At age 12 or 13 Agnes was ordered to sacrifice to pagan gods and lose her virginity by rape. She was taken to a Roman temple to Minerva (Athena), and when led to the altar, she made the Sign of the Cross. She was threatened, then tortured when she refused to turn against God.

    Several young men presented themselves, offering to marry her. She said that to do so would be an insult to her heavenly Spouse, that she would keep her consecrated virginity intact, accept death, and see Christ.

    The prefect's son was attracted by her beauty and wealth, sought her hand in marriage, and was rebuffed because she had given her life to Christ 'to whom I keep my troth.' When he pressed her and she still refused his suit, he complained to her father, who, greatly disturbed when he discovered she was a Christian, considered her mad and treated her as such. She was urged by her family to submit, and when she still refused, they planned to make her a vestal virgin in a Roman temple. But young though she was, she showed great maturity and a determined will, "Do you think that I shall dedicate myself to gods of senseless stone!" "You are only a child," they replied. "I may be a child," she answered, "but faith dwells not in years, but in the heart" (Gill).

    In Gill's version, when it was realized that they could not prevail, they removed her clothes and thrust her into the open street, where, in shame, she loosened her hair to cover her nakedness.

    Everyone thought that the sight of the tools of torture would cause Agnes to waver; when these elicited joy rather than terror in her, the governor became enraged and threatened to send her to a house of prostitution. "You may," said Agnes, "stain your sword with my blood; but you will never be able to profane my body, consecrated to Christ."

    In all versions she was thrown into a brothel, but untouched because of her meekness and purity. She is said to have had blonde hair that was long enough to cover her nakedness (or spontaneously grew to do so) or that an angel brought her a robe, white as snow, to cover her body. Because of her declaration that God would not allow her body to be profaned, men were afraid to touch her. One man who was rude to her was suddenly blinded, but she restored his sight by prayer.

    The brothel was included in the inscription of the scholarly Pope Damasus I, so it is probably true, says Keyes (others would dispute his version of history). The brothel was that under the arch in the Stadium Domitian, in what is now the Piazza Navona. It forms the Crypt in the Church of Saint Agnes in Agone. Because the church is near the palace of Pope Innocent X (formerly Prince Battista Pamphili), he transformed it into an important church. On February 7, 1653, he bestowed on it the patronage of his family and made it independent of all other jurisdiction, except for that of the Cardinal Protector.

    Finally, she was sentenced to death. But first she was mocked and insulted, and they cried after her in the streets. When the executioner hesitated, Agnes told him, "Do not delay. This body draws from some a kind of admiration that I hate. Let it perish."   

    A fire was kindled, and when she was placed on the pyre she prayed, "Thy Name I bless and glorify, world without end. I confess Thee with my lips, and with my heart I altogether desire Thee." When she had finished praying, it was found that the fire had extinguished itself. Then they bound her with fetters, but the fetters fell from her. She was killed in the end by a sword, and after her death crowds followed her to her grave.

Because of the influence of her family, her body was not thrown into the river (the usual), but was buried in the family cemetery, which formed part of the catacombs that now bear her name and that adjoin the church, also dedicated to her, on the Via Nomentana. Her fame quickly spread.

    When the Emperor Constantine wished to have his daughter baptized, he did so near the spot where Agnes was buried. And, in 324 (or 350?), just a few years after her death the church of Sant'Agnese Fuori le Mura (which still stands today) was erected by Constantine over her grave. In 382, Pope Damasus I, who first called Rome the Apostolic See, restored the Church of Saint Agnes Outside-the-Walls. So, soon after her martyrdom her cultus was recognized. During the reign of Pope Paul V the relics of Saint Agnes and those of Saint Emerentiana, Agnes's martyred foster sister, where found within the church.

    "Every people, whatever their tongue, praise the name of Saint Agnes," Saint Girolamus declared in a letter written near the end of the 4th century.

    Saint Ambrose wrote: "At such a tender age a young girl has scarcely enough courage to bear the angry looks of her father and a tiny puncture from a needle makes her cry as if it were a wound. And still this little girl had enough courage to face the sword. She was fearless in the bloody hands of the executioner. She prayed, she bowed her head. Behold in one victim the twofold martyrdom of chastity and faith."

    Martyr Foster-sister of Saint Emerentiana. Mentioned in first Eucharistic prayer. On her feast day two lambs are blessed at her church in Rome, and then their wool is woven into the palliums (bands of white wool) which the pope confers on archbishops as symbol of their jurisdiction.

Images Gallery of images of Saint Agnes

Additional Information
        http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0121.htm
        http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/sainta05.htm

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Readings Christ made my soul beautiful with the jewels of grace and virtue. I belong to Him whom the angels serve. - Saint Agnes