Martyr Agnes Of Rome

Martyr Agnes was born to a Christian family in Rome. At 12-13 years old she refused marriage to the son of a Roman official and refused to sacrifice to pagan gods (Vesta), for which she was sent to a brothel as punishment — according to tradition, her hair miraculously grew to cover her entire body, and an angel protected her from violation with heavenly light. A young man who tried to assault her (in one version, the rejected suitor himself) suddenly died; through Agnes's prayer he was restored to life, and the roughly 160 pagan witnesses of this miracle converted to Christ.

She was then condemned to be burned, but the flames of the pyre did not touch her; she was killed by a sword thrust through the throat. She was buried on the Via Nomentana outside Rome; later Emperor Constantine's daughter Constantia (Constantina), healed at her tomb, built a church and a women's community there.

She is venerated as patroness of virginity and young girls; her iconographic attribute is a lamb (Latin agnus, a play on her name).

Her feast is kept on January 21/February 3 (primary); also July 5/18 (a secondary commemoration attested in the Orthodox Menaion).

IMPORTANT CORRECTION: the previously listed date "January 14/27" has been removed as erroneous — the likely source of the error was confusion with a different, separate martyr Agna, whose date was accidentally carried over due to name similarity; the correct date, January 21/February 3, has been established. The duplicate entry martyr_agnes_2, which contained identical template text and the same erroneous date, has been merged into this entry.