Saint Agnes

“ Thou art blest, but how shall we Bear the pang of losing thee? List! we love thee! By that word Once thy heart of hearts was stirred. Agnes! Agnes! By that love we bid thee wait Just one moment at the gate!
Agnes! Agnes! No! Pass on To the heaven that thou hast won! By thy life of brave endeavor, Up the heights aspiring ever, Whence thy voice, like clarion clear, Rang out words of lofty cheer; By thy laboring not in vain, By thy martyrdom of pain, Our Saint Agnes— From our yearning sight pass on To the rest that thou hast won! [55] “INTO THY HANDS”
Into thy hands, O Father! ”

“ And with the word he stooped down and kissed the fair forehead between the eyes.
"For shame, sir!" said the elderly woman, raising her distaff,—her great glittering eyes flashing beneath her silver hair like tongues of lightning from a white cloud. "Have a care!—this child is named for blessed Saint Agnes, and is under her protection."
"The saints must pray for us, when their beauty makes us forget ourselves," said the young cavalier, with a smile. "Look me in the face, little one," he added; "say, wilt thou pray for me?" ”

“ I have dreamed of our Lady, and Saint Agnes, and Saint Catharine of Siena, and sometimes it seemed that they sat a long time by my bed, and sometimes it seemed that they took me with them away to some beautiful place where the air was full of music, and sometimes they filled my hands with such lovely flowers that when I waked I was ready to weep that they could no more be found. Why, dear uncle, do you see angels often? ”

“ It was at the Ave Maria; he came up there and asked my prayers, and gave me a diamond ring for the shrine of Saint Agnes, which I carried to the convent to-day."
"Behold, my dear daughter, the confirmation of what I have just said to thee! It is evident that our Lady hath endowed thee with the great grace of a beauty which draws the soul upward towards the angels, instead of downward to sensual things, like the beauty of worldly women. ”

“ Sometime about the middle of the thirteenth century, it had been a favorite enterprise of a princess of a royal family in Naples to erect a convent to Saint Agnes, the guardian of female purity, out of the wrecks and remains of an ancient temple of Venus, whose white pillars and graceful acanthus-leaves once crowned a portion of the precipice on which the town was built, and were reflected from the glassy blue of the sea at its feet. ”

“ All around the neighborhood of this fountain the ground was one bed of blue and white violets, whose fragrance filled the air, and which were deemed by the nuns to have come up there in especial token of the favor with which Saint Agnes regarded the conversion of this heathen relic to pious and Christian uses.
This nymph had been an especial favorite of the childhood of Agnes, and she had always had a pleasure which she could not exactly account for in gazing upon it. It is seldom that one sees in the antique conception of the immortals any trace of human feeling. ”

“ All sorts of ill-luck will befall you. Make up with her before you start, or you may get the fever in the marshes and die, and then who will take care of poor Agnes?"
"Let Saint Agnes look after her; the girl loves her better than she does me, or anybody else," said Elsie. "If she cared anything about me, she'd marry and settle down, as I want her to."
296 "Oh, there you are wrong," said Jocunda. "Marrying is like your dinner: one is not always in stomach for it, and one's meat is another's poison. ”

“ The scarlet clover-tops shook and quivered with the merriment.
"To hang on the shrine of Saint Agnes!" Giulietta repeated. "That is a little too good!"
"Go, go, you baggage!" said Elsie, wrathfully brandishing her spindle. "If ever you get a husband, I hope he'll give you a good beating! You need it, I warrant! Always stopping on the bridge there, to have cracks with the young men! Little enough you know of saints, I dare say! So keep away from my child! Come, Agnes," she said, as she lifted the orange-basket on to her head ”

“ We shall take you for a saint, and worship you in right earnest, if you raise not those eyelashes soon."
"Sir! my lord!" said the girl,—a bright color flushing into her smooth brown cheeks, and her large dreamy eyes suddenly upraised with a flutter, as of a bird about to take flight.
4 "Agnes, bethink yourself!" said the white-haired dame; "the gentleman asks the price of your oranges; be alive, child!" ”

