The Impetus of Self-Giving

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Simone Riva - “Behold: I send you as sheep among wolves; be ye therefore prudent as serpents, and simple as doves” (Mt 10:16). This phrase of Jesus comes immediately to mind when reading the life of St. Agnes, which the Church remembers today. The main difference between sheep and wolves is not that the former are weaker and the latter stronger and more violent. Rather, Jesus reveals it in another Gospel passage: the sheep can recognize the shepherd’s voice (cf. Jn 10:1–5).

It must not have happened very differently on January 21, 304 A.D., in Rome. These were the years of Emperor Diocletian’s most violent and cruel persecution of Christians. The story, unfortunately, is repeated even today. A young man, the son of the prefect of Rome, noticed an extraordinary girl of unique, almost dazzling beauty. Being the son of those in power, he thought he could have everything he desired. She, who was only thirteen years old, had already decided to whom she belonged. He offered her money and power to persuade her to marry him, but she, with Jesus, already had everything. Love, then, became hatred. The prefect’s son denounced her for being a Christian, and Agnes was arrested and tried. They tried to make her abandon the faith in every way, but to no avail. Stories tell of prodigious events that occurred during the final period of her life, which ended with her martyrdom on January 21. This girl’s name contained the heart of her person.

Agnes means “pure” and “chaste,” and she is remembered among the virgins and martyrs. In his work De Virginibus, St. Ambrose wrote about her feast:

“It is the birthday of St. Agnes; let men admire, let not the little ones despair, let the married ones be astonished, let the unmarried imitate her. Her consecration is superior to age. Her virtue is superior to nature.

So her name seems to me not to have come to her by human choice,
but to be a prediction of martyrdom,
an announcement of what she was to be.
The very name of this virgin indicates purity.

Here, therefore, in one victim is a double martyrdom of purity and religion. She remained a virgin and obtained martyrdom.”

It is impressive how these witnesses can cross the centuries and reach us where we are today. On the one hand, it reveals the mystery of the human heart; on the other, it shows the originality of God’s inexhaustible initiative.

What drove a thirteen-year-old girl to decide totally for Christ? This is the most significant question in the entire story of Agnes. What experience did she have of His presence? What awareness did she have of His love, of His preference? One does not give one’s life at that age for a mere name, an idea, or a concept thrown around to make everything fit.

As often happens to us, we reduce Christ so much that He becomes
a flag, a finger pointed at someone, a pretext to impose ourselves,
a spiritual thought that merely accommodates the provocations of reality.

In her, that name had an entirely different echo, one that is also worth reflecting upon.

The author has not revised the text and its translation.