Chapter 1 of 12
Saint Agatha
A young woman from Catania, Sicily, martyred in the 3rd century. Her feast falls in the depths of winter, and her martyrdom made her the saint of women.
A young woman from Catania
Agatha devoted herself to Christ at a very young age. When persecution came she was arrested, and they tried to force her into prostitution. She refused, and the refusal cost her dearly: she was whipped with rods, burned with torches and her breasts were cut off.
Tradition says that, locked in her cell, she was visited and healed by Saint Peter, and that she died later in connection with an earthquake that shook the city. The Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine, written around 1264, spread her story throughout Europe, and attributes the torture to the consul Quintianus.
Protector of women
Her heroism and constancy won her a devotion that lasts to this day. She is considered the protector of women, and of breasts in particular. That is why her images carry two attributes: the martyrs’ palm, and the cup or dish holding her breasts.
That patronage lives on beyond devotion. When Cristina Hoyos was Honorary Mayoress in 2000, ABC noted that many associations of women who have had mastectomies bear the saint’s name.
Her image in Espinosa
In Espinosa her image is kept in the parish church of Our Lady of the Assumption and comes out each year on the women’s shoulders, under an arch of flowers. Saint Blaise remains the patron of the village. Saint Agatha is the women’s saint.
