Portal:Catholicism/Patron Archive/January 21

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Saint Agnes (291–304; feast day: January 21) is a virgin martyr and saint of the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Catholic Churches. She is also acknowledged in the Church of England and the Anglican Communion as well as in Eastern Orthodoxy. She is one of seven women, excluding the Blessed Virgin, commemorated by name in the Canon of the Mass. She is the patron saint of chastity, gardeners, girls, engaged couples, rape victims and virgins.

She is also known as Saint Agnes of Rome and Saint Ines (or Santa Ynez). Her feast day is January 21. She formerly had a second feast on January 28, which was suppressed in the reform of the Church's calendar following the Second Vatican Council. Hundreds of churches are named in honour of Saint Agnes, including two major well-known 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." The name "Agnes" is actually derived from the feminine Greek adjective hagnē (ἁγνή) meaning "chaste, pure, sacred." Hrosvit of Gandersheim wrote a play about Saint Agnes in the 10th century. According to tradition, 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. The prefect Sempronius wished Agnes to marry his son, and on Agnes' refusal he condemned her to death. Roman law did not permit the execution of virgins, Sempronius had a naked Agnes dragged through the streets to a brothel. As she prayed, her hair grew and covered her body. It was also said that all of the men who attempted to rape her were immediately struck blind. When led out to die she was tied to a stake, but the bundle of wood would not burn, whereupon the officer in charge of the troops drew his sword and struck off her head, or, in some other texts, stabbed her in the throat. A few days after Agnes' death, a girl named Emerentiana was found praying by her tomb; she claimed to be 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 was also later canonized. Agnes' bones are conserved in the church of Sant'Agnese fuori le mura in Rome, built over the catacomb that housed Agnes' tomb.
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
Prayer: