of St. Agnes Agnes was venerated as a saint at least as early as the time of St Ambrose, based on an existing homily. She is commemorated in the
Depositio Martyrum of
Filocalus (354) and in the early Roman Sacramentaries. Saint Agnes' bones are conserved beneath the high altar in the church of in Rome, built over the
catacomb that housed her tomb. Her skull is preserved in a separate chapel in the church of
Sant'Agnese in Agone in Rome's
Piazza Navona. Agnes is
remembered in the
Anglican Communion with a
Lesser Festival on 21 January. St Agnes is venerated as a
saint in the
Catholic Church,
Oriental Orthodox Church and the
Eastern Orthodox Church, as well as the
Anglican Communion and
Lutheran Churches.
Iconography Since the Middle Ages, Saint Agnes has traditionally been depicted as a young girl with her long hair down, with a lamb, the symbol of both her virginal innocence and her name, and a sword (together with the
palm branch an attribute of her martyrdom). The lamb, which is
agnus in the Latin language, is also the linguistic link to the traditional blessing of lambs. Saint Agnes has been depicted with a lamb since the 4th century.
Blessing of the lambs On the feast of Saint Agnes, two lambs are traditionally brought from the
Trappist abbey of
Tre Fontane in
Rome to be blessed by the Pope. In summer, the lambs are shorn, and the wool is used to weave the
pallia, which the Pope gives on the feast of Saint Peter and Paul to the newly appointed metropolitan
archbishops as a sign of his jurisdiction and their union with the pope. This tradition of the blessing of the lambs has been known since the 16th century.
Notable churches , Rome • St. Agnes Anglican Church Grange, Hanover, Jamaica •
Basilica of St James and St Agnes, Nysa, Poland •
St Agnes Cathedral, Rockville Centre, New York •
St Agnes Church, New York City •
Church of the Ascension and Saint Agnes, Washington, D.C. •
Sant'Agnese in Agone, Rome • , Rome • ,
Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, Canada •
St Agnes, St Agnes, Cornwall, England •
St Agnes, Cologne, Germany •
St Agnes, Cawston, Norfolk, England •
St Agnes' Church, St Agnes, Isles of Scilly, England •
St Agnes Cathedral, Springfield, Missouri, US •
St Agnes Church, Saint Paul, Minnesota • St. Agnes Catholic Church,
Key Biscayne, Florida Legacy The
Congregation of Sisters of St. Agnes is a Catholic religious community for women based in
Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, US. It was founded in 1858, by Father Caspar Rehrl, an Austrian missionary, who established the sisterhood of pioneer women under the patronage of Agnes, to whom he had a particular devotion. The city of
Santa Ynez, California is named after her.
In Art File:Sant'agnese fuori le mura, mosaico di sant'agnese e santi, 625-638.jpg|
Saint Agnes and saints, apse mosaic of
Sant’Agnese fuori le mura (c. 625–638) File:Master of St. Catherine Gualino, Saint Agnes (1315).png|
Saint Agnes, Master of St. Catherine Gualino (1315) File:Nicolas Cordier, St. Agnes (16th c.).png|
Saint Agnes,
Nicolas Cordier (16th c.) File:José de Ribera 027.jpg|
St. Agnes in prison,
Jusepe de Ribera (1641) File:Santa Inés, Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla.jpg|
Saint Agnes,
Francisco de Zurbarán (1635–1642) File:Edward Burne-Jones, St. Barbara, St. Dorothy, and St. Agnes (1869), detail.png|
Ss. Barbara, Dorothy, and Agnes (detail),
Edward Burne-Jones (1869) File:Edward Burne-Jones, St. Agnes (1887).png|
Saint Agnes,
Edward Burne-Jones, (1887) ==Cultural references==