Saint Agatha of Sicily

Saint Agatha was a deaconess and martyr from the early 3rd century, from the city of Catania in Sicily, a large island in the south of Italy.  In this episode we will hear the story of her martyrdom, and discuss how veneration of Saint Agatha developed in medieval times and today.

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Transcript

 God is glorious in his Saints! 
 

Welcome to the Christian Saints Podcast. My name is dr Darren Ong, recording from Sepang in Malaysia. In this podcast, we explore the lives of the Christian saints, from the Anglican, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions. Today, we commemorate St Agatha of Sicily

Saint Agatha was a 3rd-century  martyr during one of the persecutions of Christians in the Roman Empire. She was also a deaconess . Saint Agatha is from Sicily, a large island in the southern part of Italy, and she is an especially popular saint there. Let us read a short account from her life from the website of the Italian Sons and Daughters of America, an association for Italian-Americans. This account was written by Patricia Russo.

 There are a number of legends concerning the life of St. Agatha of Sicily. The following account is based on the “Passio Sanctae Agathae” written in the fifth century.

Agatha was born in the first part of the third century into a wealthy and noble Christian family in Catania, Sicily. She was a beautiful young virgin, and at the age of 15 Agatha expressed her desire to live a life consecrated to God.

It is generally believed that when she was 21 she became a deaconess in the church, as she is often seen in paintings from as early as the 6th century, wearing a white tunic and red vail typical of the rank of deaconess during her time.

Her duties would have included teaching young followers about the Christian faith, and to prepare them for Baptism and Holy Communion.

In the years 250 to 253 AD, Roman Emperor Trajan Decius ordered the persecution of all Christians.

The prefect of Catania at that time was a man named Quintianus. Legend says that Quintianus, upon seeing Agatha, fell madly in love with her. It is more likely, though, that his true desire was to gain control of her family’s property and lands.

When Agatha refused his advances he sent her to a brothel as punishment. She refused to accept customers and was sent back to Quintianus. After refusing Quintianus’ advances time and again, Agatha was imprisoned, suffered repeated tortures, and then brutally had her breasts cut off.

It is said that she responded to this horrible mutilation by saying to Quintianus, “Cruel man, have you forgotten your mother and the breast that nourished you, that you dare to mutilate me this way?”

She was returned to her cell without any medical attention to her wounds. It is believed that during the night Saint Peter appeared in her cell, and healed her wounds.

Quintianus, now had a horrible hatred of Agatha, and ordered that she be burned on a bed of coals. While she lay burning on the coals her red veil stayed miraculously intact.

An earthquake struck Catania during this last torture of Agatha, and Quintianus became fearful for his safety, he had her returned to prison and then he fled the city. Agatha died a few hours later on February 5, in the year 251.

The people of Catania believe that the carrying of Santa Agatha’s veil in procession, has saved the city from many eruptions of Mount Etna, earthquakes, the plague, and is also responsible for saving the people of Catania from the wrath of Emperor Fredrick II in 1231.

Devotion to Saint Agatha remains strong, but not only in Catania, she has also become the patron and protector of all of Sicily. Her feast day is February 5th, the date of her death.

-Saint Agatha is the patron saint for breast cancer, rape victims, fire, nurses and natural disasters.

Sicily is an interesting place with an interesting history. Even though it is in Italy today, it used to be settled by Greeks. When the Muslims invaded North Africa and Europe, Sicily was under Muslim control. Eventually Christians were able to regain control of the island. Sicily has a strategic location at the middle of the Mediterrenean sea, around valuable shipping lanes. This helped the story of Saint Agatha become well-known all over Europe.

Let us read an excerpt from an article by Paul Oldfield from Manchester Metropolitan University, published in the Journal of Ecclesiastical History. The title of this article is “The Medieval Cult of St Agatha of Catania and the Consolidation of Christian Sicily. This excerpt discusses the veneration of Saint Agatha in Sicily in the latter half of the twelfth century, after Christians recaptured the island from the Muslims. I would note here that the term “cult” refers to the practice of venerating the saint within Christianity, not the more common meaning in use today of a sinister religious sect. 

“
PAUL OLDFIELD

Manchester Metropolitan University

 

Jnl of Ecclesiastical History, Vol. 62, No. 3, July 2011.
 
 
 After the early phase of the revival of St Agatha’s cult, increasing evidence

suggests that in the second half of the twelfth century the shrine began to

operate on a wider stage, in addition to the saint’s long-established presence

in church dedications and in universal martyrologies and calendars. Its

promising foundations and the array of connections established in the cult’s

formative development set up St Agatha’s potential for long-term popularity.

