blessed at her church in Rome. Their wool is then woven into palliums (bands of white wool), which the pope confers on archbishops as a token of their jurisdiction.
Source Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia
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