Miniature Stories of the Saints - Book II

Also known as

    * Ines
    * Ines del Campo
    * Ynez

Memorial

    * 21 January
    * for many years there was a second feast on 28 January

Profile

    Foster-sister of Saint Emerentiana. At age 12 or 13 Agnes was ordered to sacrifice to pagan gods and lose her virginity by rape. She was taken to a Roman temple to Minerva (Athena), and when led to the altar, she made the Sign of the Cross. She was threatened, then tortured when she refused to turn against God. Several young men presented themselves, offering to marry her, whether from lust or pity is not known. She said that to do so would be an insult to her heavenly Spouse, that she would keep her consecrated virginity intact, accept death, and see Christ. Martyr. Mentioned in first Eucharistic prayer. On her feast day two lambs are blessed at her church in Rome, Italy and then their wool is woven into the palliums (bands of white wool) which the pope confers on archbishops as symbol of their jurisdiction.

Died

    * beheaded and burned, or tortured and stabbed to death, or stabbed in the throat (sources vary) on 21 January 254 or 304 (sources vary) at Rome, Italy
    * buried beside the Via Nomentana in Rome

Name Meaning

    * chaste; lamb; pure one

Patronage

    * affianced couples
    * betrothed couples
    * bodily purity
    * chastity
    * Children of Mary
    * Colegio Capranica of Rome
    * crops
    * engaged couples
    * gardeners
    * Girl Scouts
    * girls
    * Manresa, Spain
    * rape victims
    * Rockville Centre, New York, diocese of
    * virgins

Representation

    * butcher
    * crown of thorns
    * lamb
    * woman with long hair and a lamb, sometimes with a sword at her throat
    * woman with a dove which holds a ring in its beak
    * woman with a lamb at her side

 

Also known as
    Katherine of Alexandria

Profile
    Apocryphal. Nobility. Learned in science and oratory. Converted to Christianity after receiving a vision. When she was 18 years old, during the persecution of Maximus, she offered to debate the pagan philosophers. Many were converted by her arguments, and immediately martyred. Maximus had her scourged and imprisoned. The empress and the leader of Maximus' army were amazed by the stories, went to see Catherine in prison. They converted and were martyred. Maximus ordered her broken on the wheel, but she touched it and the wheel was destroyed. She was beheaded, and her body whisked away by angels.

    Immensely popular during the Middle Ages, there were many chapels and churches devoted to her throughout western Europe, and she was reported as one of the divine advisors to Saint Joan of Arc. Her reputation for learning and wisdom led to her patronage of libraries, librarians, teachers, archivists, and anyone associated with wisdom or teaching. Her debating skill and persuasive language has led to her patronage of lawyers. And her torture on the wheel led to those who work with them asking for her intercession. One of the Fourteen Holy Helpers.

    While there may well have been a noble, educated, virginal lady who swayed pagans with her rhetoric during the persecutions, the accretion of legend, romance and poetry has long since buried the real Catherine.

Died
    beheaded c.305 in Alexandria, Egypt

Canonized
    Pre-Congregation

Representation
    spiked wheel; woman strapped to the spiked wheel on which she was martyred; woman arguing with pagan philosophers

Also known as
    Lucia of Syracuse
    Lucia de Syracuse

Memorial
    13 December

Profile
    Rich, young Christian of Greek ancestry. Raised in a pious family, she vowed her life to Christ. Her Roman father died when she was young. Her mother, Eutychia, arranged a marriage for her. For three years she managed to keep the marriage on hold. To change the mother's mind about the girl's new faith, Lucy prayed at the tomb of Saint Agatha, and her mother's long haemorrhagic illness was cured. Her mother agreed with Lucy's desire to live for God, and Lucy became known as a patron of those with maladies like her mother's.

    Her rejected pagan bridegroom, Paschasius, denounced Lucy as a Christian to the governor of Sicily. The governor sentenced her to forced prostitution, but when guards went to fetch her, they could not move her even when they hitched her to a team of oxen. The governor ordered her killed instead. After torture that included having her eyes torn out, she was surrounded by bundles of wood which were set afire; they went out. She prophesied against her persecutors, and was executed by being stabbed to death with a dagger. Her name is listed in the prayer "Nobis quoque peccatoribus" in the Canon of the Mass.

    Legend says her eyesight was restored before her death. This and the meaning of her name led to her connection with eyes, the blind, eye trouble, etc.

Born
    c.283 at Syracuse, Sicily

Died
    stabbed in the throat c.304 at Syracuse, Sicily; her relics are honoured in churches throughout Europe

Canonized
    Pre-Congregation

Name Meaning
    light; bringer of light (= Lucy)

Patronage
    against blindness
    against dysentery
    against epidemics
    against eye disease
    against hemorraghes
    authors
    Begijnendijk, Flemish Brabant, Belgium
    blind people
    Conzano, Italy
    cutlers
    eye problems
    glaziers
    laborers
    martyrs
    Mtarfa, Malta
    peasants
    Perugia, Italy
    saddlers
    salesmen
    sore eyes
    sore throats
    stained glass workers
    Syracuse, Sicily, Italy
    throat infections
    Villa Santa Lucia, Latium, Italy
    writers

Also known as

    * Margarita Mary Alacoque
    * Margherita Mary Alacoque
    * Marguerite Mary Alacoque

Memorial

    * 16 October

Profile

    Healed from a crippling disorder by a vision of the Blessed Virgin, which prompted her to give her life to God. After receiving a vision of Christ fresh from the Scourging, she was moved to join the Order of the Visitation at Paray-le-Monial in 1671.

    Received a revelation from Our Lord in 1675, which included 12 promises to her and to those who practiced a true to devotion to His Sacred Heart, whose crown of thorns represent his sacrifices. The devotion encountered violent opposition, especially in Jansenist areas, but has become widespread and popular.

Born

    * 22 July 1647 at L’Hautecourt, Burgundy, France

Died

    * 17 October 1690 of natural causes
    * body incorrupt

Beatified

    * 18 September 1864 by Pope Blessed Pius IX

Canonized

    * 13 May 1920 by Pope Benedict XV

Patronage

    * against polio
    * against the death of parents
    * devotees of the Sacred Heart
    * polio patients

Represetation

    * woman wearing the habit of the Order of the Visitation and holding a flaming heart
    * woman wearing the habit of the Order of the Visitation and kneeling before Jesus who exposes His heart to her

 

Also known as

Teresa of the Infant Jesus; Therese of the Child Jesus; the Little Flower; the Little Flower of Jesus