Difference between revisions of "Agnes of Rome" - New World Encyclopedia

From New World Encyclopedia
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==Biography==
 
==Biography==
 
===Sources of her story===
 
===Sources of her story===
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[[Image:Agnes-with-lamb.jpg|thumb|250px|left|Saint Agnes with the symbols of her virginity]]
 
The legend of Agnes' martyrdom was embellished over the years. Our earliest source for Saint Agnes is from the writing of Saint [[Ambrose of Milan]] in the late fourth century, who gives few details except for Agnes' age and the fact that she was executed by the sword. The version provided by Pope [[Damasus I]] (reigned 366 to 383) contradicts this, however,saying she suffered martyrdom by fire. Damasus adds that she voluntarily declared herself a believer immediately after the promulgation of [[Diocletian]]'s imperial edict against the Christians. He further describes her courage and modesty. Thus, Agnes thought nothing of her own pain or even her death, but was particularly concerned at the moment of her death to conceal her chaste body, which had been exposed to the gaze of the pagan multitude. She succeeded in covering her nakedness by means of her long, flowing hair.
 
The legend of Agnes' martyrdom was embellished over the years. Our earliest source for Saint Agnes is from the writing of Saint [[Ambrose of Milan]] in the late fourth century, who gives few details except for Agnes' age and the fact that she was executed by the sword. The version provided by Pope [[Damasus I]] (reigned 366 to 383) contradicts this, however,saying she suffered martyrdom by fire. Damasus adds that she voluntarily declared herself a believer immediately after the promulgation of [[Diocletian]]'s imperial edict against the Christians. He further describes her courage and modesty. Thus, Agnes thought nothing of her own pain or even her death, but was particularly concerned at the moment of her death to conceal her chaste body, which had been exposed to the gaze of the pagan multitude. She succeeded in covering her nakedness by means of her long, flowing hair.
  
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===The mature account===
 
===The mature account===
[[Image:Agnes-of-Rome.jpg|thumb|Saint Agnes before her martyrdom]]
+
[[Image:Agnes-of-Rome.jpg|thumb|200px|Saint Agnes before her martyrdom]]
 
The mature legend of Saint Agnes of Rome exists in at least three versions, two in Greek and one in Latin. It may be summarized as follows:
 
The mature legend of Saint Agnes of Rome exists in at least three versions, two in Greek and one in Latin. It may be summarized as follows:
  

Revision as of 19:06, 13 August 2008

Saint Agnes
Santa Agnese - mosaico Santa Agnese fuori le mura.jpg

Martyr
Born 291
Died 304
Venerated in Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Churches, Oriental Orthodox Churches, Anglican Communion, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Major shrine Rome
Feast January 21; before Pope John XXIII revised the calendar, there was a second feast on January 28
Attributes lamb
Patronage betrothed couples; chastity; Children of Mary; Colegio Capranica of Rome; crops; engaged couples; gardeners; Girl Scouts; girls; rape victims; virgins; the diocese of Rockville Centre, New York

Saint Agnes (291–304; feast day: January 21) was a virgin martyr and saint of the Christian church. Also known as Saint Agnes of Rome and Saint Ines (or Santa Ynez), she is one of seven women, besides the [[Virgin Mary], specially commemorated by name in the Roman Missal.

Traditionally, Agnes was martyred for her faith during the persecution of Emperor Diocletian in the late third century CE. However, some believe she may have died under Decius in a localized persecution half a century earlier. The earliest (late fourth century) sources say little of her other than that she was executed as a Christian at age 12 or 13. Later legends add that, before her death, she was forcibly taken to a house of prostitution to secure her dishonor before her martyrdom, but that her virginity was preserved by a miraculous intervention. In like manner, her hair grew wondrously long to cover her nakedness from pagan onlookers at her death scene, and the fire meant to devour her refused to burn.

Agnes became a popular figure in Christian culture in later centuries, and various folk customs and religious traditions are associated with her, along with hundreds of churches, schools, and shrines. Saint Agnes is the patron saint of chastity, gardeners, girls, engaged couples, rape victims, and virgins.

She is recognized as a saint in both the Catholic and Orthodox traditions, as well as most other churches that honor saints. Her feast day is celebrated on January 21.

Biography

Sources of her story

Saint Agnes with the symbols of her virginity

The legend of Agnes' martyrdom was embellished over the years. Our earliest source for Saint Agnes is from the writing of Saint Ambrose of Milan in the late fourth century, who gives few details except for Agnes' age and the fact that she was executed by the sword. The version provided by Pope Damasus I (reigned 366 to 383) contradicts this, however,saying she suffered martyrdom by fire. Damasus adds that she voluntarily declared herself a believer immediately after the promulgation of Diocletian's imperial edict against the Christians. He further describes her courage and modesty. Thus, Agnes thought nothing of her own pain or even her death, but was particularly concerned at the moment of her death to conceal her chaste body, which had been exposed to the gaze of the pagan multitude. She succeeded in covering her nakedness by means of her long, flowing hair.

