One of the early and young martyrs of the church is
the beloved Saint Agnes. According to tradition, Saint Agnes was a member of
the Roman nobility born around 291 AD and raised in a Christian family. She suffered
martyrdom at the age of twelve or thirteen during the reign of the Roman
Emperor Diocletian, on January 21, 304. The Prefect Sempronius wished Agnes to marry his son,
and on Agnes' refusal he condemned her to death. As Roman law did not permit
the execution of virgins, Sempronius had a naked Agnes dragged through the
streets to a brothel. Various versions of the legend give different methods of
escape from this predicament. In one, as she prayed, her hair grew and covered
her body. It was also said that all of the men who attempted to rape her were
immediately struck blind. When eventually
she was led out to die she was tied to a stake, but the bundle of wood would
not burn, or the flames parted away from her, whereupon the officer in charge
of the troops drew his sword and beheaded her.
Pope Francis blessings the lambs before being sheared for the palliums. |
On this day, the feast of St Agnes, the Pope
traditionally blesses two lambs raised by Trappist monks near Rome. The lambs
are sheared and the wool is given to the cloistered Benedictine nuns at Rome’s
Basilica of St. Cecilia. The nuns use the wool to make palliums, which are
bands that the heads of archdioceses wear around their shoulders during
liturgical functions. Every year on the June 29 feast of Sts. Peter and Paul,
the Pope gives the palliums to the archbishops who have taken office
in the past year. Today, after blessing the animals, the pope also asked God to
“bless the pastors who will receive the palliums made from the wool of these
lambs.”
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