About Saint Agnes:
St. Agnes of Rome was born to a wealthy Christian family in 291. Agnes was very beautiful and she had many prospective suitors; however, er hand in marriage was highly sought after, she had made a promise to God remain a virgin. Whenever a man wished to marry Agnes, she would always say, “Jesus Christ is my only Spouse.”
According to tradition, the young men she turned away became so angry and insulted by her devotion to God and purity that they began to submit her name to authorities as a Christian follower.
Stories of her martyrdom vary: one story says that she was arrested and sent to a brothel; another that she was put in chains. Eventually she was condemned to death, but again there are several versions of the story. In one, she was tied to a stake to be burned, but the fire would not light.
She died a virgin-martyr on January 21, 304.
Agnes was buried beside the Via Nomentana in Rome. Her relics are beneath the high altar here in the church of Sant’Angese fuori le mura in Rome, which was built over the catacomb that held her tomb. Her skull is preserved separately in the Church of Sant’Agnese in Agone (Saint Agnes in Agony) in Rome’s Piazza Navona.
St. Agnes is widely known as the patron saint of young girls. She is also the patron saint of chastity, rape survivors and the Children of Mary. She is often represented with a lamb, the symbol of her virgin innocence, and a palm branch, like other martyrs. She is shown as a young girl in robes holding a palm branch with the lamb either at her feet or in her arms.
Her feast day is celebrated on January 21. On her feast day, it is customary for two lambs to be brought in to be blessed by the pope. On Holy Thursday the lambs’ wool is removed and woven into the pallium the pope gives to a newly consecrated archbishop as a sign of his power and union with the pope.
A religious order, the Congregation of Sisters of Saint Agnes was founded in 1858 by an Austrian missionary, Father Caspar Rehrl.
About the Basilica of Saint Agnes Outside the Walls (Sant’ Agnese fuori le Mura):
The Basilica was built over the ancient catacombs where Saint Agnes was buried.
Finding the Basilica of Saint Agnes Outside the Walls (Sant’ Agnese fuori le Mura):
Via Nomentana, 349, 00162 Roma RM, Italy
Click here for the official website of the Basilica of Saint Agnes Outside the Walls (Sant’ Agnese fuori le Mura)
