The bloody edicts of the Emperor Diocletian against the Christians appeared in the year 303. In the persecution which they evoked, St. Agnes. Died. St. Augustine & St. Ambrose tell us that she was only thirteen years of age. The young noblemen of Rome, attracted by her wealth and beauty, vied with one another in endeavoring to obtain her hand in marriage, but she refused them all, saying that she had chosen a Spouse who could not be seen with mortal eyes. Her suitors, in hope of shaking her constancy, accused her of being a Christian. The kindness, as well as the threats of the judge had no effect upon her; fires were kindled, instruments of torture were placed before her eyes, but, immovable in her constancy, she surveyed them with heroic calmness. They sent her to a house of prostitution, but the sight of her inspired such awe that not one of the wicked youths of the city dared approach her. One bolder than the others, was suddenly struck with blindness and he fell trembling.
The youthful saint came forth from this den of infamy uncontaminated in mind and body, and still a pure spouse of Christ. The most prominent among her suitors was now so enraged that he incited the judge still more against her. The heroic virgin was condemned to be beheaded. “She went to the place of execution,” says St. Ambrose, “more cheerfully than others go to their wedding.” Amid the tears of the spectators the instrument of death fell, and her sinless soul took its flight to the Immortal Spouse whom she had loved better than her life. She was buried on the Via Nomentana, a short distance from Rome, and Constantine erected a church on the spot in her honor.
Lives of the Saints, pgs. 41-43