Posted by St. Agnes/Third Sunday after Epiphany
Today we celebrate the feast of St. Agnes, as well as commemorating the Third Sunday after Epiphany. St. Agnes was martyred in Rome during the great persecution under Diocletian in the early fourth century. An early account of her life and the circumstances leading to her martyrdom is given by St. Ambrose. He states “We learn by tradition that the holy martyr testified in the thirteenth year of her age. We will pass by the foul cruelty which did not spare her tender years, to contemplate the great power of her faith, whereby she overcame the weakness of her childhood, and witnessed a good confession. Her little body was hardly big enough to give play to the instruments of their cruelty, but if they could scarce sheath their swords in her slight flame, they found in her that which laughed the power of the sword to scorn. She had no fear when she found herself grasped by the bloody hands of her executioners. She was unmoved when they dragged her with clanging chains. Hardly entered on life, she stood fully prepared to die. She quailed not when the weapons of the angry soldiery were pointed at her breast. If they forced her against her will to approach the altar of devils, she could stretch forth her hands to Christ amid the very flames which consumed the idolatrous offerings, and mark on the heathen shrine the victorious cross of the Lord. She was ready to submit her neck and hands to the iron shackles, but they were too big to clasp her slender limbs. Behold a strange martyr. She is not grown of stature to fight the battle, but she is ripe for the triumph; too weak to run the race, and yet clearly entitled to the prize; unable from her age to be aught but a learner, she is found a teacher. She went to the place of execution a virgin, with more willing and joyful footsteps than she would have gone to the nuptial chamber as a bride. The spectators were all in tears, and she alone did not weep. They beheld her with wonder, laying down the life of which she had hardly begun to taste the sweets, as freely as though she had drained it to the dregs and was weary of its burden. All men were amazed when they saw her whose years had not made her her own mistress, arise as a witness for the deity. Consider how many threats her murderer used to excite her fears, how many arguments to shake her resolution, how many promises to bribe her to accept his offers of marriage. But she answered him, “It is an insult to him whom I have wedded to expect me to comply. He that first chose me, his will I be. Headsman, why waitest thou? Perish the body which draweth the admiration of the eyes from which I would turn away.” She stood, prayed and the bent her neck for the stroke. Now mightest thou have seen the murderer trembling as though he were himself the criminal, the executioner’s hand shake, and the faces of them that stood by turn white at the sight of her position, and all the while herself remain without fear. This one victim bought God a double offering, that of her purity and that of her faith. She preserved virginity and achieved martyrdom.”
The life of St. Agnes follows a pattern similar to many other Christian virgins who became martyrs such as St. Agatha and St. Lucy. They were Christian virgins pressurised into marrying pagan husbands, and suffered persecution and martyrdom because they would not consent to losing their virginity and compromising their faith. Whereas for most of the male early martyrs it was their refusal to acknowledge the cult of the Emperor that led to their martyrdom, for most of the female early martyrs the conflict came due to forced marriage to pagan husbands. This exposed them to persecution and martyrdom. It shows the difficulty of living as a Christian in a pagan society. Those who refused to compromise with the false standards of the world and the idolatry of the pagan Roman empire suffered persecution and death because of it. And yet the paradox is that the reason why we still remember them this day is because they were prepared to lose their lives rather than compromise what they believe to be right. As Tertullian put it, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.”
The whole ancient world outside Judaism was saturated by paganism. It was not simply a matter of the pagan world recognising many gods rather than one God, for this affected the whole of life. Many of the pagan cults were of an openly sensual and promiscuous nature and this was not thought to be in any way ethically wrong. The area of sexual morality was one of the main areas where the lives of Christians needed to be in contrast to the laxity of the pagan world around them. The faithful were told that they either needed to practice lifelong marriage or celibacy.
It is important to emphasise this point today because it is now fashionable to suppose that there is something old fashioned and outdated about the Christian ethic of marriage and sexual morality. It is said that this ethic is too primitive and unenlightened for people today. Twenty first century western man is said to have come of age and no longer needs to take any notice of the outmoded restrictions of another age. Indeed, this attitude is now common even within the Church itself and sermons are rarely preached now on sexual morality for fear of being too counter cultural. But the truth of the matter is that the authentic Christian faith has always been counter cultural. It was so in the earliest days of the Church, and it is true today. In fact, what people now see as a more enlightened and progressive approach to sexual ethics is merely the modern resurgence of ancient paganism. The modern pagan cults may not have the same names as their ancient counterparts, but they are clearly flourishing in the world of entertainment, of advertising and the media. It has produced a world of what has been described as private prosperity and public squalor, in which people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
But since we are surrounded by this pagan culture, how can we possibly separate ourselves from it? This is not something we can do by our own strength. We can only rely upon divine grace, the love of God that has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Let us pray for grace to strengthen us to deepen the seriousness of our Christian discipleship in our own time and place.