Damsel's Plight

Saint Agnes (of Rome) is a virgin martyr who is venerated in most ecclesiastical bodies; a patron of chastity, virgins, and girls. Executed during the tenth persecution of the Emperor Diocletian (304 C.E. or 306 C.E.) she is alleged to have born in Rome to practicing Christians. Though living only a brief life she has gained rather large recognition by way of legend; described as possessing a far surpassing beauty, which drew the affection of the son of the Roman prefect Sempronius. Having devoted herself to service of God, the unrequited suitor when to far as to denounced her as a Christian; Roman law at this time did not permit the execution of virgins thus Agnes was to suffer torture. In an 1849 edition of the Journal of British Archaeological Association, H. Syer Cuming, esq., V.P., and F.S.A. Scot account for the little saint's tribulation:
When her virginity was assailed in the public Bordellos, to which she was condemned, she was miraculously preserved by lightening and thunder from Heaven. When stripped by her persecutors, the angels immediately veiled her who person with her flowing hair [some accounts suggest a mantel]…the next act of her cruel foes was to light a huge pile of faggots, into the midst of which they cast the hapless child; but no sooner was this done than the flames were extinguished (Cuming, P., & Scott, 1849: 268).
All acts that would kill any other, Agnes was at last beheaded at Rome, where a church marks the event. Though veneration of Saint Agnes was uncommon in Germany Naogeorgus recounts of Roman celebratory rites held during the feast of Saint Agnes; he describes as the offering of two white lambs, which were kept by the priest until Holy Thursday, then sheared. The wool was then used to produce palls (known as pallium, which is an ecclesiastical woolen cloak), which were then given to the archbishops. An obscure ritual indeed, yet the lamb is come to be an emblem of Saint Agnes, possibly due to the lore that surrounds Agnes and her parents after her death; eight days after her parents took to visiting her tomb, where they would mourn. Agnes appeared to them in a company of angels with a white lamb at her side. She bade them to no longer grieve for she was united with her savior. Some might attribute her very name, however, this is false etymology. The Latin word agnus meaning "lamb" does appear to be similar to "Agnes" yet the name actually derives from the Greek hagnē (ἁγνή) meaning "chaste".

Saint Agnes has a great popularity in England, however, as it would appear in a very closet capacity, take for instance that “in Cambridgeshire there is a village of Papworth St. Agnes; but its church is dedicated to St. John the Baptist.” Agnes’ appeal appears because of association with divining, "it was that pining lovers sought he maiden's aid in solving their doubts, and lulling ehir fears by resorting to strange divination" (Cuming, P., & Scott, 1849: 271). In Faiths and Folklore by William Carew and John Brand (1905) points to a passage in the "Portiforium ad usum Sarum" that declares she was so well versed in magic, she was said to be the spouse of Christ (p. 2). Many texts will make mention a fast called "Fasting Saint Agnes' Fast" which among one of the best documented rituals attributed to the saint:
The proper rite was to take a row of pins, and pull one out after another, saying a Pater Noster, and sticking one pin the in sleeve. Then going to rest, without food, their dreams were expected to present the images of their future husbands (Encyclopedia of Superstitions, p. 1499).
To accompany this little ritual are a variety of lovely incantations to see the Saint's divine assistance, Ben Johnson writes:
And on sweet St. Agnes' night
Please you with the promis'd sight,
Some of husbands, some of lover,
Which an empty dream discovers.
Another such ritual published Mother Bunch's Closet Newly Broke Open, by George Laurence Gomme (1885) prescribes that for one to divine they must avoid being kissed during the day and when going to bed, which has been dressed in clean linen lay straight as possible with hands place beneath the head repeat this:
Now, good St. Agnes, play thy part,
And send to me my own sweetheart,
And shew me such a happy bliss,
This night of him to have a kiss.
Of course fall to sleep as soon as possible and upon awaking from your first dream you will see him. Keats most gracefully spoke of these practices performed upon the night of before the feast day in his poem entitled "The Eve of Saint Agnes". One could go on with the abundance evidence of this species of divination. The day that commemorates the martyrdom of Saint Agnes is the twenty first of January (and prior to 1962 a feast day commemorating her birth on the twenty eighth).

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