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January 21

The holy Virgin Martyr Agnes of Rome.

Saint Agnes was twelve or thirteen years old when she resisted sin unto blood. Nobly born to rich Roman parents and endowed with beauty, she was sought in marriage but refused all suitors, desiring to be espoused to Christ alone. For this she was denounced to the ruler who, finding her fearless before all threats of torture and death, had her taken to a brothel to be broken down with shame. Though many lustful young men who approached were held back by awe once they saw her, one of them dared to make an attempt on her but was stricken down by divine wrath. When his friends brought him to Saint Agnes, she healed him by her prayer. Finally she was beheaded, in the reign of Diocletian. She is a patroness of purity and one of the most highly revered Saints of the West. She was buried by the Via Nomentana; the cemetery where she was buried came to bear her name; and there Constantina, daughter of Saint Constantine the Great, had a basilica built in her honor. The Spanish poet Prudentius dedicated Book X of his Peristephanon to her.

Saint Agnes is commemorated on January 21. The Synaxarion commemorates two other Martyrs named Agnes within a week of January 21. The Agnes commemorated on January 14 might possibly be the same Saint. Her commemoration in the Synaxarion reads:

On this day the holy Martyr Agnes, having been cast into a dark dungeon, was perfected in martyrdom.

Verses

When the unchaste chased Agnes into darksome lodgings,

Unagnizing, they procured her a light-filled dwelling.

The phrase translated “darksome lodgings” is in Greek literally “a house of darkness,” which might indicate the brothel in which she was imprisoned.

The Agnes on January 20 is commemorated together with Saint Thyrsus, whose principal feast-day is December 14, as part of a Synaxis celebrated near the Quarter of Constantinople called Helenianae. It is possible that this was a special local celebration in Saint Agnes’ honor the day before the universal celebration of her principal feast-day on January 21.

We note that the Synaxarion for January 21 says that Saint Agnes was burned, and that Pope Saint Damasus wrote an epitaph for her that refers to “flames.”

Saint Ambrose of Milan wrote a treatise on virginity to his sister Saint Marcellina, and in the second chapter notes that it has an auspicious beginning because he is writing on the feast of the Virgin Martyr Agnes:

5. And my task begins favorably, that since today is the birthday of a virgin, I have to speak of virgins, and the treatise has its beginning from this discourse. It is the birthday of a martyr, let us offer the victim. It is the birthday of Saint Agnes, let men admire, let children take courage, let the married be astounded, let the unmarried take an example. But what can I say worthy of her whose very name was not devoid of bright praise? In devotion beyond her age, in virtue above nature, she seems to me to have borne not so much a human name, as a token of martyrdom, whereby she showed what she was to be.

6. But I have that which may assist me. The name of virgin is a title of modesty. I will call upon the martyr, I will proclaim the virgin. That panegyric is long enough which needs no elaboration, but is within our grasp. Let then labor cease, eloquence be silent. One word is praise enough. This word old men and young and boys chant. No one is more praiseworthy than he who can be praised by all. There are as many heralds as there are men, who when they speak proclaim the martyr.

7. She is said to have suffered martyrdom when twelve years old. The more hateful was the cruelty, which spared not so tender an age, the greater in truth was the power of faith which found evidence even in that age. Was there room for a wound in that small body? And she who had no room for the blow of the steel had that wherewith to conquer the steel. But maidens of that age are unable to bear even the angry looks of parents, and are wont to cry at the pricks of a needle as though they were wounds. She was fearless under the cruel hands of the executioners, she was unmoved by the heavy weight of the creaking chains, offering her whole body to the sword of the raging soldier, as yet ignorant of death, but ready for it. Or if she were unwillingly hurried to the altars, she was ready to stretch forth her hands to Christ at the sacrificial fires, and at the sacrilegious altars themselves, to make the sign of the Lord the Conqueror, or again to place her neck and both her hands in the iron bands, but no band could enclose such slender limbs.

8. A new kind of martyrdom! Not yet of fit age for punishment but already ripe for victory, difficult to contend with but easy to be crowned, she filled the office of teaching valor while having the disadvantage of youth. She would not as a bride so hasten to the couch, as being a virgin she joyfully went to the place of punishment with hurrying step, her head not adorned with plaited hair, but with Christ. All wept, she alone was without a tear. All wondered that she was so readily prodigal of her life, which she had not yet enjoyed, and now gave up as though she had gone through it. Every one was astounded that there was now one to bear witness to the Godhead, who as yet could not, because of her age, dispose of herself. And she brought it to pass that she should be believed concerning God, whose evidence concerning man would not be accepted. For that which is beyond nature is from the Author of nature.

9. What threats the executioner used to make her fear him, what allurements to persuade her, how many desired that she would come to them in marriage! But she answered: “It would be an injury to my Spouse to look on any one as likely to please me. He who chose me first for Himself shall receive me. Why are you delaying, executioner? Let this body perish which can be loved by eyes which I desire not.” She stood, she prayed, she bent down her neck. You could see the executioner tremble, as though he himself had been condemned, and his right hand shake, his face grow pale, as he feared the peril of another, while the maiden feared not for her own. You have then in one victim a twofold martyrdom, of modesty and of religion. She both remained a virgin and she obtained martyrdom.

Saint Ambrose of Milan, NPNF, Second Series, Vol. X, pages 364–65.

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