St. Agnes

Mary, the virgin mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, was the daughter of Anne and Joachim of Nazareth. Both of her parents were visited on separate occasions by an angel who told of her coming birth; he instructed them to take Mary to the temple in Jerusalem to be raised in strict chastity and devout study, in preparation for her role as the mother of the messiah. When it came time for a husband to be chosen for Mary, the voice of the Lord directed all suitors to be brought to the temple and their staffs placed on the altar. The Lord would choose the man by making a flower grow from the staff of the right man, and the Lord in the form of a dove would alight on the staff. Although Joseph was an older man who did not at first participate in the competition for Mary?s hand, the Lord found Joseph in the crowd an directed him to present his staff, and the holy dove alighted on it.

Agnes was a young 4th century Roman girl who converted to Christianity. She was very beautiful and attracted the attention of Sempronius, a Roman prefect. He wanted to marry her, but she refused, pledging her virginity to Christ. Sempronius was angry and ordered her to be tortured. He stripped her clothes from her, but her hair miraculously grew long enough to cover her body, and Sempronius was struck blind for trying to look at her. She was accused of witchcraft and sentenced to be burned, but the fire did not burn her, nor was she harmed by any other tortures or threats to her virginity. She was eventually killed by a sword through the throat. Details of her legend vary, but her veneration began almost immediately; a basilica was built over her tomb on the Via Nomentana in Rome by the daughter of Emperor Constantine in A.D. 354.

Because of the similarity of her name to the Latin for "lamb" (agnus), the lamb has been her symbol since the 6th century. Every year on her feast day, January 21, while the choir in her church near Rome sing the antiphon Stans a dextris ejus agnus nive candidior ("On her right hand a lamb whiter than snow"), two lambs are blessed. The wool sheared from these lambs is woven by the nuns of her convent into the pallia (rectangular cloaks) which are given to archbishops of the western church.

St. Agnes is venerated as the patron saint of betrothed couples, gardeners, and virgins and is invoked to protect chastity. A legend arose that a virtuous virgin, following the correct ritual, might have a glimpse of her future husband on the eve of St. Agnes's feast day; this ritual was the subject of John Keats's 1819 poem, quoted below:

They told her how, upon St. Agnes' Eve,

Young virgins might have visions of delight,

And soft adorings from their loves receive

Upon the honeyed middle of the night,

If ceremonies due they did aright;

As, supperless to bed they must retire,

And couch supine their beauties lily white;

Nor look behind, nor sideways, but require

Of Heaven with upward eyes for all that they desire

(stanza 6)

In our window, Agnes is shown with her lamb and a palm frond, the symbol of victory in martyrdom. Behind her stands her executioner, and above her head is the fire which could not burn her in torture.