Agnes
Saint Agnes is the patroness of young girls and of chastity because of her own story: by tradition a Roman child of twelve or thirteen, she refused marriage to a pagan suitor, declaring Christ her only spouse, and was put to death for that refusal. The instinctive bond between her age and her vowed purity made her the natural patroness of girls and of engaged couples who keep their love chaste until marriage. Her patronage of gardeners comes by way of her name: “Agnes” was linked to the Latin agnus, “lamb” — and she is shown with a lamb, an emblem of the soil’s gentle innocence as much as of her purity. On her feast in Rome two lambs are blessed whose wool is woven into the pallia of archbishops.
Saint Agnes was a young Roman Christian martyred around 304 AD during the persecution of Diocletian. At only twelve or thirteen years of age, she refused to marry a pagan suitor and was condemned to death. Her courage and purity have made her one of the most celebrated virgin martyrs. Her name is included in the Roman Canon of the Mass.
