Agnes of Rome
Saint Agnes (feast day: January 21) is a virgin martyr and saint of the Roman Catholic Church and its Eastern Rite. She is also acknowledged in the Church of England and its Anglican Communion as well as in Eastern Orthodoxy. She is the patron saint of chastity, gardeners, girls, engaged couples, rape victims and virgins.
She is also known as Saint Agnes of Rome and Saint Ines. Although her principal feast day is celebrated on January 21, she is also commemorated in the Roman Catholic liturgy of January 28. Hundreds of churches are named in honor of Saint Agnes; two major well-known churches are dedicated to her. She is depicted in art with a lamb as her name is derived from the Latin word agnus which means lamb.
Biography
According to her legend, Saint Agnes was a member of the Roman nobility born c. 291 and raised in a Christian family, She suffered martyrdom at age thirteen during the reign of the Eastern Roman Emperor Diocletian, on January 21 304.
The prefect Sempronius wished her to marry his son, and on her refusal condemned her to death. Roman law did not permit the execution of virgins, so he ordered her to be raped beforehand, but her honour was miraculously preserved. When led out to die she was tied to a stake, but the bundle of wood would not burn, whereupon the officer in charge of the troops drew his sword and struck off her head.
Saint Agnes is the patron saint of young girls; folk custom called for them to practice rituals on Saint Agnes' Eve (20th-21st January) with a view to discovering their future husbands. This superstition has been immortalised in John Keats's poem, "The Eve of Saint Agnes." She is represented in art as holding a palm-branch in her hand and a lamb at her feet or in her arms. In the Christmas carol Good King Wenceslas, the peasant lived "right against the forest fence, by Saint Agnes' fountain".