Agatha of Sicily

Who they were

Agatha lived in third-century Sicily; Catania and Palermo both claim her birth. Her Passion suggests she was born around 235 of a noble, wealthy family at the foot of Etna, and as a girl received from her bishop the red veil of consecrated virgins. When the emperor Decius' edict against the Christians came in 250, the proconsul Quintianus, who desired her, had her brought back from Palermo, where she had fled.

She refused to deny Christ. Asked why a free and noble woman lived like a slave, she answered that the highest freedom and nobility is to be a servant of Christ. She was tortured, her breasts torn off; by tradition St Peter appeared and healed her in prison. She died on 5 February 251.

The miracles

There was never a formal cause: Agatha has been venerated since a year after her death. The Acts of her martyrdom tell that when Etna erupted a year later, the people carried her veil before the lava flow and it stopped - the reason she is patron of Catania, where her relics are kept in the cathedral. No miracle was ever formally examined.

Why that counted as sanctity

Agatha kept her consecration to Christ against lust, threats and torture, and died praying that God would receive her spirit. Her answer to her judge sums her up: true freedom is to belong to Christ.

Connected on this site

• Saint Lucy Saint
  “She is one of the best known virgin martyrs, along with Agatha of Sicily, Agnes of Rome, Cecilia of Rome, and Catherine of Alexandria.” — Wikipedia