St. Agatha, Virgin/Martyr

SAINT AGATHA
Virgin and Martyr (†251)

Saint Agatha was born in Sicily of rich and noble parents, a child of benediction from the first, for she was promised to her parents before her birth, and consecrated from her earliest infancy to God. In the midst of dangers and temptations she served Christ in purity of body and soul, and she died for love of chastity. Quintanus, who governed Sicily under the Emperor Decius, had heard the rumor of her beauty and wealth, and he made the laws against the Christians a pretext for summoning her from Palermo to Catania, where he was at the time. "O Jesus Christ!" she cried, as she set out on this dreaded journey, "all that I am is Thine; preserve me against the tyrant."

 

St. Agatha, Virgin
by St. Alphonsus de Liguori

This holy virgin and martyr is held in great veneration by the Greek as well as the Latin Church; and although her original Acts have not been preserved, many well-authenticated facts concerning her martyrdom are found in the Bollandists, Surius, and others. She was a native of Sicily, and descended of a noble and opulent family. These circumstances, added to her extraordinary beauty, inflamed Quintianus, a man of consular dignity, with such love of her, that he resolved to compel her to become his wife. The edicts of the emperor Decius against the Christians having been published, he ordered Agatha to be arrested as a Christian, and conducted to Catania, where he then resided.

The holy virgin having heard the proclamation against the Christians, retired to a solitary place in order to avoid the snares of Quintianus, concerning which she had received some intimation. The emissaries of the governor, however, discovered her place of concealment, and after having been arrested, she prayed after the following manner: "O Jesus Christ, Lord of all things, Thou seest my heart, and knowest my desire, which is to possess only Thee, since I have consecrated myself entirely to Thee. Preserve me, dear Lord, from this tyrant, and enable me to overcome the devil, who layeth snares for my soul."

When the saint appeared before Quintianus, in order the more easily to overcome her modesty, he gave her up to 'Aphrodisia' (does the word aphrodisiac come from her?), an abominable woman, who, together with Her daughters, publicly professed immodesty. In her infamous house the saint suffered greater torture than the darkest and most fetid dungeon could afford. All the arts of Aphrodisia and her partners in crime were unceasingly applied, in order to induce the saint to comply with the wishes of Quintianus; but Agatha, who from her infancy had been consecrated to Jesus Christ, was enabled by his divine grace to overcome all their attempts.

Quintianus, having been informed that the efforts of Aphrodisia for an entire month had been employed in vain, commanded that the saint should be again brought before him. He upbraided her, that, being a free woman and noble, she had allowed herself to be seduced into the humble servitude of the Christians. The holy virgin courageously confessed that she was a Christian, and that she knew of no nobility more illustrious, nor liberty more real, than to be a servant of Jesus Christ. In order to give the governor to understand how infamous were the deities which he adored and desired her to worship, she asked whether he would wish that his wife should be a prostitute, like Venus, or that he himself should be considered an incestuous adulterer like Jupiter. Quintianus, irritated at her rebuke, commanded her to be buffeted and led to prison. The following day she was again summoned, and asked whether she had resolved to save her life. She replied: "God is my life and my salvation." The governor then put her to the torture; but perceiving how little it affected her, he commanded her breasts to be lacerated, and afterwards cut off, which was executed with barbarous cruelty.

Quintianus then remanded the saint to prison, commanding that her wounds should be left undressed, in order that she might expire under the torture. But at midnight St. Peter appeared to her in a vision, perfectly cured her wounds, and freed her from all pain: during the entire of that night there appeared in the interior of the prison so resplendent a light that the guards fled in terror, leaving the door of her dungeon open, so that she could have escaped, as the other prisoners advised her, but that she was unwilling, as she said, to lose by flight the crown which was being prepared for her in heaven.

Quintianus, nothing moved by her miraculous cure, but on the contrary more irritated, after four days devised new torments for the saint. He commanded that she should be rolled over broken tiles, mixed with burning coals; but she endured all with constancy; and while the tyrant was planning fresh torments, the saint, perceiving that her life was drawing to a close, made the following prayer: "O Lord, my Creator, who hast preserved me from my infancy, hast given me strength to overcome these torments, and hast taken from me the love of the world, receive now my soul. It is time that I should at last pass from this miserable life to the fruition of Thy glory." Just as she had finished these words, she tranquilly expired, and went to be united to God, to praise him and love him forever. This happened in 251. Her name is mentioned in the Canon of the Mass. And Our Lord did indeed preserve one who had given herself so utterly to Him. "Christ alone is my salvation!"


Thoughts to think about:


When Quintanus turned from passion to cruelty, Our Lord sent the Prince of the Apostles to heal her. She told the elderly gentleman who appeared to her that she was Christian and desired no treatment, for her Lord could cure her by a single word. He smiled, identified himself as Saint Peter, and said: "It is in His Name that you will be healed." And when he disappeared, she saw that her wounds were healed and her flesh made whole. But when she was rolled naked upon potsherds, she asked that her torments might be ended. Her Lord heard her prayer and took her to Himself.

Saint Agatha gave herself without reserve to Jesus Christ; she followed Him in virginal purity, and then depended upon Him for protection. And to this day Christ has shown His tender regard for the very body of Saint Agatha. Again and again, during the eruptions of Mount Etna, the people of Catania have exposed her veil for public veneration, and found safety by this means. In modern times, on opening the tomb in which her body lies waiting for the resurrection, they beheld the skin still entire, and experienced the sweet fragrance which issued from this temple of the Holy Ghost.


From the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
by Rev. Nikolaus Gihr, 1902 (His books are good if you can find them)

The tomb of St. Agatha, made glorious by God with many miracles, became the refuge of the Christians and even of the heathens. There also was kept the wonderful veil that was not burned, but only somewhat crimsoned, when the saint was thrown into the blazing fire. One year after her death, the neighboring volcano of Etna burst forth in torrents of fire, which moved toward the city of Catana, and threatened its destruction; then the inhabitants ran in terror to her tomb, took the veil and held it in the direction of the stream of lava. At that very instant it took another course toward the ocean and the city was saved. This event took place on the anniversary of the holy death of the virgin martyr, February the fifth, which is still observed as her feast-day in the Church of God. Consequently, St. Agatha is the much implored patroness against dangers of fire: as such she is particularly honored in the Black Forest of Germany. There her feast is made resplendent with the brightness of innumerable lights.


The following beautiful hymn is the composition of Pope St. Damasus concerning St. Agatha:

Lo! the bright festal day of the glorious martyr and virgin Agatha, when Christ took her to Himself, and a double crown wreathed her brow.

Though noble by birth and blessed with beauty, her grandest riches were her deeds and her Faith.  Earthly prosperity was nothing in her eyes, but her whole heart was on the precepts of her God.

Her bravery tired out the men that tortured her; she flinched not as they lashed her limbs; and her wounded breast reveals a dauntless heart.

Her prison was her paradise, where the pastor Peter heals his bleeding lamb; and thence once more she runs to suffer, gladder and braver at every wound.

A pagan city once in flames was saved by Agatha's prayer.  The same can check, in Christian hearts, the threatening fire of lust.

Now that thou art in heaven, clad as a bride of Christ, intercede with Him for us miserable sinners, that He grant us so to spend thy feast, that our celebration may draw down His grace.
Glory be to the Son, together with the Father and the Holy Ghost.  May the one almighty God grant that this saint be mindful of us.  Amen.