#st. Agnes

[it-be-what-it-be]

Catholic Cabinet of Curiosities

@ perse.phon on Instagram:3

[ragnarockz]

So of course, had to look up dates because there has been a lot of connections (mostly to the Witch Trials) and SO...

January 21st:

[btaut]

St. Agnes, April 2023

[daveamisdpda]

Bristol - the gritty bits

This is me playing around with Filter Forge again, this time applying the comic filter. This one works very well with some subjects and not at all well with others. I went through a fair few images trying it out to see what did and didn't work and found that with these three images of the grittier side of Bristol, it really did the business. Enjoy:)

Locations: St. Jude's/St. Agnes/Easton | Shot: 23.02.22/01.06.22 | Creative filters applied: 05.03.25

[helloparkerrose]

[northemoonduringthenight]

Giovanni Battista Gaulli (Italian, 1639-1709) St. Agnes is Received into Heaven (after 1689).

[thelefthandandtherighthandpath]

St. Agnes painted by Guido Reni.

A painting of St. Agnes from the Albani Diocesan Museum.

St. Agnes of Rome

Feast Day: January 21st, the 28th of January was also a feast day for her before the changes made to the calendar. The 28th is believed to be her birthday so devotees could also celebrate this day.

Patronage: Girl Scouts, virgins, victims of csa, engaged couples, and Rome.

St. Agnes was from a noble Roman family and was noted as having a gentle disposition. In art this is shown by depicting her with or holding a lamb. Unusual for the period Agnes was raised as a Christian under emperor Diocletian. When she was around twelve years old, Agnes was approached by the governor's son Eutropius who wanted her to marry him. He offered her many gifts but she refused stating that she was devoting her life to God.

This rejection angered Eutropius who brought her to his father. She was urged to deny God, but she refused. As punishment she was to be dragged by her long hair, naked through the streets to a brothel. According to legend, as she was dragged through the streets her long hair grew and completely covered her body. When she was brought to the brothel an angel clothed her. When the men at the brothel tried to rape her were struck blind. A man who was struck blind by her begged her for mercy and his sight was restored. Agnes was condemned as a witch and was placed on a stake to be burned. In some versions the wood would not light or the fire would part and Agnes would be unharmed.

The vengeful suitor, Eutropius continued to demand her death so she was thrown to lions. The lions did not harm her and instead they attacked and killed Eutropius. Agnes life was finally ended by being executed with a sword. She was singing hymns while she was being executed. In art of her she carries a sword as a symbol of her martyrdom as well as the martyr's palm. Agnes was buried outside the city and the miracles continued after her death. Apparitions of St. Agnes appeared to her parents and her sister Emerentiana. When Emerentiana visited Agnes's grave a few days after her death she prayed over the tomb. As she prayed an earthquake and a hurricane occurred that killed many Romans. Emerentiana saw a vision of her sister. Emerentiana was later stoned to death by the people for refusing to leave the grave and condemning those who had murdered her sister. She was also made a saint. Another miracle attributed to Agnes was the curing of Constantine's daughter, Constantina who suffered from leprosy. The Church of Saint Agnes Outside the Walls was built over her tomb. Her sacred day is Friday.

Holy Sites: Church of Saint Agnes Outside the Walls and Sant'Agnese in Agone.

Potential Offerings: Water, a blue or white candle, a Christmas Rose, the poems about her by John Keats (The Eve of Saint Agnes) and Alfred Lord Tennyson (Saint Agnes Eve).

Petition: St. Agnes can be petitioned to protect abused girls but several rituals that deal with romantic relationships are associated with her. The following rituals are sourced from Judika Illes book of saints.

Note: These rituals are to be performed on St. Agnes Eve on the 20th of January.

Dream Divination #1

Sprinkle your urine three times over a sprig of rosemary and thyme.

Place one sprig in each of your shoes.

Place each shoe on either side of your bed, at the head of the bed.

Get into bed and chant: "Sweet Agnes, to lovers so kind, come and ease my troubled mind."

