Saint Agatha

The life

Agatha, Saint, martyr, one of the most highly venerated virgin martyrs of Christian antiquity, put to death for her steadfast profession of faith in Catania, Sicily. Although it is uncertain in which persecution this took place, we may accept, as probably based on ancient tradition, the evidence of her legendary life, composed at a later date, to the effect that her martyrdom occurred during the persecution of Decius (250–253). Historic certitude attaches merely to the fact of her martyrdom and the public veneration paid her in the Church since primitive times. In the so-called Martyrologium Hieronymianum (ed. De Rossi and Duchesne, in Acta SS., Nov. II, 17) and in the ancient Martyrologium Carthaginiense dating from the fifth or sixth century (Ruinart, Acta Sincera, Ratisbon, 1859, 634), the name of St. Agatha is recorded on 5 February. In the sixth century Venantius Fortunatus mentions her in his poem on virginity as one of the celebrated Christian virgins and martyrs (Carm., VIII, 4, De Virginitate: Illic Euphemia pariter quoque plaudit Agathe Et Justina simul consociante Thecla. etc.). Among the poems of Pope Damasus published by Merenda and others is a hymn to St. Agatha (P.L., XIII, 403 sqq.; Ihm, Damasi Epigrammata, 75, Leipzig, 1895).

Acta SS., loc. cit.; Joan de Grossis, Agatha Catanensis sive de natali patria S. Agathæ, dissert. histor. (Catania, 1656); Allard, Histoire des persecutions (Paris, 1886), II, 301 sqq.; Hymnus de S. Agatha, in Ihm, Damasi epigrammata (Leipzig, 1895), 75 sqq.; Butler, Lives, 5 Feb.

From the Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), article “St. Agatha”, in the public domain. Some details may since have been revised by later research. Read the whole article on Wikisource.