Rome, from the cemetery of Callistus, where they had been buried, into the church of S. Martin. Irene a holy widow still alive, and took When the emperor With S. Fabian is usually joined Sebastian, a citizen of Narbonne in Gaul, born and educated in Milan. He served in the army for many years, and was advanced to a high rank in it by Dioclesian. After converting many to the faith, and encouraging others to confess Christ in the face of death, he received his crown in the year 288 on the 20th of January. Dioclesian, discovering that he was a Christian, condemned him to be shot at by archers, and he was left for dead. It is thus that he is generally represented by painters. going to bury him found him him home and nursed him. heard of this, he ordered him to be beaten to death with clubs. His name is celebrated by S. Ambrose and in the early martyrologies, and his feast is kept throughout the whole Church. His remains were translated to Soissons in 826, and famed for miracles. In 1564 his tomb was profaned by the Huguenots. His name is borne by one of the seven churches in Rome appointed to be visited by pilgrims. They are the churches of S. John Lateran the cathedral church of Rome, of S. Peter in the Vatican, of S. Mary Major, and the Holy Cross of Jerusalem, within the city; and of S. Lawrence without the walls, of S. Paul on the Ostian road, and of S. Sebastian on the Appian road. Thus one doth vanquish strong-armed bands, And o'er his torturers mightier rise, With awe-struck eyes. Lord, make us Thine own soldiers true, JANUARY 21. S. Agnes, Virgin and Martyr. 304 or 305. THIS youthful martyr suffered death in Rome in the year 304, or perhaps 305, during the cruel persecution of Dioclesian. She is mentioned in the sacramentary of S. Gregory as of high birth. Her parents seem to have been holy persons, who taught her the true faith of Christ in her childhood, and lived to see the reward of their pains in her blessed martyrdom. The ancient writers who have recorded it differ a little in the lesser details, but in the principal circumstances they all agree. When she was about thirteen years of age, the son of Symphronius the Prefect of Rome asked her in marriage; but she had already dedicated herself to her heavenly Lord by a vow of celibacy. The young man was a pagan; and when he discovered the love which Agnes bore to Christ, his anger was uncontrollable. He accused her of being a Christian; and she was brought before a judge, and ordered to burn incense to the gods. Persuasions and threats were tried in turn, but in vain. She was forcibly dragged to a smoking altar, and she stretched out her hand; but instead of throwing incense on the fire, she made the sign of the healthgiving cross. By the orders of the judge, she was then exposed to public infamy, a barbarous sentence frequently inflicted on those holy virgins who had consecrated their youth to Christ. But God interposed in a miraculous way for her preservation, as is often recorded in other instances; as, for example, in the case of S. Lucy. Agnes sang hymns of praise while her trial lasted; and a young man who ventured to approach near her was struck down by a flash as of lightning, and blinded; but at the prayer of the virgin his sight was restored. When every means had been tried to overcome her constancy, she was condemned to die; and she went joyfully, and as if in triumph, to the place of execution. Her head was struck off at a blow, and her soul was united for ever to her heavenly Spouse. "And thus," says S. Ambrose, "she in whose tiny body there was hardly a place to receive the sword, had that in her which triumphed over it. At her age children cannot endure even the angry countenances of their parents, and are wont to cry at the prick of a needle. But in the bloody hands of executioners she was undaunted, and fearless amidst the rattling of chains. At last she yielded her body to the sword of the savage soldier, hardly knowing what it was to die, yet unmoved; scarcely able for the suffering, but ready for the victory; weak in the agony, and yet worthy of the crown. Bride never hastened to her nuptial chamber so joyously as Agnes to the place of death; her head adorned, not with plaited hair, but with Christ; crowned, not with flowers, but with holiness. All wept; she alone shed no tear. Marvellous was it to see her so prodigal of life when she had scarcely tasted it; yet she gave it up as if she had done with it. She stood, she prayed, she bent her head. The headsman trembled and grew pale at another's danger, but she blenched not at her own. In one victim ye have a double martyrdom—of purity and of religion. A virgin she remained, and she attained the glory of a martyr 1." Her parents laid her body in a spot of ground where they had their burying-place, a little way out of the city, on the Via Nomentana; and thither the Christians resorted in great numbers to do honour to her memory. The pagans attacked them, and drove them away from the place amidst a shower of stones. A foster sister of the martyr, named Emerentiana, was killed, and her body was laid beside S. Agnes on the following night. Her sorrowing parents continued to visit her tomb in secret. One night they had a dream: they saw the blessed martyr coming to them, and a spotless lamb was at her side. She told them of the glory which she had attained in heaven. This appearance is commemorated in the Latin Church on the 28th of January, and hence she is generally represented with a lamb standing near her. Her martyrdom has been celebrated on the 21st of January, since the fourth age, and by the whole Catholic Church. The Greeks, besides the observance of this day, have also a commemoration of her on the 14th of June and the 5th of July. Part of her relics were carried by Theodosius the younger to Constantinople, and deposited in the church of S. Laurence. The first church dedicated in her honour was probably built by Constantia, daughter of the Emperor Constantine. Certain it is, that as early as the year 368 there was a church in Rome bearing her 1 De Virginibus, lib. i. cap. 2 and 3. name. Honorius, Bishop of Rome, about the year 630, built, or perhaps only rebuilt, the church where her body was preserved, on the Nomentan way, three miles from the city. It is now, as Tillemont mentions, served by Canons Regular. This church gives title to a cardinal, and every year on the feast of S. Agnes the abbat of St. Peter's ad vincula blesses in it at high mass two lambs, which are thence carried to the Pope, who again blesses them. After this they are sent to the nuns of S. Laurence in Panisperna, or sometimes to the Capucinesses, who make of their wool palliums, which the Pope blesses, and sends to patriarchs, primates, and metropolitans, as an emblem of the virtues which should distinguish them, and as a mark of their dignity. The pallium is a narrow strip of wool which goes round the shoulders, like the collar of an order of knighthood, and from which depend four other strips of the same breadth, one before and one behind, and one on either side. There are four purple crosses worked in it, and three golden needles to fasten it to the vestments. Its figure is still retained in the armorial bearings of the see of Canterbury. Cardinal Pole was the last archbishop of that see who received it from Rome. It is worn only in church, and on solemn occasions. In the Greek Church it is of a different form, and is worn by bishops, though in the Latin it has always been the badge of archbishops, with one or two exceptions. S. Agnes has been mentioned with great honour by many of the Christian writers and saints of the early ages. S. Martin, Bishop of Tours in the end of the same century, assured his disciple Sulpicius |