Text is from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal,
unless stated otherwise.
Saint Agnes.
Virgin And Martyr.
Feast Day 21 January.
Double.
Red Vestments.
Saint Agnes.
Artist: Domenichino (1581–1641).
Date: Circa 1620.
Collection: Windsor Castle.
Source/Photographer: Web Gallery of Art.
(Wikimedia Commons)
Today's Mass Commemorates one of the most touching and glorious triumphs of Jesus over the World. Agnes, a daughter of one of the noblest families of Rome, goes to meet the Spouse (Gospel) and Consecrates herself to Him at the age of ten.
Jesus, in return, “works, through her, wonderful prodigies” (Gradual). The son of the Prefect of Rome asks for her hand in marriage and she replies: “The one to whom I am betrothed is Christ, Whom The Angels serve.”
Then, they attempted to dishonour her by violence, but “God delivered her body from perdition” (Epistle). She was thrown on a burning pile, but “the flames did her no harm” (ibid).
When condemned to be beheaded, she thus encouraged the hesitating executioner: “Strike without fear, for the bride does her Spouse an injury if she makes him wait.” At the age of thirteen (about 304 A.D.), this weak girl confounds the powerful of the Earth (Introit).
Over her tomb, in The Via Nomentana, was built the magnificent Basilica which still exists, and her name, towards the end of the 5th-Century A.D., was inscribed in The Canon of The Mass with those of five other female Martyrs (Second List).
A Benedictine Convent is attached to the Basilica of Saint Agnes. On this Altar, every year on 21 January, The Abbot General of The Canons Regular of Lateran Blesses two Lambs. Then, they are brought to The Vatican, where The Pope Blesses them, again, and entrusts them to the Nuns of Saint Agnes's, who rear them until Good Friday, and weave, from their wool, the Palliums, the insignia of the Archbishops, and, also, by privilege, of a few Bishops.
The Pallium consists of a narrow band of White woollen cloth and is worn over the Chasuble.
Mass: Me exspectavérunt.
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