Saint Agnes of Rome (c291- c304) Feast Day 21st January

Saint Agnes is a virgin martyr venerated as a saint by many churches. She is one only 7 women, along with the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, to be commemorated by name in the Canon of the Mass.

She lived during the reign of the Roman emperor Diocletian. At the age of 12 /13 the Prefect Sempronius wanted her to marry his son. She refused and was arrested and accused of being a Christian. She admitted she was a Christian and condemned to death. On hearing her fate from the judge she commented ‘I may be a child but faith dwells not in years, but in the heart.’ It is not certain how she died - she may have been beheaded or stabbed in the throat. Her blood poured to the stadium floor.

Her bones are conserved beneath the high altar in the church of St. Agnes, built by Emperor Constantine, in Rome. her skull is preserved in a separate chapel.

She is the patron saint of young girls and many women organisations.

Today, on her feast day, 21st January, lambs are blessed and their wool woven into vestments called the ‘pall’ or 'pallium - a sort of scarf -which Roman Catholic archbishops wear when they are invested by the Pope.

My sources for this information are wikipedia and The Church’s Year by Charles Alexander. I have included the first 6 verses from John Keat’s poem The Eve of St. Agnes.