Saint Agnes’ Feast is January 21st. She is the patron saint of young girls.
St. Agnes is one of the most famous early Christian virgin martyrs and is mentioned in one of the Eucharistic prayers of the Mass.
There is no reliable information about Saint Agnes’ birth, life, or death. According to legend, she was a beautiful girl, the daughter of a Roman noble. She was raised as a Christian and consecrated herself to Christ through a vow of Chastity. She became a martyr at the age of 12 or 13 during the emperor Diocletian’s reign because she refused to marry the prefect’s son. As the legend goes, when some men tried to take advantage of young Agnes, her hair grew, covering her up and protecting her virginity. She was reported to the authorities for being a Christian, arrested, and sentenced to death by burning. Tradition says that the flames did not consume Saint Agnes, so she was beheaded. She was buried in a catacomb near Rome, where Constantine’s daughter built a basilica in her honor.
She is depicted in art as a young girl in robes, holding a palm branch in her hand and a lamb at her feet or in her arms because her name resembles the Latin word agnus, which means “lamb,” and its association with gentleness, purity, and submission. On her feast day, two lambs are brought to the pope to be blessed. The wool from these lambs is woven into the palliums (bands of white wool), which the pope gives to newly consecrated archbishops.
Saint Agnes, Pray for Us