Go to sleep. You are supposed to dream of your true love or hear them whispering in your ear.

Be silent from the time you say the chant until you wake up in the morning and record your dream.

Dream Divination #2

Walk to your bed without looking behind you.

Get into bed, lie on your back with your hands behind your head.

Try to stay in this pose while sleeping and be silent until dawn. Your true love should be in your dreams and feast with you.

The Fast of St. Agnes

Fast all day on the 20th of January. Concentrate on your desires.

At night, get ready for bed. Take a bath and make sure the bed is made.

Be completely silent from this point forward.

Hard boil an egg. Cut it in half and scoop out the yoke. Fill the empty space with salt.

Put the two halves back together and eat it. You can leave the shell on the egg if you wish.

Walk backward to bed chanting:

Sweet Saint Agnes, work your fast

In my dreams, let this spell be cast

If ever I should marry a man or a man marry me

I hope this night his face to see!

7. Be silent until morning; the answer should appear in your dreams.

[thepastisalreadywritten]

SAINT OF THE DAY (January 21)

On January 21, the Roman Catholic Church honors the virgin and martyr St. Agnes, who suffered death for her consecration to Christ.

Although the details of Agnes' life are mostly unknown, the story of her martyrdom has been passed on with reverence since the fourth century.

On the feast day of the young martyr – whose name means “lamb” in Latin – the Pope traditionally blesses lambs, whose wool will be used to make the white pallium worn by archbishops.

Born into a wealthy family during the last decade of the third century, Agnes lived in Rome during the last major persecution of the early Church under Emperor Diocletian.

Though he was lenient toward believers for much of his rule, Diocletian changed course in 302, resolving to wipe out the Church in the empire.

Agnes came of age as the Church was beginning to suffer under a set of new laws decreed by Diocletian and his co-ruler Galerius in 303.

The emperor and his subordinate called for churches to be destroyed and their books burned.

Subsequent orders led to the imprisonment and torture of clergy and laypersons, for the sake of compelling them to worship the emperor instead of Christ.

Meanwhile, Agnes had become a young woman of great beauty and charm, drawing the attention of suitors from the first ranks of the Roman aristocracy.

But in keeping with the words of Christ and Saint Paul, she had already decided on a life of celibacy for the sake of God's kingdom.

To all interested men, she explained that she had already promised herself to a heavenly and unseen spouse.

These suitors both understood Agnes' meaning and resented her resolution.

Some of the men, possibly looking to change her mind, reported her to the state as a believer in Christ.

Agnes was brought before a judge who tried first to persuade her and then to threaten her into renouncing her choice not to marry for the Lord's sake.

When the judge showed her the various punishments he could inflict – including fire, iron hooks, or the rack that destroyed the limbs by stretching – Agnes smiled and indicated she would suffer them willingly.

But she was brought before a pagan altar instead and asked to make an act of worship in accordance with the Roman state religion.

When Agnes refused, the judge ordered that she should be sent to a house of prostitution, where the virginity she had offered to God would be violated.

Agnes predicted that God would not allow this to occur, and her statement proved true.

Legends say that the first man to approach her in the brothel was struck blind by a sudden flash of light, and others opted not to repeat his mistake.

But one of the men who had at first sought to make Agnes his own, now lobbied the judge for her execution.

In this respect, the suitor obtained his desire when the public official sentenced her to die by beheading.

The executioner gave her one last chance to spare her life by renouncing her consecration to Christ – but Agnes refused, made a short prayer, and courageously submitted to death.

St. Agnes, who died in 304, was venerated as a holy martyr from the fourth century onward.

She is mentioned in the Latin Church's most traditional Eucharistic prayer, the Roman Canon.

[cruger2984]

THE DESCRIPTION OF SAINT AGNES OF ROME The Patron of Betrothed Couples Feast Day: January 21

"Christ is my Spouse, He chose me first and His I will be. He made my soul beautiful with the jewels of grace and virtue. I belong to Him whom the angels serve."

