Saint Agatha ()*
Last night I was in that city where I saw a great revolution (Palermo). I also saw much desolation and devastation in the churches and private homes, as well as a large and curious religious festival. In the church, tapestries hung from the walls, and in the center, a kind of tent hung from on high, as is customary among us, which is called the tent of hunger or of fasting during Lent. I saw a great fire in the square like the bonfire of Saint John's Eve, and I saw the priests walking toward the fire in procession, carrying a tapestry. It was a very solemn festival, with many preparations and much pomp. The people there always show so much ardor and zeal for these things; meanwhile, they do not stop beating each other with sticks and fighting among themselves.
In the church there was much pomp and splendor. During Mass, I saw Saint Agatha present with many other saints. I saw that she was martyred in Catania. Her parents lived in Palermo; her mother was secretly a Christian and her father was a pagan. Her mother instructed her in Christianity from a young age, in secret. She had two nursemaids and from an early age enjoyed a familiarity with Jesus. I have often seen her sitting in the garden, having by her side a child all radiant with beauty who played and talked with her. I saw that she prepared a seat for him on the grass, and sitting as it were with him, with her hands joined upon her chest, she listened to him with all attention and reflection. I saw her play with little sticks and flowers, and how that child grew little by little beside her. As she grew, he appeared of greater stature, but only when she was alone. I believe she knew it, because I have seen her prepare various things in relation to the child's presence. I have seen her grow wonderfully pure and strong, resolute in spirit.
It is impossible to say how these things are seen: it is as if one saw something becoming ever more splendid and magnificent; as if a fire became a sun, a splendor became a star, and gold became more gold and brighter. I also saw how she cooperated extraordinarily, how she constantly removed from herself even the slightest impurity and imperfection, and how she punished any carelessness. When at night she prepared to rest, her guardian angel was beside her, often visibly, reminding her of something she might have forgotten, and she immediately hurried to carry it out; this consisted of prayers, alms, or any other work of charity, purity, humility, obedience, mercy, or the avoidance of evil in any form. I have frequently seen her, even as a child, secretly slip away from her mother's side to give alms and food to the poor.
She was so magnanimous and so loving of Jesus that I saw her continually fighting against herself: at any urge of temptation or the smallest fault, she would flagellate and wound herself. In everything she showed herself liberal and courageous, of a very sincere spirit. I saw that when she was eight years old she was taken with many other girls in a carriage to Catania. This happened by the will of her father, who wanted to educate her with more freedom and paganly. She was delivered there to a very libertine woman who had five daughters. I cannot say that it was a house of ill repute, according to common feeling, as I saw in those times; but the matron seemed to me a woman of the world, very free in her manners and a coquette. I saw Agatha live there for a long time. That house was very beautiful and everything inside was precious, but she could not go out with complete freedom. I saw her most of the time with other cheerful girls, in a space in front of which there was a pond in which the entire palace was mirrored, closed and guarded on the other side. That woman and the five daughters put forth every imaginable effort to lead Agatha away from her habits of virtue. I saw her walk with them in pleasant gardens and be shown all kinds of elegant clothes; but Agatha was always the same and disdained all these vanities. I also saw the celestial Child here beside her, who grew ever more serious and firm in her resolutions. She had turned into a slender young woman, not very tall, but perfect. She had black hair, large black eyes, a perfect nose, an oval face, and a sweet but firm manner of being, and a marvelous expression on her countenance, which came from the strength and generosity of her spirit. I saw that her mother died of grief over the absence of her daughter. In that woman's house I saw Agatha fight in the most persevering way against the inclinations of her own nature and against every seduction. A certain Quintian, who later had her martyred, came frequently to the palace. He was a married man, but could not stand his own wife. He inspired repugnance; he was very vulgar in his manners and haughty. He wandered around the city, spied on everything, and annoyed and tormented the people. I saw him in that woman's house and saw that from time to time he glanced sideways at Agatha, with the look proper to one who sees something that pleases him. No impropriety was permitted. Otherwise, I saw that with Agatha was the celestial Spouse, visible only to her, and I understood him to say: "Our spouse is small; she has no breasts, and when she has them, they will be taken away, since there is no one here who can empty them." The celestial Spouse said this looking at Agatha, and this means that there are still few Christians and few priests here.