“ Not want a good husband to take care of you when your poor old grandmother is gone? Who will provide for you?"
"He who took care of the blessed Saint Agnes, grandmamma."
"Saint Agnes, to be sure! That was a great many years ago, and times have altered since then; in these days girls must have husbands. Isn't it so, Brother Antonio?"
"But if the darling hath a vocation?" said the artist, mildly.
"Vocation! I'll see to that! She sha'n't have a vocation! Suppose I'm going to delve, and toil, and spin, and wear myself to the bone, and have her slip through my fingers at last with a vocation? ”

“ Agnes told the children to ask their papa if they might each have a Bible of their own, to which he consented, and when the Bibles were brought home, the exclamations of derision from the Misses Fairland, were loud and long.
“A missionary in disguise!” they exclaimed; “a saint in the form of a governess; come to convert us all, and the first thing is an importation of Bibles!” and many were the sneering and sarcastic remarks and allusions which came to the ears of Agnes, but she kept on her way quiet and undisturbed. ”

“ In the days of Agnes, Christians were called upon to resist and conquer physical persecution. In our day we are called upon to overcome intellectual and social opposition. They conquered! We shall conquer! Agnes tells us there is no excuse for cowardice. Agnes was young, Agnes was weak, Agnes was a girl, and she conquered! One Agnes can conquer the opposition of the nineteenth century. Such in substance was my discourse. The whole scene caused every one to be bathed in tears."
After leaving Rome he went straight to Assisi, for whose saint he had ever felt a very powerful attraction. ”

“ People who live in the senses more than in the world of reflection feel the force of such outward appeals. Giulietta made the sign of the cross, and looked grave for several minutes.
"Poor little dove!" she said at last, "if your sins must needs be expiated so, what will become of me? It must be that you will lay up stores of merit with God; for surely your sins do not need all this. Agnes, you will be a saint some day, like your namesake at the Convent, I truly do believe." ”

“ St Agnes is the patron saint of young girls, who, in rural districts, formerly indulged in all sorts of quaint country magic on St Agnes’ Eve (20th–21st January) with a view to discovering their future husbands. This superstition has been immortalized in Keats’s poem, “The Eve of St Agnes.” St Agnes’s bones are supposed to rest in the church of her name at Rome, originally built by Constantine and repaired by Pope Honorius in the 7th century. ”

“ Then said the Prefect to the holy maiden,
' I have borne with thee hitherto because thou art yet a child;
thou insultest our gods, yet do not anger them.'
Agnes answered him, ' The Almighty approveth
the minds of men rather than their great age;
and faith is not in years, but dwells in prudent understandings. ”

“ Then Agnes answered with great resolution,
'If thou knewest my God, thou wouldest not say these words.
Without care, I despise thy threatenings,
because I well know my Lord's might.
I trust in Him because He is
to me a strong wall, and an unfailing defence,
so that I need not sacrifice to thy accursed gods;
neither by pollution from without [can I]
ever be defiled among foul harlots.
I have God's holy angel with me;
thy gods are molten of [mere] brass,
whereof men construct fair vessels,
or they are of stone, whereof men make streets. ”

“ Reverently kissing the hand of the Abbess, Agnes withdrew with her old friend, and crossed again to the garden to attend to her flowers.
"Well now, childie," said Jocunda, "you can sit here and weave your garlands, while I go and look after the conserves of raisins and citrons that Sister Cattarina is making. She is stupid at anything but her prayers, is Cattarina. Our Lady be gracious to me! I think I got my vocation from Saint Martha, and if it wasn't for me, I don't know what would become of things in the Convent. ”

“ Then they dragged the maiden to the harlots' house;
but she at once found there a shining angel of God,
so that no man, because of that great light,
could either look upon or touch her,
for the house all shone as the sun in the day-time;
and the more closely they looked at her, the more their eyes
were dazzled.
Then Agnes prostrated herself, praying to the Almighty,
and God thereupon sent her a shining tunic.
Then she thanked Christ, and donned the clothing,
which fitted her size very exactly,
brightly shining, so that men might see
that God had sent her the shining clothing. ”

