Saint Agnes, Martyr – Readings

Commentary on 1 Corinthians 1:26-31; Matthew 13:44-46

The memorial readings are clearly related to the situation of Agnes. The Gospel is taken from the 13th chapter of Matthew, which contains a set of parables, all related to the Kingdom of God (although Matthew, out of a Jewish reverence for the name of God, calls it “kingdom of heaven”). Those belong to the Kingdom, or rather the Kingship or Reign of God, who have totally identified themselves with the will of God as set out for us by Jesus, the Son and the Word of God.

Today’s passage is one of two small parables which compare God’s Way as a precious treasure for which everything else is worth giving up in order to make it part of one’s life. There is a slight difference between the two parables. In the first parable, the treasure is found by accident, but once discovered, everything else becomes secondary. In the second parable, the existence of such a treasure is known, but not its whereabouts. But again, once discovered, everything is set aside in order to gain it. The first of these parables in today’s Gospel clearly applies to Agnes who, having found Jesus and his Call, does not hesitate to sacrifice her life rather than be separated from it.

The First Reading from the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians are words of encouragement from Paul to the Christians of Corinth who, in the eyes of the world, were seen as being people of low social status. And, in fact, it is notable that the expansion of the early Church in a pagan and often hostile world was achieved by people of little social standing or influence.

But these words can be applied to the young girl whose feast we are celebrating today:

…not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to abolish things that are…

Again and again in the history of Christianity we have seen how the self-sacrificing victims of the rich and powerful are the ones we remember and celebrate while their executioners have been long forgotten. It is for us to reflect today on where real power and success lies. Not in wealth, status or fame, in what we can get, but in a readiness to be totally committed in freedom to truth and love, in what we can give and share.

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Saint Agnes, Virgin and Martyr

Agnes was martyred at the end of the persecution of the Roman emperor Diocletian, probably in the early years of the 4th century.  She is thought to have been between 12 and 15 years of age.  It is clear that her death was the result of a determination to preserve her virginity.  The Church, following the teaching of St Paul, had considered a state of virginity or celibacy preferable, in itself, to a state of marriage. And of the many virgin martyrs in Rome, few were held in greater esteem than Agnes by the early Church.

Very few details of Agnes’ life are known.  However, in the ancient Roman calendar of the feasts of the martyrs (Depositio Martyrum), her feast is listed on 21 January.  This record also mentions the name of the road (Via Nomentana) near which her grave was said to be located. 

Today, in the Latin Church, the same date is still observed for her feast. Although few reliable details of how she met her death are recorded in writing, Church writers and poets praised her virginity and heroism under torture.  On only one point does there seem to be agreement: she was very young when she gave her life to preserve her integrity.  St Ambrose says she was just 12; St Augustine says she was 13.  Damasus even describes her as going to her martyrdom from the lap of her mother or nurse.  She is among the women saints commemorated in the Roman Canon.

The name ‘Agnes’ comes from the Latin word for ‘lamb’ (agna), so traditionally on this feast, the wool from two lambs is presented annually as a tax by the Lateran Canons Regular in Rome to the Chapter of St John.  They are solemnly blessed on the high altar of the church after a pontifical Mass and then offered to the Pope.  This wool goes into the making of the pallium, which only the pope and archbishops are entitled to wear over their liturgical vestments.

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