Wednesday, January 21, 2009

January 21 - Feast of St. Agnes

In the catacombs beneath the Basilica of Sant'Agnese Fuori le Mura, one can venerate a sarcophagus containing the relics of St. Agnes, Virgin and Martyr (who died about the year 305).  This picture come to you from a postcard I bought whilst visiting the Basilica back in 2006.

She has two well known churches named for her in Rome.  The other, Sant'Agnese in Agone, is located in the Piazza Navona, and is more frequently visited than the other one.  She was beheaded in Domitian's Stadium (which was the forerunner of the Piazza), and then taken outside of the city walls to a cemetery (where the photo above was taken).  While the above sarcophagus contains her body, her skull is venerated in the Piazza Navona Basilica.

Fr. Zuhlsdorf has a great blog entry about all of this.  Check it out by clicking HERE.

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