Slideshow image

 Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.

~ 1 Timothy 4.12 English Standard Version.

The story of St. Agnes is heartbreaking. Agnes of Rome is the patron saint of those seeking chastity and purity. To some, today, these may seem antiquated virtues of a bygone era. Yet Agnes lived in a time when young women and girls were overly sexualized, treated with contempt, and in which their decisions and bodies were not respected. An age not entirely unlike our own. Within this toxic age, Agnes was a courageous witness to a different way of being, unafraid to stand up for her faith. She is an example of faith and courage in the face of adversity, and also the patron saint of engaged couples, victims of sexual abuse, and gardeners.

Agnes' story takes place around the year 304 A.D. when Diocletian was Emperor. These were years of frequent persecution for Christians.  Agnes was born around the year 291 into Roman nobility, and raised in the Christian faith. At the age of 13 a governor's son sought her hand in marriage. She rejected him, pledging her life to Christ instead. The rejected suitor, or possibly his father, sought to punish her bringing her before the magistrate. Agnes, refusing to renounce her God, was dragged naked through the streets to a brothel, and subsequently sentenced to death.

In the painting by Frank Cardogan Cowper, Agnes is depicted in prison, awaiting her sentencing, and receiving a shining white garment as a symbol of her virtue and her courage. Icons depicting St. Agnes often portray her with a lamb, another symbol of innocence, and with long hair. According to legend as she was dragged through the streets, God caused her hair to grow long and provide a covering for her body. Legend also states that attempts to burn her at the stake proved unsuccesful and she was eventually beheaded.

Agnes' story is a heartwrenching one of a world in which men claim control over women's bodies and choices. When their proclamations of "love" prove ineffective, these men use the law as a weapon against young women. A society in which these things take place is a failed society. Although it has the trappings and costumes of a real society - judges, governors, and so on - it is simply a barbaric imitation of one. A society which refuses to respect its young women is a society of cowards.

Against this cowardice, Agnes stands in sharp contrast as a shining example of courage. The world is against her, but she does not back down or capitulate. Agnes possessed a deep moral integrity, and an unwavering trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Such was her faith that it caused others to marvel at it for years to come. St. Ambrose of Milan, some eighty years after her death, wrote: "Everyone marvelled that Agnes was so spendthrift with her life, which she had hardly tasted, but was now giving up as though she had finished with it. All were astounded that she should come forward as a witness to God when young to be her own mistress." 

In the eyes of the human law Agnes was a child, and yet not afforded the protection that should be given to children. Her decisions were dismissed, she was treated with contempt. In the eyes of God, however, she was a woman of great faith and integrity, capable of making a decision for herself, and of standing by her commitment no matter the cost.

May God grant such courage to us all.