Dr. Elizabeth Klein (2:49)
She is. So Agnes is a virgin martyr and she was killed around 12 years old. She died under the persecution of Diocletian, also called the Great Persecution. So listeners of the podcast might remember talking about this before when I've done other martyrs. But the persecution of Diocletian is kind of the first empire wide sanctioned persecution of Christians. Diocletian thought, we got to tighten up the ship here. This is sort of a threat to the empire to have these strange new religions. And so he requires all Christians to make public sacrifice to the gods or suffer imprisonment or suffer death. And so she died in that persecution. And we know that she from Ambrose, that she was killed by beheading, which means she was a Roman citizen. So Roman citizens had the right to be killed by the sword. This is also true of someone like St. Paul. Whereas non Roman citizens, slaves, people of lesser status, could be thrown to the beasts or have all kinds of things happen to them. So the tradition is that she's likely from a noble family, which seems like a good bet since she's obviously eligible for marriage, which we'll come back to. Anne was beheaded. So as I already mentioned, we don't have often a ton of information about the early martyrs, but we have this great reference from Ambrose of Milan. This is around the year 375, so certainly within living memory of St. Agnes. And he writes about her in this little work called Concerning Virgins. He writes it to his sister who is a consecrated virgin. So it's also some of our earliest evidence of sort of the formalization of consecrated virginity. And he praises Agnes at the beginning of the letter because he happens to be writing on her feast day. And so he sets her up as sort of this great exemplar to consecrated virgins. So I just want to read a little part of that letter, that introduction from Ambrose. If you're someone who prays the office of Readings, you'll find that on St. Agnes's feast day. But I have, the section I have is from a different translation. So this is like, I don't know, this is going to be a really characteristic professor thing, the translation in the divine office. It's fine, but it's in Ambrose's letter. It's like, really high rhetoric. It's like, very beautiful Latin, and I feel like the office translated it to be understandable, which makes sense, but it loses some of the rhetorical force, so it's a different translation. Okay. So about Agnes. She is said to have suffered martyrdom when 12 years old. The more hateful was the cruelty which spared not so tender an age. The greater, in truth, was the power of faith, which found evidence even in that age. Was there room for a wound in that small body? And she who had no room for the blow of the iron possessed enough to conquer iron, which I thought was really a beautiful line. But maidens of that age are unable to bear even the angry looks of parents and are wont to cry at the pricks of a needle as though they were wounds, which is true. She was fearless under the cruel hands of the executioners. She was unmoved by the heavy weight of the creaking chains, offering her whole body to the sword of the raging soldier, as yet ignorant of death, but ready for it. What threats the executioner used to make her fear him. What allurements to persuade her. How many desired that she would come to them in marriage. But she answered, it would be an injury to my spouse to look on anyone as likely to please me. He who chose me first for himself shall receive me. Why are you delaying, executioner? Let this body perish which can be loved by eyes which I would not. She stood, she prayed, she bent down her neck. You can see the executioner tremble as though he himself had been condemned. And his right hand shake, his face grow pale as he feared the peril of another, while the maiden feared not for her own. You have then in one victim, a twofold martyrdom of modesty and of religion. She both remained a virgin and she obtained martyrdom. So I thought that that was just really powerful. Obviously, he's trying to draw the pathos of her agent innocence, but also such beautiful early evidence of the complete devotion to Christ as spouse. So because of this comment here he makes about all the suitors that were seeking her by tradition, it's thought that it was because of her suitors that she was handed over. So a suitor. This is a kind of common trope in martyrdom stories and doesn't mean it's not true, because we know from someone like Maria Goretti this happens. But the idea is, you know, she was sort of refused proposals of marriage because she was a Christian and she was a consecrated virgin. So the slighted man sort of reports her or hands her over we don't know for sure that's what happened, but it seems not implausible. But it could also be that she, for whatever reason, other reason, is brought before the judge and refuses the sacrifice despite appeals to try to marry her. So things like this happen in some of the other martyrdom stories. Especially if the person is young. Their family members will try to say, oh, no, like she was led astray or like she's gonna like, think of your son. Think of, think of the marriage you could have. And they try to sort of pull them away by that. So it's like one of those. But it's obviously that mar. The marriage to Christ versus marriage in the world is part of the tension. Because the fact that she's 12 is significant because 12 was the legal age that you could marry in the Roman Empire. So it is something to do with the fact that she's like come of age, she's eligible, but then chooses to marry Christ over these other suitors. So that's kind of what we know about her life.
