Agnes of Rome - Hymns and Chants

Agnes of Rome
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Agnes of Rome
Saint Agnes
Saint Agnes by Domenichino
Virgin and Martyr
Born
c. 291
Died
c. 304
Honored in
Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Catholic Churches, Eastern Orthodox Churches, Oriental Orthodox Churches, Anglican
Communion, Lutheranism
Canonized
Pre-congregation
Major shrine
Church of Sant'Agnese fuori le mura and the Church of Sant'Agnese in Agone, both in Rome
Feast
21 January; before Pope John XXIII revised the calendar, there was a second feast on January 28
Attributes
a lamb, martyr's palm
Patronage
Betrothed couples; chastity; Children of Mary; Colegio Capranica of Rome; crops; gardeners; Girl Guides; girls; rape victims;
virgins; the diocese of Rockville Centre, New York
Agnes of Rome (c. 291 – c. 304) is a virgin–martyr, venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern
Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, and Lutheranism. She is one of seven women, who along with the
Blessed Virgin, are 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 depicted in art with a lamb, as her name resembles the Latin word for "lamb", agnus. The name "Agnes" is
actually derived from the feminine Greek adjective "hagnē" (ἁγνή) meaning "chaste, pure, sacred".
Her feast day is 21 January. In pre-1970 versions of the General Roman Calendar an additional feast of the same
saint is given one week later, on 28 January (see Tridentine Calendar). The 1969 revision removed this as a
duplication of the 21 January feast.[1]
Agnes of Rome
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Biography
According to tradition, Saint Agnes was a member of the Roman nobility born 291 AD and raised in a Christian
family. She suffered martyrdom at the age of twelve or thirteen during the reign of the Roman Emperor Diocletian,
on 21 January 304.
Agnes, whose name means “chaste” in Greek, was a beautiful young girl of wealthy family and therefore had many
suitors of high rank. Details of her story are unreliable, but legend holds that the young men, slighted by Agnes's
resolute devotion to religious purity, submitted her name to the authorities as a follower of Christianity.[2]
The Prefect Sempronius condemned her to be dragged naked through the streets to a brothel. Various versions of the
legend give different methods of escape from this predicament. In one, as she prayed, her hair grew and covered her
body.[3] It was also said that all of the men who attempted to rape her were immediately struck blind. In another the
son of the prefect is struck dead, but revived after Agnes prayed for him, causing her release. There is then a trial
from which Sempronius excuses himself, and another figure presides, sentencing her to death. When led out to die
she was tied to a stake, but the bundle of wood would not burn, or the flames parted away from her, whereupon the
officer in charge of the troops drew his sword and beheaded her, or, in some other texts, stabbed her in the throat. It
is also said that the blood of Agnes poured to the stadium floor where other Christians soaked up the blood with
cloths.
Agnes was buried beside the Via Nomentana in Rome. A few days
after Agnes's death, her foster-sister, Saint Emerentiana, was found
praying by her tomb; she claimed to be the daughter of Agnes's 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. The daughter of Constantine I, Saint Constance,
was also said to have been cured of leprosy after praying at Agnes's
tomb. Emerentiana and Constance appear in the scenes from the life of
Agnes on the 14th-century Royal Gold Cup in the British Museum.
Agnes depicted on the Royal Gold Cup
An early account of Agnes's death, stressing her young age,
steadfastness and virginity, but not the legendary features of the tradition, is given by Saint Ambrose.
Veneration
Agnes's bones are conserved beneath the high altar in the church of Sant'Agnese fuori le mura in Rome, built over
the catacomb that housed Agnes's tomb. Her skull is preserved in a separate chapel in the church of Sant'Agnese in
Agone in Rome's Piazza Navona.
Patronage
Saint Agnes is the patron saint of young girls. Folk custom called for them to practise rituals on Saint Agnes' Eve
(20–21 January) with a view to discovering their future husbands. This superstition has been immortalised in John
Keats's poem, "The Eve of Saint Agnes".
