5 February: Saint Agatha, Martyr
The Saint who saved her city several times
Young Agatha is one of the most well-known and venerated martyrs of early Christianity. She was killed during the persecution of Christians, ordered by Emperor Decius (249-251) in Catania.
Information about her can be found in Jacobus de Voragine’s The Golden Legend (1261-1268) and in the Acta Sanctorum (1643-1648), as well as in writings by Methodius I, Patriarch of Constantinople, from the ninth century, and by Symeon Metaphrastes from the 10th century.
Agatha was born in Catania, Sicily, in 231, to a noble and wealthy family. She was a remarkably beautiful and pious young woman, who had consecrated her life to God by making a vow of virginity. The proconsul, Quintianus, arrived in Catania to enforce the edict of Emperor Decius, which demanded that Christians publicly renounce their faith, and launched a terrible persecution.
Captivated by Agatha’s beauty, the proconsul asked her to marry him. When she refused, he entrusted her to a courtesan for 30 days, hoping to corrupt her and convince her to accept his proposal. Despite his threats and promises, Agatha remained determined. In response, the proconsul put her on trial and had her imprisoned for being a Christian. She was tortured and locked in a cell, without medical attention or food. An old man entered her cell in the middle of the night and offered to heal her wounds, but she refused, saying that she would leave her healing up to the Lord alone. The old man smiled and revealed that he was Saint Peter, and that he had come to heal her.
A few days later, when Agatha was brought before Quintianus, she announced that she had been healed by God. Afraid of a potential uprising, the proconsul ordered that she be taken back to prison, where she died on 5 February 251. Her body was laid to rest in a porphyry sarcophagus.
In 252, when Catania was in danger due to the eruption of Mount Etna, the citizens removed Agatha’s veil from her tomb and placed it in front of the hot lava. The lava immediately stopped flowing. Over the centuries, Agatha’s intercession saved Catania from Mount Etna’s eruptions many times.
Following the miracles that took place at her tomb, among them the healing of Saint Lucia’s mother, and as devotion to her became widespread in both the West and in the East, Gregory IX canonized her in 1228.
Agatha is the Patron Saint of Catania, Palermo, Malta and the Republic of San Marino.