In the late fourth century, the Christian poet Prudentius, in his Liber Peristephanon ("Crowns of Martyrdom") adds the detail that the judge in the case, in order to force her to recant her faith, threatened to send her to a house of prostitution, and carried out this threat when refused to comply. Prudentius also relates that when a certain young man looked with lust upon upon her, he fell to the ground paralyzed and stricken with blindness. Finally, the Acts of the Martyrdom of St. Agnes, belonging to a somewhat later period, bring the story to its full elaboration, in which the circumstance of her condemnation and the brothel episode is still further described, and the Agnes decapitated by the sword after remaining miraculously untouched by the flames.

The mature account

Saint Agnes before her martyrdom

The mature legend of Saint Agnes of Rome exists in at least three versions, two in Greek and one in Latin. It may be summarized as follows:

Saint Agnes was a member of the Roman nobility born c. 291 and raised in a Christian family. She suffered martyrdom at the age of twelve during the reign of the Eastern Roman Emperor Diocletian, on January 21 304. Agnes' parents were pagans, but she had learned about Jesus and the Gospel from her nurse-slave, with whom she was very close. Phocus, the son of the prefect Roman governor Sempronius was one of several rich young men who fell in love with Agnes. He brought her rich gifts of jewels but she rejected his courtship, saying, “I am already the spouse of a Lover much more noble and powerful than you.”

The dejected Phocus later learned that Agnes was a Christian and denounced her to his father. Sempronius questioned her officially, and she freely admitted her faith in Jesus. He ordered he to go the temple of Vestra, offer her a sacrifice, or even to devote herself as one of the Vestal Virgins, but she steadfastly refused any compromise. Threats of death also did not work (some sources indicate that Roman law did not permit the execution of virgins), so the judge threatened her chastity instead.

This, too, did not sway her. Agnes was thus stripped naked and dragged through the streets to a brothel. On he way, as the saint prayed, her hair miraculously grew and covered her body to protect her modesty. At the brothel, several men attempted to have their way with her by force. All of those who attempted to rape her were immediately struck blind.

Although Agnes remained a virgin, she was nevertheless led out to die and was tied to a stake to be burned. However, the bundle of wood would not burn, whereupon the officer in charge drew his sword and struck off her head. In some versions, he stabbed her in the throat.

The execution reportedly shocked even the bloodthirsty pagan crown, since Agnes was so young and pure. Thus her death created a new wave of sympathy for the Christians and brought many to the faith.

A few days after Agnes' death, a girl named Emerentiana was found praying by her tomb. She identified herself as the daughter of Agnes' wet nurse, and was stoned to death after refusing to leave the place and reprimanding the pagans for killing her foster sister. Emerentiana, too, was also later canonized.

Legacy

The name "Agnes" is derived from the feminine Greek adjective hagnē (ἁγνή) meaning "chaste, pure, sacred." The cult of Saint Agnes was extremely popular in antiquity and remained widespread in the Middle Ages. In modern times, however, the historicity of her story has been called into question.

Hundreds of churches are named in honor of Saint Agnes, including two churches and one Anglican cathedral in Kyoto, Japan. She is depicted in art with a lamb as her name resembles the Latin word agnus, which means "lamb." On her feast day, two lambs are were brought from the Trappist abbey of Tre Fontane in Rome to the pope to be blessed. The wool from these lambs was traditionally woven the pallium which the pope gives to a newly consecrated archbishop as a sign of his jurisdiction and his union with the pope.

In art, Saint Agnes is represented as a young girl in robes, holding a palm branch in her hand and a lamb at her feet or in her arms. The German Benedictine canoness of the Hrosvit of Gandersheim wrote a play about Saint Agnes in the tenth century.

Saint Agnes is the patron saint of young girls. Folk custom called for them to practice rituals on Saint Agnes' Eve (20–21 January) with a view to discovering their future husbands. This superstition has been immortalised in John Keats' poem, The Eve of Saint Agnes:

They told her how, upon St. Agnes’ Eve,
Young virgins might have visions of delight,
And soft adorings from their loves receive
Upon the honey’d middle of the night,
If ceremonies due they did aright;
As, supperless to bed they must retire,
And couch supine their beauties, lily white;
Nor look behind, nor sideways, but require
Of Heaven with upward eyes for all that they desire.

In the historical novel Fabiola or, the Church of the Catacombs, written by Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman in 1854, Agnes is the soft-spoken teenage cousin and confidant of the protagonist, the beautiful noblewoman Fabiola.

Agnes' bones are conserved in the church of Sant'Agnese fuori le mura in Rome, built over the catacomb that housed Agnes' tomb. Her skull is preserved in a side chapel in the church of Sant'Agnese in Agone in Rome's Piazza Navona.

Her feast day is January 21 or on January 28, her birthday. Her feast was suppressed after the reform of the Church's calendar following the Second Vatican Council. Traditional Roman Catholics continue to commemorate this feast, however.

See also

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • André-Delastre, Louise. Saint Agnes. New York: Macmillan, 1962. OCLC 2768069
  • Berardi, Mary R. Saint Agnes. Boston, Mass: St. Paul Editions, 1964. OCLC 7433900
  • Beresford, Andrew M. The Legend of Saint Agnes in Medieval Castilian Literature. Papers of the Medieval Hispanic Research Seminar, 59. London: Department of Hispanic Studies, Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London, 2007. ISBN 9780902238435

External links

Retrieved June 9, 2008.

catergory:religious figures


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