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On the 5th of February we celebrate the feast day of Saint Agatha, the Holy Virgin Martyr of
Palermo. She is the most highly venerated Virgin Martyr of the West, perhaps with the
exception of Saint Agnes of Rome. In the midst of dangers and temptations she served Christ
in purity of body and soul, and she died for the love of chastity.

The Holy Martyr Agatha was born in Sicily, of rich and noble parents. She lived during the
reign of the Emperor Decius who persecuted Christians. When she was fifteen years old
Quintianus, who governed Sicily had heard the rumour of her beauty and wealth. He had St.
Agatha arrested and brought to him in Catania, where he was at the time. On her journey from
Palermo to Catania the holy Martyr Agatha cried: “O Jesus Christ all that I am is
Thine; preserve me against the tyrant.”

Quintianus tried to seduce Saint Agatha and try sway her with flattery then threats, but she
would not consent to sin. He then had her housed with an unfaithful woman, called
Aphrodisia, who tried to turn the holy Martyr away from Christ’s holy faith. Aphrodisia
and her unholy daughters tried to tempt Saint Agatha with fine clothes, amusements and
entertainment, but she disdained all these things. Saint Agatha�s response to threats and
entreaties was:

“My courage and my thought be so firmly founded upon the firm stone of Jesus Christ,
that for no pain it may not be changed; your words be but wind, your promises be but rain,
and your menaces be as rivers that pass, and how well that all these things hurtle at the
foundement of my courage, yet for that it shall not move.”

The Holy Martyr Agatha was brought back to Quintianus who had her tortured further.
Quintianus then offered her life if she consented to sin, but she still did not deny Christ.
“Christ alone is my life and my salvation.” Quintianus cruelly cut off Saint
Agatha�s breasts and had her put in prison. The Holy Apostle Peter appeared to her in prison
and healed her wounds. Quintianus was astonished to see St. Agatha completely healed and led
to be tortured again. After she had been rolled naked upon potsherds, she prayed that her
torments might be ended. An earthquake took place in the city at that moment, many buildings
were destroyed and two of Quintianus� advisers were killed. The holy Martyr Agatha, offering
thanks to God, peacefully surrendered her soul to the Lord.

At her burial, an Angel placed a stone tablet on her grave inscribed with the words, “A
righteous mind, self-determining, honour from God, the deliverance of her father-land.”

Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone
O Lord Jesus, unto Thee Thy lamb doth cry with a great voice: O my Bridegroom, Thee I love;
and seeking Thee, I now contest, and with Thy baptism am crucified and buried. I suffer for
Thy sake, that I may reign with Thee; for Thy sake I die, that I may live in Thee: accept me
offered out of longing to Thee as a spotless sacrifice. Lord, save our souls through her
intercessions, since Thou art great in mercy.

Kontakion in the Fourth Tone
Let the Church be clad today with royal purple in a splendid covering dyed in the chaste and
hallowed blood of Martyr Agatha, and let it now cry: Rejoice, O thou boast of Catania.

Adapted from:

http://www.goarch.org/chapel/saints_view?contentid=413

Saint Nicholas Youth
Religious Committee