“ Sister Agnes is leaving her body and becoming a Saint in heaven." In the morning, a great number of young girls assembled under an inspiration from God, unwilling to admit any married woman among them; they went processionally and bearing lighted tapers, to the monastery, to offer that pure soul a homage worthy of her merits. God manifested the sanctity of his servant by a multitude of other prodigies; hence all the inhabitants of the country honor her memory every successive year, and offer her through devotion a considerable quantity of wax candles. ”

“ When he loses the daughter in whom his heart is garnered up, he finds no comfort except in building a temple to her memory,—a blind outreaching towards the saint-worship of modern times.
Agnes rose from her devotions, and went with downcast eyes, her lips still repeating prayers, to the font of holy water, which was in a dim shadowy corner, where a painted window cast a gold and violet twilight. Suddenly there was a rustle of garments in the dimness, and a jeweled hand essayed to pass holy water to her on the tip of its249 finger. ”

“ Then was it so done, as the cruel man commanded,
but the flame instantly divided itself into two parts,
and burned up those who had made the tumult;
and the blessed Agnes stood unharmed in the midst of the fire,
with outstretched hands, thus praying,
' Oh! Thou Almighty God, who alone art to be adored,
Terrible Creator, who art truly to be worshipped.
Father of my Lord, I bless Thee,
for that I have escaped, through Tliy gracious Son,
the threatenings of the wicked, and also the filth of the devil. ”

“ As the relations of Agnes dragged her down the mountain, tearing her clothes, and scattering her hair along the road, because she continued violently to resist, she became suddenly so heavy, that they were unable to raise her from the ground, even with the help of persons who flocked from the fields and the vineyards. They were blind to the finger of God in so extraordinary an event, and they even made a jest of it; for ill-disposed persons, like the Pharisees of the Gospel, do not submit to the evidence of miracles, but carry their impiety to the length of turning all miracles into ridicule. ”

“ Then wrote Ambrose concerning the maiden thus.
At that time there was a noble maiden
called Agnes, believing in the Saviour,
in the city of Rome, gentle and wise,
a child in years, but old in mind. ”

“ Benedict, near Assisi, to which she drew her sister Agnes. The conformity of their inclinations and manners, which rendered them tenderly united, had made them sensibly feel their separation. Clare was greatly grieved that Agnes, at so tender an age, should be exposed to the dangers of the world. She prayed fervently to the Almighty to cause her sister to feel the sweets of His grace, so that she might grow disgusted with the world, and become her companion in the service of Jesus Christ. ”

“ Then the fire became quenched, so that not one coal glowed there,
and the people attributed it to witchcraft,
roaring with loud clamour, and fierce against [her] life.
Then Aspasius could not withstand the great tumult,
but bade kill her with death-bearing sword,
and Christ then received her, martyred for His Name.
Her father and her mother, with great joy,
took her body, and brought it to their own house,
and buried her there without sorrowing,
and there often watched, venerating the place.
Then on a certain night they saw come
a great company of virgins, and Agnes in the midst ”

“ On us thy poor children bestow a sweet smile;
And now thou art high in the mansions above,
On Erin's green valleys look down in thy love.
(optional repeat) On Erin's green valleys, on Erin's green valleys,
On Erin's green valleys look down in thy love.
Hail, glorious St. Patrick, thy words were once strong
Against Satan's wiles and a heretic throng;
Not less is thy might where in Heaven thou art;
Oh, come to our aid, in our battle take part!
In a war against sin, in the fight for the faith,
Dear Saint, may thy children resist to the death ”

“ Is the Holy Ghost indeed alone dispensed through the medium of Alexander and his scarlet crew of cardinals? Hath the power to bind and loose in Christ's Church been indeed given to whoever can buy it with the wages of robbery and oppression? Why does every prayer and pious word of the faithful reproach me? Why is God silent? Or is there any God? Oh, Agnes, Agnes! dear lily! fair lamb! lead a sinner into the green pastures where thou restest!"
So wrestled the strong nature, tempest-tossed in its strength,—so slept the trustful, blessed in its trust,—then in Italy, as now in all lands. ”