Today the Church celebrates the feast of the most beloved of the virgin-martyrs of Rome, St. Agnes.  Early accounts of her martyrdom vary in detail, but they all coalesce around one fact---her youth.  Fortified by adult courage, Agnes successfully preserved her adolescent purity against heathen barbarity, a feat that did much to curtail the brutality of the Romans persecutions and sway public favor toward Christians.  The site of Agnes's suffering and death is memorialized by the Church of St. Agnes in Agony on Rome's famous Piazza Navona.

For more on the life of St. Agnes, as well as her connection to the pallium worn by the pope and the world's archbishops, click here.

From St. Ambrose's De Virginibus:

A new kind of martyrdom!  Too young to be punished, yet old enough for a martyr's crown; unfitted for the contest, yet effortless in victory, she shows herself a master in valor despite the handicap of youth.  As a bride she would not be hastening to join her husband with the same joy she shows as a virgin on her way to punishment, crowned not with flowers but with holiness of life, adorned not with braided hair but with Christ Himself.

In the midst of tears, she sheds no tears herself.  The crowds marvel at her recklessness in throwing away her life untasted, as if she had already lived life to the full.  All are amazed that one not yet of legal age can give her testimony to God.  So she succeeds in convincing others of her testimony about God, though her testimony in human affairs could not yet be accepted.  What is beyond the power of nature, they argue, must come from its creator.

What menaces there were from the executioner, to frighten her; what promises made, to win her over; what influential people desired her in marriage!  She answered: "To hope that any other will please me does wrong to my Spouse.  I will be His who first chose me for Himself.  Executioner, why do you delay?  If eyes that I do not want can desire my body, then let it perish."  She stood still, she prayed, she offered her neck.

Almighty, eternal God,
you choose what the world considers weak
to put the worldly power to shame.
May we who celebrate the birth of Saint Agnes into eternal joy
be loyal to the faith she professed.

Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever. Amen.