| CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: AGNES OF ROME, SAINT AND MARTYR |
| J.P. Kirsch
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| Of all
the virgin martyrs of Rome none was held in such high honour by the primitive
church, since the fourth century, as St. Agnes. In the ancient Roman calendar of
the feasts of the martyrs (Depositio Martyrum), incorporated into the collection
of Furius Dionysius Philocalus, dating from 354 and often reprinted, e.g. in
Ruinart [Acta Sincera Martyrum (ed. Ratisbon, 1859), 63 sqq.], her feast is
assigned to 21 January, to which is added a detail as to the name of the road
(Via Nomentana) near which her grave was located. The earliest sacramentaries
give the same date for her feast, and it is on this day that the Latin Church
even now keeps her memory sacred. Since the close of the fourth century the
Fathers of the Church and Christian poets have sung her praises and extolled her
virginity and heroism under torture. It is clear, however, from the diversity in
the earliest accounts that there was extant at the end of the fourth century no
accurate and reliable narrative, at least in writing, concerning the details of
her martyrdom. On one point only is there mutual agreement, viz., the youth of
the Christian heroine. St. Ambrose gives her age as twelve (De Virginibus, I, 2;
P.L., XVI, 200-202: Haec duodecim annorum martyrium fecisse traditur), St.
Augustine as thirteen (Agnes puella tredecim annorum ; Sermo cclxxiii, 6, P.L.,
XXXVIII, 1251), which harmonizes well with the words of Prudentius: Aiunt jugali
vix habilem toro (Peristephanon, Hymn xiv, 10 in Ruinart, Act. Sinc., ed cit.
486). Damasus depicts her as hastening to martyrdom from the lap of her mother
or nurse (Nutricis gremium subito liquisse puella; in St. Agneten, 3, ed. Ihm,
Damasi epigrammata, Leipzig, 1895, 43, n. 40). We have no reason whatever for
doubting this tradition. It indeed explains very well the renown of the youthful
martyr. We have already cited the testimony of the three oldest witnesses to the
martyrdom of St. Agnes: (1) St. Ambrose, De Virginibus, I, 2; (2) the
inscription of Pope Damasus engraved on marble, the original of which may yet be
seen at the foot of the stairs leading to the sepulchre and church of St. Agnes
(Sant' Agnese <fuori le muri>); (3) Prudentius, Peristephanon , Hymn 14.
The rhetorical narrative of St. Ambrose, in addition to the martyr's age, gives
nothing except her execution by the sword. The metrical panegyric of Pope
Damasus tells us that immediately after the promulgation of the imperial edict
against the Christians Agnes voluntarily declared herself a Christian, and
suffered very steadfastly the martyrdom of fire, giving scarcely a thought to
the frightful torments she had to endure, and concerned only with veiling, by
means of her flowing hair, her chaste body which had been exposed to the gaze of
the heathen multitude (Nudaque profusum crinem per membra dedisse, Ne domini
templum facies peritura videret). Prudentius, in his description of the
martyrdom, adheres rather to the account of St. Ambrose, but adds a new episode:
The judge threatened to give over her virginity to a house of prostitution, and
even executed this final threat; but when a young man turned a lascivious look
upon the virgin, he fell to the ground stricken with blindness, and lay as one
dead. Possible this is what Damasus and Ambrose refer to, in saying that the
purity of St. Agnes was endangered; the latter in particular says (loc. cit.):
Habetis igitur in una hostia duplex martyrium, pudoris et religionis: et virgo
permansit et martyrium obtinuit (Behold therefore in the same victim a double
martyrdom, one of modesty, the other of religion. She remained a virgin, and
obtained the crown of martyrdom). Prudentius, therefore, may have drawn at least
the substance of this episode from a trustworthy popular legend. Still another
source of information, earlier than the Acts of her martyrdom, is the glorious
hymn: Agnes beatae virginis , which, though probably not from the pen of St.
Ambrose (since the poet's narrative clings more closely to the account of
Damasus), still betrays a certain use of the text of St. Ambrose, and was
composed not long after the latter work. (See the text in Dreves, Aur. Ambrosius
der Vater des Kirchengesanges, 135 Freiburg, 1893.) The Acts of the Martyrdom of
St. Agnes belong to a somewhat later period, and are met with in three
recensions, two Greek and one Latin. The oldest of them is the shorter of the
two Greeks texts, on which the Latin text was based, though it was at the same
time quite freely enlarged. The longer Greek text is a translation of this Latin
enlargement (Pio Franchi de Cavalieri, St. Agnese nella tradizione e nella
legenda , in Romische Quartalschrift, Supplement X, Rome, 1899; cf. Acta SS.,
Jan. II, 350 sqq). The Latin, and consequently, the shorter Greek text date back
to the first half of the fifth century, when St. Maximus, Bishop of Turin (c.
450-470), evidently used the Latin Acts in a sermon (P.L., LVII, 643 sqq.). In
these Acts the brothel episode is still further elaborated, and the virgin is
decapitated after remaining untouched by the flames. We do not know with
certainty in which persecution the courageous virgin won the martyr s crown.
Formerly it was customary to assign her death to the persecution of Diocletian
(c. 304), but arguments are now brought forward, based on the inscription of
Damasus, to prove that it occurred during one of the third-century persecutions
subsequent to that of Decius. The body of the virgin martyr was placed in a
separate sepulchre on the Via Nomentana, and around her tomb there grew up a
larger catacomb that bore her name. The original slab which covered her remains,
with the inscriptions Agne sanctissima, is probably the same one which is now
preserved in the Museum at Naples. During the reign of Constantine, through the
efforts of his daughter Constantina, a basilica was erected over the grave of
St. Agnes, which was later entirely remodelled by Pope Honorius (625-638), and
has since remained unaltered. In the apse is a mosaic showing the martyr amid
flames, with a sword at her feet. A beautiful relief of the saint is found on a
marble slab that dates from the fourth century and was originally a part of the
altar of her church. Since the Middle Ages St. Agnes has been represented with a
lamb, the symbol of her virginal innocence. On her feast two lambs are solemnly
blessed, and from their wool are made the palliums sent by the Pope to
archbishops.
In addition to the works above mentioned, cf. TILLEMONT, <Memoires pour servir a l'hist. eccles.>, V, 346 sqq.; MAZZOCCHI, <Commentarii in marmor. Neapol. Kalendarium> (Naples, 1755) III, 909 sqq.; ALLARD, <Histoire des persecutions> (Paris, 1890) IV, 386 sqq.; WILPERT, <Die gottgeweihten Jungfraen im christlichen Altertum> (Freiburg, 1892); WEYMAN, <Vier Epigramme des hl. Paptstes Damasus I> (Munich, 1905); BARTOLINI, <Gli atti del martirio dell nobilissima vergine S. Agnese> (Rome, 1858); ARMELLINI, <Il Cimitero de S. Agnese> (Rome, 1880); BUTLER, <Lives>, 21 Jan. Transcribed by Michael C. Tinkler |
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