Saint Agnes, our patron saint, is an extremely popular and well-known saint in the Church. Although there are many stories around her life, there are a few details that we are certain of.
The first is that she lived in Rome around the year 300 AD, during a short period of Christian persecution. There is a church in Rome called Saint Agnes that is believed to be the site of her martyrdom.
We also know that Saint Agnes came from a very wealthy family and was around 12 or 14 years old when she died. At that time, there were many men who were interested in marrying her.
The last thing that we know is that Saint Agnes was a virgin when she died. There are many stories around the circumstances of her death, but the general understanding is that Saint Agnes did not want to get married but instead wanted to belong only to Jesus, like our modern-day nuns. This upset the men who wanted to marry her and so they reported her to the authorities for being a Christian.
Saint Agnes is usually pictured with a lamb because that is the meaning of her name in Latin.
When we think of the story of Saint Agnes, we might have the tendency to think that her death was pointless, especially for such a young girl. And certainly, Saint Agnes would not have been at fault if that was what she decided to do.
Saint Agnes believed with all her heart that God loved her to the point of dying for her on the Cross. She found this love to be so beautiful that she wanted to belong entirely to God. The pain of death did not scare her because she trusted totally in God’s love. Her courage and the grace of her witness showed the people around her that this love was so real that she was able to die for it, just as Jesus had died for her.
From Saint Agnes, we learn just how real Jesus is and we learn to hold only onto Him. We may not all be called to witness to our faith in the same exact way as Saint Agnes, but we are all called to have the same faith and trust that she had in Jesus. With that faith, we will live forever with Jesus, Mary, and Saint Agnes in heaven.