Saint Agatha

Virgin and Martyr

Feast Day

February 5

Life

231–251

Born

Catania (or Palermo), Sicily

Agatha was a Sicilian virgin martyred at Catania during the persecution of the emperor Decius, about the year 251. Her veneration is among the most widely attested in the early Latin Church. The Depositio Martyrum of 354 lists her on February 5; her name is included in the first list of the Roman Canon (Eucharistic Prayer I); and from the late fifth century the basilica dedicated to her at Rome (Sant'Agata dei Goti) was a major station of the city.

The fifth-century Passio S. Agathae, in two related Greek and Latin recensions, presents her as a noble Christian girl who refused the advances of the Roman consul Quintianus, was sent to a brothel keeper named Aphrodisia, was held firm in her chastity by grace, and was finally subjected to torture, including the cutting off of her breasts (whence her later patronage of breast cancer patients), then thrown on burning coals, and died in prison. Saint Peter is said to have appeared to her in prison and healed her wounds.

Saint Methodius of Sicily, ninth-century patriarch of Constantinople, composed an extant encomium on Agatha that draws on her passio. The Bollandists have analyzed the textual transmission, distinguishing the early veneration from later legendary accretions. Pope Saint Gregory the Great rebuilt and dedicated to her a former Arian church on the Esquiline (Sant'Agata in Suburra) and translated relics there.

Her body is venerated in the Cathedral of Catania, and the city's annual festival on February 3-5 in her honor is among the largest religious celebrations in the Mediterranean world. The eruption of Mount Etna of 252 was traditionally said to have been stayed by the use of her veil, which is preserved at Catania.