St Agnes, martyr at Rome, 304

Into your hands 

I commend

my spirit, 

for you have 

redeemed me,

O Lord, 

O God of truth. 

Psalm 31:5

At age 12, Agnes, (whose name in Latin means “lamb”) was martyred in 304 at Rome under the persecution of the Emperor Dilocletian. On her feast day (January 21) 2 lambs are blessed at the basilica of her name in Rome and their wool is woven into a scarf or pallium with which archbishops are invested. In 601 such a pallium was sent to Augustine, the first Archbishop of  Canterbury. The pallium still appears on the Archbishop’s coat of arms. 

My friend Bill Mahedy adds: Agnes was another of those highly venerated martyrs in the early church.  Diocletian was the last of the emperors to persecute the church but he was the worst.

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