E06576: Aldhelm, in his prose On Virginity, names *Agatha (virgin and martyr of Catania, S00794) as an exemplary virgin. Written in Latin in southern Britain, for the nuns at the monastery at Barking (south-east Britain), c. 675/686.

Aldhelm, prose On Virginity, 41

Sed et a celeberrimus virginis Agathae rumor ea tempestate longiuscule erebrescens, qua Dioclitianus imperator augustae potestatis monarchiam gubernans truculenta tormentorum edicta orthodoxae fidei cultoribus irrogabat, totam Trinacriae provinciam penetravit. Cuius integritatis castimoniam nec membrorum crudelis dilaceratio compescere nec lictorum atrox vexatio praepedire nec acria testularum fragmina infringere vel torrida carbonum incendia ullatenus vincere valuerunt, quin potius ut adamantinus scopulus contra illata carnificum tormenta ferro fortior induruit. Cuius rei documenta et non fictae veritatis indicia Siculus indigena et Catenensis oppidi municeps concorditer adstipulantur; qui cum Aetnaei montis incendia favillis late scintillantibus bullirent sulfureisque flammarum globis fervida torrentum flumina in praeceps currentia crepitarent, sacram sarcofagi tumbam, qua virginale corpusculum claudebatur, quasi turris obstaculum et muri propugnaculum ruituris ignium imbribus opposuerunt et mox horrendos focorum ardores obvia quaeque crematuros et liquefactas scopulorum congeries voraturos dicto citius cum virginis suffragio sopierunt.

'But also the universal renown of the virgin AGATHA was growing far and wide and had spread through the entire province of Sicily at that time when the emperor Diocletian, exercising the authority of imperial power, was inflicting grim decrees of punishment on the followers of the orthodox faith. The cruel rending of her limbs could not subdue, the vicious persecution of the lictors could not impede, the sharp splinters of potsherds could not weaken, the searing hot coals could not in anyway overcome (Agatha's) innocent purity; rather, like an adamantine rock, she became harder than iron in the face of the tortures imposed by the executioners. The attestation of this fact, and the proofs of a not fictitious truth, are jointly confirmed by a native of Sicily and a citizen of the town of Catania: when the fires of Mt Etna boiled over with lava throwing off sparks far and wide and streams of its torrents ablaze with sulphurous balls of fire roared as they flowed headlong (down the mountainside), these men opposed the holy coffin in which lay the virginal little body (of Agatha) to the engulfing streams of fire, as if it were a towered bastion or a walled fortress; and in the twinkling of an eye, with the virgin's assistance, they straightaway calmed the terrifying inferno of flames which was going to burn everything in its way and devour the liquefied masses of rock.'

Text: Ehwald 1919, 293. Translation: Lapidge and Herren 1979, 107-8.