I also saw that the instruments of her martyrdom were shown to her by her celestial Spouse; I believe even more: that she set herself in a way to amuse herself with those instruments. Later I saw her again in her native city, when her father was no longer living. She was thirteen years old. She publicly professed the Christian faith and had very good people around her. I saw her taken from her house by people Quintian had sent from Catania, and upon leaving the city she tied her sandals more tightly. Then, turning back, she saw that all her friends had abandoned her and had gone back into the city. She prayed to the Lord that He leave a memory of this ingratitude, and immediately a sterile and unfruitful olive tree grew up there.
I saw her again beside that wicked woman, as well as the appearance of her celestial Spouse, who once said to her: "When the serpent, which had never spoken, spoke, Eve should have realized it was the devil." I also saw how that wicked woman tried in every way to seduce Agatha through flattery and pleasures, and I understood that Agatha applied to her the teachings of her celestial Spouse, since when that worldly woman wanted to persuade her to give herself over to a relaxed life, she said to her: "Your flesh and your blood are creatures of God, just as the serpent was: but he who now speaks in your flesh is the devil." I saw Quintian's intrigues with this woman and came to know two of his friends very well. Later I saw Agatha put in prison, examined, and whipped. Afterward her breasts were cut off with an instrument that looked like a poppy plant: one executioner held her while another tore off her breasts. This instrument was made in such a way that opening in three parts, as if a human mouth were opening, and then closing, it tore and carried away the breasts enclosed inside with a single bite. The executioners had the shamelessness to place the torn-off breasts before her eyes and then threw them at her feet as if on a table. In the midst of these martyrdoms Agatha said to Quintian: "Do not you feel horror at tearing from a human creature those breasts that served your mother to nourish you?" Otherwise she showed herself strong and calm, and added: "My soul has nobler breasts that you will never be able to tear away." I saw that those breasts were small because Agatha was barely of puberty age. The wounds were round and there was no other wound; blood flowed from small pores, like little fountains. I have often seen this instrument used in martyrdoms; with it they tore entire pieces of flesh from the bodies of the martyrs. Admirable is the strength and help they receive from Jesus. I often see Him Himself beside the martyrs giving them help: they do not faint in cases where any other creature would fall unconscious.
I saw Agatha afterward in prison, where an old saint appeared to her who told her he wanted to heal her and restore her breasts. She answered him that she had never used human medicines, that she had Jesus, who could heal her if He willed. The other said: "I am an old Christian, you do not have to be ashamed of me." But she responded: "My wounds have nothing that can offend purity; Jesus will heal me if He wills: He created the world and can also create my breasts." Then that old man smiled and said: "I am your servant Peter; look: your breasts are already healed." And he disappeared. I saw afterward how an angel tied to the upper part of her prison a band on which these words were written, but I no longer know what their meaning was. Agatha found both her breasts perfectly healthy, just as she had had them before. That was not a simple cure of the epidermis, but they were new and perfect breasts. Around them I saw a nimbus of light, and the inner circle of this nimbus was filled with radiant rays of light colored with all the shades of the rainbow.
Then I saw Agatha led again to martyrdom. In a vaulted underground room there were like braziers in which coals were lit: they were deep like boxes and at the bottom covered with sharp irons. There were many of these boxes, because sometimes many were martyred at once; they were somewhat separated. Beneath these boxes flames wound about; so that those who were placed inside them were scorched by the fire upon the sharp points. When Agatha was thrown into one of those openings, a very great earthquake made itself felt; a wall collapsed and crushed two of Quintian's friends. A popular uprising broke out and Quintian fled. The martyr was taken out from there again and carried to prison, where she died. Afterward I saw that Quintian died miserably, drowned in a river, while he was on a journey to appropriate the goods of Saint Agatha. Then I saw a volcano vomit fire and lava and the people, to save themselves from that burning liquid, taking refuge near Agatha's tomb. They placed the lid of the saint's sepulcher against the lava and it stopped and the volcano was extinguished.
() The authoritative Ecclesiastical Dictionary (Kirchenlexikon) says: "The acts collected by the Bollandists on the martyrdom of Saint Agatha, except for some additions, are very ancient and worthy of all credit. Saint Antoninus (VI-6-5) brings the same words. There is only one explainable difference: Aphrodisia appears with seven daughters, because she counts among them perhaps the women of the servitude. The seer only sees five. Saint Agatha is patroness of Sicily. Her veil is venerated in Catania as a precious relic, protective against the eruptions of Etna.*