E01916: The Martyrdom of *Agatha (virgin and martyr of Catania, S00794) is written in Latin, presumably in Catania (Sicily) between the 5th and the late 7th c. It narrates the trial, martyrdom and burial of the young virgin and aristocrat in Catania. After her death an angel visits her tomb and leaves a prophetic inscription foreseeing Agatha's miraculous power of protection against volcanic eruptions from the nearby Etna (on which see E02035). The Martyrdom, in variant versions, has an early and wide diffusion.

Martyrdom of Agatha (BHL 133)

Summary:

§ 1: Agatha was martyred in Catania under Decius at the time of his third consulship [= 251] on the Nones of February [= 5 February].

§ 2: The consecrated virgin Agatha is famous and therefore arrested by the governor of Sicily, Quintianus. He wants to show his power and give way to his lust for the virgin.

§ 3: Agatha is entrusted to the matrona Aphrodisia who, together with nine other girls, try to pervert her for thirty days. However, Agatha, weeping and praying, holds fast to Christ the rock in the middle of the flood of their words. She is ready for martyrdom.

§ 4: Aphrodisia tells Quintianus how she tried everything to change Agnes' mind, in particular offering her great wealth, but failed. Quintianus then summons Agatha to question her. He accuses her of behaving like a slave, while she praises serving Christ as utmost nobility, and sees pagan aristocracy as slavery to sin and idolatry.

§ 5: Quintianus orders Agatha to sacrifice to the gods, but Agatha mocks him and the gods Jupiter and Venus who behave like ordinary men.

§ 6: Quintianus orders her to sacrifice or she will be put to death. Agatha states that she does not fear any kind of punishment since Christ and the angels will help her. Quintianus puts Agatha in jail.

§ 7: The next day as she still refuses to adore the pagan gods, he tortures her on a huge rack. She sees torture as necessary: like grain milled into flour, her body is ground to let her soul enter paradise.

§ 8: Quintianus orders her breasts to be ripped off; Agatha notes that Quintilianus' cruelty is such that he cut from her the body part that he himself had suckled, when fed by his mother as a baby. Quintilianus then puts her back in prison, ordering that she should receive no water, food, nor any type of care.

§ 9: In the middle of the night, an old man visits Agatha with the help of a boy guiding his way. He wants to cure her wounds, but Agatha refuses to receive any bodily care, not because she would be ashamed of showing her body but because Christ is her only protector. The old man reveals that he is the apostle of Christ sent to help her and announces to her that she will be saved; then he disappears.

§ 10: Agatha thanks God and realises that her wounds are healed. A bright light illuminates her cell during the whole night, frightening the guards who flee leaving the jail open. Other prisoners tell Agatha to escape, but as she desires the crown of martyrdom she refuses.

§§ 11-12: Four days later, Quintianus convokes Agatha and as he tortures her on burning broken pottery, the city of Catania is shaken by an earthquake, the wall of the tribunal crumbles and kills the governor’s assistant Silvanus and his friend Falconius. The crowd then starts to protest against Quintianus who sends Agatha back to jail and escapes from the crowd and the earthquake. Entering her cell and raising her hands, Agatha thanks God, yields up her spirit, and dies in front of many witnesses.

§ 13: The crowd quickly takes her body and places it in a new sarcophagus with perfume. A young man that nobody had ever seen in Catania before and would never see again, expensively dressed and accompanied by more than a hundred beautiful servants, comes to the grave and leaves a small marble tablet close to her head, bearing an inscription praising Agatha's holiness, as one who freed the land. He waits there until the tomb is closed. Then he leaves not to be seen ever again. We therefore suspect that he was an angel. Those who saw the inscription made it known to all Sicilians; Jews, pagans and Christians alike start venerating the tomb.

§ 14: Quintianus who wanted to get hold of Agatha's wealth, drowns in the river Symaithos. His body is never found. This further reinforces the people's devotion for Agatha's tomb.

§ 15: Some years later, the inscription placed on her tomb by the angel is fulfilled: around the time of Agatha’s anniversary, Etna erupts and threatens Catania, thus pagans come in great numbers from the mountain to her grave, take the veil covering it, and employ it as a protection against the fire, which is extinguished. The eruption started on the Calends of February and ended on the Nones, the anniversary day of Agatha's burial, demonstrating that she freed her countrymen from death and fire.

For more on the inscription and the miracle of the veil see $E02035.

Text: Acta Sanctorum, Febr. 1, 615-618. Summary: Lanéry 2010 translated, adapted and expanded by M. Pignot.