Within this, three developments above all others explain the saint’s re-

emergence onto the international stage. First, the growth of pilgrimage to the

Holy Land and the evolution of the crusading movement provided sustained

exposure for the cult. Cultic connections were immediately established with

the city of Messina which was increasingly a key node on a major Christian

pilgrimage route. The link with Taranto would also have opened up similar

connections. Unfortunately, the majority of those travellers and pilgrims,

passing to and from the Holy Land, who might have visited St Agatha’s

shrine or have encountered the cult’s traditions, have evaded record. It is

only the more high-profile episodes that are known. In about 1170, for

example, Prior Theobald of Vermandois of the Cluniac house of Saint-

Arnoult at Crepy-en-Valois appears to have passed through the island of

Sicily heading for the Holy Land on diplomatic business.53 As Lynn White

discovered, the church of Saint-Arnoult at Crepy-en-Valois claimed to have

acquired relics of St Agatha – her mouth with teeth and her veil. Perhaps

Theobald visited his fellow Benedictine monks at Catania and was able to

procure the precious objects.54

But it was an event of the magnitude of the Third Crusade that

significantly boosted the international reputation of Agatha’s cult. The

Anglo-French crusading forces wintered near Messina in 1190–1 on their way

to face Saladin in the east. As a result, a large number of western Europeans

were intimately exposed to a range of Sicilian traditions, customs and

folklore, which then filtered westwards. The Englishman Roger Howden,

who accompanied Richard I on the Third Crusade, took a keen interest in St

Agatha. He noted Agatha’s ability to prevent eruptions from the nearby

volcanic Etna, and how the saint’s veil acted like a shield against the fiery

lava. Howden recorded a specific occasion when Agatha’s veil was used to

divert the volcanic fire into the sea, leaving half-burned some fish, fondly

termed pisces Sanctae Agathae, which could still be seen in the 1190s,. From this

incident, a local custom then developed : any fisherman who caught one of

the fishes immediately had to release it ‘ on account of reverence for Blessed

Agatha’. The chronicler here records some of the more quotidian and

curious ways in which the cult infiltrated into lay consciousness. Furthermore,

Roger Howden’s account of the diverted lava depicts the ‘multitude of

pagans’ [Muslims] fleeing to St Agatha’s tomb as the ones who actually held

up the veil. This certainly draws on the earliest hagiographical traditions of

St Agatha’s cult in which a year after the saint’s death (AD 252) the people of

Catania ran to her tomb and used her veil as protection against Etna’s

eruption. Among this crowd were pagans who were subsequently converted

by Agatha’s miraculous intervention. As well as possible knowledge of these

early traditions, Howden may also be providing a snap-shot of the developing

socio-religious landscape in Catania in the later twelfth century.55 None of

the traditions surrounding the cult’s revival explicitly portray it as missionary

in objective despite the presence of large Muslim communities. This mirrors

broader policy in Norman Sicily, where no consistent and widespread

conversion programmes were aimed against the island’s Muslims. Instead,

evidence for conversion suggests that it was often a gradual process arising

from long-term socio-cultural assimilation. The conversion of a mosque in

Catania in the 1170s probably represents not an official attempt to push a

conversion agenda forward, but an acknowledgement of evolving social and

religious change within the city.56 In such an environment, some Muslims

(and indeed Christians) are likely to have adopted aspects of both Islamic and

Christian culture. The efficacy and protective powers of holy shrines could

easily transcend specific religious affiliations ; especially in a region

dominated by the numinous dangers of Etna. Indeed, al-Harawi, the

Muslim traveller who visited Sicily in the 1170s, noted an Islamic pilgrimage

site, which contained thirty martyrs, in a cemetery in Catania.57 While not

spreading the faith directly, St Agatha may well have counted among her

devotees Muslims who were comfortable with using different elements of

both religions. Finally, Howden made one other significant reference to St

Agatha : in 1190–1, with the crusader forces at Messina, King Tancred of

Sicily and Richard I of England finally settled their differences and made a

symbolic visit to Agatha’s tomb (as part of this diplomatic rapprochement,

Richard also allegedly donated King Arthur’s sword, Excalibur, to

Tancred).58

The second significant development to boost St Agatha’s international

reputation can be identified from the mid-twelfth century when the new

kingdom of Sicily gradually shook off its pariah status. Here is not the place

to trace how and why this happened, but as a result cordial diplomatic

relationships were established above all with the Angevins in England, the

Capetians in France and the popes in Rome.59 Peter of Blois and Gervase of

Tilbury were just two of the prominent authors who came into contact with

the region through diplomatic ties, and recorded aspects of Sicilian life. As

we have seen, the Church of Catania had influence in the highest Sicilian

circles and two of its archdeacons during the 1140s and 1160s – Asclettin and

the celebrated scholar Henry Aristippus – were royal chancellors and leading

advisors to the king.60 A chain of prominent communication channels thus

connected St Agatha at Catania to a much wider audience.

