Agnes of Montepulciano

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Saint Agnes of Montepulciano
Born c. 1268, Montepulciano in Tuscany
Died c. 1317, Montepulciano in Tuscany
Venerated in Roman Catholic Church
Canonized 1726 by Benedict XIII
Feast 20 April
Saints Portal

Saint Agnes of Montepulciano (in Italian: Agnese Segni di Montepulciano) (12681317) was born into a noble family in Gracciano, a small village near Montepulciano in Tuscany, Italy where, at the age of nine she entered the monastery.

Some four years later the administration of the castle of Proceno, a fief of Orvieto, invited the nuns of Montepulciano to send some of their sisters to Proceno to found a new monastery. In 1288 Agnes, despite her youth, was selected as prioress. There she gained a reputation for performing miracles: people suffering from mental and physical ailments seemed cured by her mere presence and she was reported to have multiplied loaves—recalling the miracle of the loaves and fishes—on a number of occasions.

Later, probably in 1306, she established a convent of Dominican nuns in Gracciano over which she presided until her death.

It is said that after her death her body remained incorrupt, rather than decomposing, and that a perfumed liquid flowed from her hands and feet. Raimondo da Capua, confessor to Saint Catherine of Siena, wrote an account of Agnese some fifty years later; Catherine referred to her as "Our mother, the glorious Agnes."

She was canonized by Pope Benedict XIII in 1726. Her feast day is April 20.

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