Agnes of Rome
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Churches
• St. Agnes Catholic Church, Naples, Florida[4]
• Sant'Agnese in Agone
• Sant'Agnese fuori le mura
• Church of St Agnes, Cornwall, England
• St. Agnes' Church, New York City
• Mission Santa Inés, Solvang, California
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St. Agnes Catholic Church, San Francisco, California
St. Agnes Catholic Church, San Diego, California
St. Agnes Catholic Church, Charleston, West Virginia
St. Agnes Catholic Church, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
St. Agnes Parish, Roeland Park, Kansas
St. Agnes Parish, Springfield, Illinois
St. Agnes Catholic Church, Hubbard, Oregon
St. Agnes Church, Little Village, Chicago, Illinois
St. Agnes Anglican Parish, Grants Town, New Providence
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Parish of St. Agnes Cathedral, Rockville Centre, NY
St. Agnes Catholic Church (Our Lady of Hope Parish), Blackwood, New Jersey
St. Agnes Catholic Church, Concord, California
St. Agnes Catholic Church, Morrisdale, Pennsylvania
St. Agnes Catholic Church, Phoenix, Arizona
St. Agnes Parish Almar, Caloocan Philippines
St. Agnes Mission, Mirando City, Texas
St. Agnes Catholic Church, West Chester, Pennsylvania
St. Agnes Catholic Church, Baltimore, Maryland
St. Agnes Anglican Church, Kloof, South Africa [5]
Schools
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St. Agnes Catholic School, Roeland Park, Kansas
St. Agnes Catholic Grade School, Charleston, West Virginia
St. Agnes Catholic School, Springfield, Illinois
St. Agnes Elementary School, Ft. Wright, Kentucky
St. Agnes Convent School - Mumbai - India
St. Agnes Convent School - Howrah - India
St. Agnes Academy- Legazpi City, Albay, Philippines
St. Agnes Academy - Houston, Texas
St Agnes Catholic Grade School, Louisville, Ky
St. Agnes Cathedral School, Rockville Centre, NY
St. Agnes Girl's School, Balangoda, Sri Lanka.
St. Agnes Catholic School, Los Angeles, CA
St. Agnes Catholic Elementary School, Phoenix, AZ
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St. Agnes School, Concord, CA
St. Agnes School, Kharagpur, West Bengal, India
St. Agnes School, Towanda, Pennsylvania
St. Agnes School, Cervantes, Ilocos Sur, Philippines
Santa Inés, Guarino, 1650.
Agnes of Rome
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• St. Agnes Catholic School, West Chester, Pennsylvania
• St. Agnes School, Baltimore, Maryland
Legacy
The Congregation of Sisters of St. Agnes is a Roman Catholic religious community for women based in Fond du
Lac, Wisconsin. It was founded in 1858, by Father Caspar Rehrl, an Austrian missionary, who established the
sisterhood of pioneer women under the patronage of St. Agnes of Rome, to whom he had a particular devotion.
It is customary on her feast day for two lambs to be brought from the Trappist abbey of Tre Fontane in Rome to be
blessed by the Pope. On Holy Thursday they are shorn, and from the wool is woven the pallium which the pope
gives to a newly consecrated metropolitan archbishop as a sign of his jurisdiction and his union with the pope.
Iconography
Since the Middle Ages, Saint Agnes has been represented with a lamb, both the symbol of her virginal innocence and
a pun on her name.[6] She is also represented as a young girl in robes, holding a palm branch in her hand with a lamb
at her feet or in her arms.
In popular culture
Hrotsvitha, the tenth-century nun and poetess, wrote a play the subject of which was Saint Agnes. Grace Andreacchi
wrote a play based on the legends surrounding the martyrdom of Saint Agnes.
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.
Gallery
9th-century Mosaic in the church
of St. Praxedes, Rome
16th-century
polychrome
statue in Burgos
Cathedral,
Spain
The saint's
statue is among
those on the
colonnade in
St. Peter's
Square
Statue in a
church on Gora
Oljka
Agnes of Rome
Saint Agnes (Massimo
Stanzione) in Museu
Nacional d'Art de Catalunya
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Matthias Grünewald, c. 1500,
tempera on coniferous wood,
Kunsammlungen der Veste
Coburg, Coburg.