The third and final key factor connects to the first two. The crusading/

pilgrimage movement and the creation of diplomatic links increased

knowledge of Sicily in western Europe. Above all, the message that returned

westwards, from authors such as Peter of Blois, Roger Howden, Walter Map,

Conrad of Querfurt and Gervase of Tilbury, was of a strange and exotic

land.61 The region’s landscape had a mystical quality, marked by fiery

volcanoes and the scars of terrible earthquakes. The dangerous seas around it

hosted classical monsters such as Scylla and Charybdis, and the Sirens. Here

was found the new home of King Arthur in the caverns of Etna, and the

battlefields of chansons de geste, waged against Muslim foes, most famously

in the Chanson d’Aspremont.62 Some authors located the gateway to the

Underworld in Mount Etna or near Naples respectively, and others placed

the entrance to purgatory in Sicily.63 Gervase of Tilbury, Alexander of

Neckham and Conrad of Querfurt were fascinated by legends which placed

the tomb of Virgil in Naples, and cast the famous poet as a magical protector

of the city.64 In addition, the continued presence of Muslim communities

added to the region’s pagan and supernatural undertones. These perceptions

of a volatile southern Italy would thrust into the limelight the role of any

protector, and St Agatha was aptly placed to assume the task. The proximity

of her shrine to the supernatural Etna, its fame known across the Christian

and Muslim worlds, immediately placed Agatha into a perpetual conflict

with this fiery entity. Roger Howden commented on it, as did Gervase of

Tilbury who noted that Saint Agatha’s shrine ‘preserves the city from fire

by its protection ’.65 News of the catastrophic Sicilian earthquake of 1169,

which almost entirely obliterated Catania, further disseminated the image

of Agatha operating in a world of powerful forces. The disaster occurred on

4 February, the vigil of St Agatha, destroying the saint’s church.66 According

to Peter of Blois it was actually St Agatha’s punishment for a sinful episcopal

election in Catania.67

St Agatha thus represented goodness and purity in a landscape of hell,

purgatory, sinister natural forces and pagan communities. This combination

undoubtedly attracted external interest and fascination. By 1200 the cult of

St Agatha was firmly rooted both in its immediate locale and the wider

European consciousness.

Saint Agatha is today venerated all over the world, but especially in her homeland of Sicily. There is a wonderful account of how Sicilians celebrate Saint Agatha today from the book chapter
Devotees, a new ordeal and a sense of belonging: Ethnography and nethnography of saint Agatha

by Elisabetta Di Giovanni in the book Mapping Religion and Spirituality in a PostSecular world. This chapter contains a lot of scholarly analysis on how Sicilians venerate Saint Agatha (incuding some insightful analysis of how young people celebrate her online) but I will just read an excerpt which contains the author’s observations on the feast of Saint Agatha in Catania.
 
 
 The feast of St. Agatha is celebrated every year in February and includes 

the involvement of a large number of young people. Is this the tangible 

sign of a revived religiousness? Or is it something else? During the night of 

February 3rd all the people—the faithful, tourists and especially young 

men, gather in the main square waiting for the mass at dawn. Devotees 

wear a white votive tunic and a black cap (sacco), to wait for their patron 

Agatha. But, there is a first frantic moment to be faced: the opening of the 

church doors. The keeper opens the doors from the inside and he has just 

a moment to dodge quickly aside, before the devotees pass pushing over 

the threshold to be the first to enter. Then, people start to run along the

nave toward the apse, while some climb the columns. Although they are 

acting within what is essentially a religious event, the occasion allows 

them to modify the behavioral rules usually observed in a place of wor-

ship. It is like an invasion. Everything is ready on the altar. Invocations are 

made to the Saint, as an acclamation and a sign of devotion, but they can

seem somewhat “disrespectful” because of the familiarity that the faithful 

show toward their patron Saint. This is but praise and gratitude expressed 

through the use of glossolalia.