According to tradition, Agnes was a member of the Roman nobility, born in 291 AD and raised in an early Christian family. Agnes, whose name means 'lamb', was a beautiful Roman girl who refused marriage because of her dedication to Jesus Christ.

She answered her suitors that she had consecrated her virginity to a heavenly spouse, who could not be seen by mortal eyes. Those young men, finding her resolution unwavering, accused her of being a Christian.

In 304 AD at the age of twelve, she was brought before a judge, the prefect Sempronius, and remained unshaken by either his kindness or threats.

When fires and instruments of torture were placed before her eyes, she resisted with courage and faith. She was sent to a house of prostitution, but the young man who ventured to touch her, lost his sight. Shortly thereafter, she was led out and bound to a stake, but the bundle of wood would not burn, or the flames parted away from her, whereupon the officer in charge of the troops drew his sword and beheaded her, or, in some other texts, stabbed her in the throat. It is also said that her blood poured to the stadium floor where other Christians soaked it up with cloths.

Agnes was buried beside the Via Nomentana in Rome. A few days after her death, her foster-sister, Emerentiana, was found praying by her tomb; she claimed to be the daughter of Agnes' wet nurse, and was stoned to death after refusing to leave the place and reprimanding the pagans for killing her foster-sister. Emerentiana was also later canonised as a saint.

Before Agnes was executed, she said: 'You may stain your sword with my blood, but you will never be able to profane my body, which is consecrated to Christ.'

Every year on January 21st, two lambs are blessed at the Sant'Agnese fuori le mura (Saint Agnes Outside the Walls) in Rome. Their wool is then woven into pallia that, on the vigil of the feasts of Sts. Peter and Paul, are laid upon the main altar in St. Peter's Basilica. These pallia are given to the archbishops as a token of their jurisdiction and pastoral service, which they derive from Peter and his successors.

[thecatholiccrusade]

St. Agnes: A Young Martyr of Faith

Listen as you read At just thirteen years old, St. Agnes of Rome demonstrated a spiritual maturity and strength that continues to inspire Catholics worldwide nearly two millennia later. Her story reminds us that age is no barrier to sanctity and that true power lies not in worldly status but in unwavering faith. Born into a wealthy Christian family in 291 AD, Agnes grew up during the brutal…

[ragnarockz]

Currently reading Wild Witchcraft by Rebecca Beyer. Got to the chapter about growing your own herbs and I'm reading up on Thyme.

'In Scotland and England, there is a love divination that can be performed with thyme on St. Agnes' Night, January 20. Take a sprig of rosemary and one thyme and sprinkle water on them three times each. Upon going to bed, put one in each shoe and place a shoe on each side of the bed. You must then invoke St. Agnes:

St. Agnes that's to lovers kind,

Come ease the troubles of my mind.

And the future will be revealed in a dream once you drift to sleep, revealing the identity of your true love.'

[btaut]

St. Agnes, April 2023

[bequia3]

Saint Agnes Feast Day - January 21st

St. Agnes is the patron saint of virgins. A beautiful girl of a wealthy Christian family back in the year 304 CE, she was martyred at the age of thirteen because she refused the advances of a high-born Roman suitor. From then, on January 20th, the eve of St. Agnes feast day, when properly implored by a virgin, St. Agnes reveals in a dream the man the virgin will marry. It’s real, look it up. As…

[helloparkerrose]

[romantichopelessly]

something about the raven cycle kids and the quest to be seen and understood and the physical manifestations they have of their inner selves. gansey and his eccentric camaro that’s always breaking down. ronan and his raven that’s almost literally his heart. blue and her old beech tree that’s with her through everything. and adam who doesn’t know his true self; adam who is the trailer, the hondayota, the st agnes apartment, the magician card. adam who has to remake himself.

[northemoonduringthenight]

Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones (English, 1833 – 1898) St Barbara, St Dorothy And St Agnes