Statue of Saint Agnes,
Camarin, Caloocan City,
Philippines
Santa Inês (Saint Agnes)
by Francisco de Zurbarán
References
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
Calendarium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 1969), p. 114
"Our Patroness", Saint Agnes Cathedral, Rockville Centre, New York (http:/ / www. stagnescathedral. org/ Our Parish/ Patroness. html)
"St. Agnes of Rome", Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America (http:/ / www. antiochian. org/ node/ 17341)
http:/ / www. stagnesnaples. org/
http:/ / stagnes. org. za/ home/
Kirsch, Johann Peter. "St. Agnes of Rome." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 24 Apr. 2013
(http:/ / www. newadvent. org/ cathen/ 01214a. htm)
External links
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
The Eve of St. Agnes
Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Agnes, Saint.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Saint Agnes of Rome.
• The Life of St. Agnes of Rome, Virgin & Martyr of the Catholic Church (http://www.catholicrevelations.com/
category/saints/the-life-of-st-agnes-of-rome-a-saint-virgin-and-martyr-of-the-catholic-church.html)
• Satucket.com (http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/Agnes.htm), St. Agnes of Rome
• Blogspot.com (http://graceandreacchi.blogspot.com/2009/01/agnes-wise-and-foolish-virgin.html), St Agnes
in literature
• "Saint Agnes" (http://www.christianiconography.info/agnes.html) at the Christian Iconography (http://www.
christianiconography.info) website
• "Of Saint Agnes" (http://www.christianiconography.info/goldenLegend/agnes.htm) from the Caxton
translation of the Golden Legend
• Remarks on the feast of St. Agnes (http://www.aug.edu/augusta/iconography/biggerFiles/ambroseOnVirgins.
html) from St. Ambrose of Milan, On Virgins
Article Sources and Contributors
Article Sources and Contributors
Agnes of Rome Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=622934263 Contributors: 10stone5, 5-HT8, AMC0712, Adam Bishop, Adam sk, AeonicOmega, Afernand74, Ajh16, Akma,
Alai, Alma Pater, Ambrosiaster, Andre Engels, Anglicanus, Anna512, Antique Rose, Art LaPella, Asarelah, Askiser, Attilios, Ayls, BLHersey, Basilica1, Bede735, Beetstra, Bewareofdog, Bill
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Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors
File:2872-saint-agnes-domenichino.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:2872-saint-agnes-domenichino.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Darwinius,
DenghiùComm, FranzK, Mattes, Nyghtand, TeleComNasSprVen, Trzęsacz
File:Agnes & Procopius.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Agnes_&_Procopius.jpg License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Contributors:
User:Johnbod
File:Fr Guarino Santa Inés 1650.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Fr_Guarino_Santa_Inés_1650.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Ecummenic, Ixtzib,
Magnificus, Mattes, TeleComNasSprVen
File:AgnesPudentianaMosaic.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:AgnesPudentianaMosaic.jpg License: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Contributors: Dickstracke
File:AgnesBurgosCathedral.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:AgnesBurgosCathedral.jpg License: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Contributors: User:SreeBot
File:AgnesMorelliColonnade.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:AgnesMorelliColonnade.jpg License: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Contributors: Jarekt, Magog
the Ogre, Threecharlie
File:St agnes statue.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:St_agnes_statue.jpg License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Contributors: User:Urharec
File:Saint Agnes.JPG Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Saint_Agnes.JPG License: Public Domain Contributors: Didym, Einstein2, Jegelewicz, Kippelboy, Mattes,
TeleComNasSprVen
File:Matthias Gruenewald-Coburger Tafel-Heilige Agnes.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Matthias_Gruenewald-Coburger_Tafel-Heilige_Agnes.jpg License:
Public Domain Contributors: Mylius
File:Saint Agnes in Caloocan.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Saint_Agnes_in_Caloocan.jpg License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Contributors: Nasugbu
batangas (talk); Jayzl Nebre-Villafania
File:Francisco de Zurbarán - Santa Inês.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Francisco_de_Zurbarán_-_Santa_Inês.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors:
Dornicke, Infrogmation, Ixtzib, Jacklee, Kilom691, Mattes, Shakko, Steven Walling
Image:Wikisource-logo.svg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Wikisource-logo.svg License: logo Contributors: ChrisiPK, Guillom, INeverCry, Jarekt, Leyo,
MichaelMaggs, NielsF, Rei-artur, Rocket000, Steinsplitter
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