When the statue containing Agatha’s relics is brought to the altar, the 

devotees become impatient. One seems to perceive the Durkheimian 

mana

for which mankind is searching. According to Peter Williams (1989: 

18), defining “popular religiosity” means understanding the phenomena 

that denote two of the three following elements: the extra-ecclesial nature 

of popular religiosity, the transmission of knowledge through vehicles 

other than seminaries and other official religious institutions, and the 

expression of popular religiosity with signs and symbols that transmit the 

presence of the supernatural in everyday life (1989: 18). At the feast of 

St. Agatha, all three elements indicated by Williams can be found. In fact, 

we witness simultaneously two diffferent liturgical demonstrations: On the 

one hand there is the institutional church with its ministries; on the other 

hand, popular religiosity.

Glossolalia literally means to speak in other languages. More specifiji-

cally, it refers to the use of what may seem an unknown language: non-

sense syllables or words of an unknown mystical idiom that is sometimes 

part of a religious rite. After each invocation to St. Agatha, the devotee 

turns to his confraternity, shouting “Citizens, Citizens, Citizens” to which they answer “Long live Saint Agatha.” Then they say: “We are all devotees. 

Yes, we are.” The formula “

Cittadini, viva sant’Aita

” is repeated three times

On the evening of 3rd February the devotees begin to assemble around 

the fountain: many of them bring lighted candles weighing from ten to 

fifty kilos and meet to pray and stay together and to listen to each other’s 

prayers. The young people often sit in a circle or kneel down, placing a 

large votive candle beside them. A short while later the rite of the 

abbanniate

begins. It consists of crying out supplications to the Saint. The evening darkness is illuminated by the light of the candles and by the 

brightness of the white ritual garments. In turn, each devotee, generally a 

young man, takes a deep breath and shouts his devotion to the 

Santuzza

. 

The group answers, echoing his cry. After the fijirst “warming-up” round, the 

voices become louder and louder. Some people get friends to encourage 

them so that they may shout even louder; others cup their hands round 

their mouths in order to make their voices clearly heard and to be able to 

keep up the physical efffort. Others lean on their candles when they are out 

of breath.

The whole feast is, in a sense, a continual trial by ordeal: whoever par-

ticipates has to persist until the end of the feast. A second trial consists in 

carrying a large candle (weighing from 20 to 100 kilos) on one’s shoul-

ders. Young people in particular respond to the symbolic needs of their 

group, continuously facing fascinating, almost perverse risks. In 2004, a 

20-year-old was trampled to death by thousands of feet during the run up 

the fijirst slope (named San Giuliano). His wife promised her children 

would become devotees of Saint Agatha! People born in Catania call Saint 

Agatha “the little saint” (santuzza), because Agatha is considered as one of 

them. It is well known that facing the extreme physical trials in honor of 

the saint is a sacrifice offfered in exchange for an auspicious future. 

Moreover, the intimate pleasure of being admired by the people present 

during the ordeals is quite evident. The carriers of the big candles become 

heroes. If by chance the votive machinery were to stop, this would be 

interpreted as a bad omen.

Successfully facing the trial in the name of Saint Agatha hides a yearly 

need. Its reward is a reassurance of the significance and value of existence. 

Survival is enjoyment, enshrining a new beginning and a new birth. 

Another test of endurance that devotees undergo is that of towing 

the votive machine, weighing 18 tons, with two ropes 130 meters long. 

The ropes symbolize the union between the human and the divine. 

For this reason, climbing over the rope is taboo, because that would be 

considered an act of desecration of the Saint. The only action allowed is to 

pass under it, after permission from other devotees has been asked. The 

ropes, in short, represent a symbolic threshold that differentiates two 

classes of devotees: on one side the individual agents who are involved not 

only with their souls, but also with the physical exertion in staging their 

devotion as a physical manifestation; on the other, the onlookers, who par-

ticipate with their souls and pray as they follow the procession in a more 

spiritual way.
 
 ***
 
Saint Agatha is celebrated on 5 February in all Christian denominations that venerate saints.
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Thanks for listening to the Christian saints podcast. Look for the Christian Saints podcast page on Facebook or Instagram, or look for us on Twitter at podcast_saints. All music in this episode was composed by my good friend, James John Marks of Generative sounds. Please check out his music at https://generativesoundsjjm.bandcamp.com/. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider giving us a 5-star review on Itunes or whatever podcast app you use, so more people can find the Christian saints podcast and be blessed by these stories of the saints.


 

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Let us end with the collect prayer for Saint Agatha of Sicily, which is in the Roman Catholic mass on her feast day:
 
 May the Virgin Martyr Saint Agatha
 implore your compassion for us, O Lord, we pray,
 for she found favor with you
 by the courage of her martyrdom
 and the merit of her chastity.
 Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
 who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
 God, for ever and ever.