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).
Saint Agatha, daughter of a distinguished family and remarkable for her beauty of person, was pursued by the Senator Quintianus with avowals of love. As his proposals were resolutely spurned by the pious Christian virgin, he committed her to the charge of an evil woman, whose seductive arts, however, were baffled by Agatha’s unswerving firmness in the Christian faith. Quintianus then had her subjected to various cruel tortures. But the holy virgin was consoled by a vision of St. Peter, who miraculously healed her. Eventually she succumbed to the repeated cruelties practiced on her.
Both Catania and Palermo claim the honour of being Agatha’s birthplace. Her feast is kept on February 5; her office in the Roman Breviary is drawn in part from the Latin Acts. Catania honours St. Agatha as her patron saint, and throughout the region around Mt. Etna she is invoked against the eruptions of the volcano, as elsewhere against fire and lighting. In some places bread and water are blessed during Mass on her feast after the Consecration, and called Agatha bread.
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