St. Agnes

A twelve-year-old Roman girl who chose death over marriage to a pagan, honored in the Roman Canon of the Mass.

The story

Beautiful and from a noble family, Agnes refused every suitor, saying she was already promised to Christ. Denounced as a Christian, she was threatened, exposed, and finally killed by the sword. Her name is in the First Eucharistic Prayer, and every year on her feast the Pope blesses two lambs whose wool becomes the pallium of archbishops.

What Agnes teaches

Purity is not weakness. A child's courage shamed an empire.

Patronage

girls, chastity, engaged couples.

Prayer

St. Agnes, pray for young people, for purity of heart, and for courage to belong wholly to Christ. Amen.