Dismal and pathetic it was to be a woman before the advent of Christianity. Dreary and frightful, as well. In societies where husbands enjoy patria protestas (paternal power) as head of a family or families, they had the power of life and death over their wives and children.
Leonard Hobhouse in Morals in Evolution, a comprehensive study of 500 primitive societies concluded that in 492 societies, polygamy was a standard except in the eight societies where there were few women.
G. May in Social Control of Sex Expressions, complimenting Hobhouse, noted, “Woman is almost universally considered a property.”
In Old India widows burned themselves alive in the funeral pyre of the husband. A woman’s role was relegated to child bearing in Old India, classical China, ancient Rome and Greece.
The New Catholic Encyclopedia espouses that the birth of Jesus Christ ushered the importance of the female specie, “the turning point in the history of women.”
A spiritual unity was professed. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).
The double standard of morality, citing adultery, was condemned (Mk.,10:11-12). And equality was emphasized when Christ accepted women as apostles and disciples. The first to see him resurrected from the dead was accorded to a woman—Mary of Magdala, the Apostle of the Apostles.
In choosing a state of life, an unmarried woman and virgin can dedicate a life of virginity to Christ—as his bride “anxious about the things of the Lord, so that she may be holy in both body and spirit (1 Corinthians 7:34).
However, virginity as an option is a “radical subversion against the Roman state,” according to Gilbert Marcus in Radical Tradition.
Marriage and family were the basis of imperium—the guarantee of the gods that Rome would continue, as cited by Kathleen Norris in The Cloister Walk.
Single blessedness was considered a “radical subversion” against the Roman State. Thus, a woman’s refusal to get married and beget children who will defend the Roman empire is equated to a soldier’s refusal to fight. Both acts were considered treasonous offenses.
But to be a virgin is an idealized state, intensified by church teachings. To value the body, and its human worth is a cultural and honorable claim of sexual identity. The vow of chastity is an honor attached to the word virgin. Innumerable were virgin martyrs in the primitive church.
Saint Agnes was given two options to live. Denounce Christianity or get married. Neither did she choose.
Destined for virginity
Agnes, which means chaste in Greek, was born in the City of Rome in 304 or 305. Rich and beautiful, many noblemen from the best families rivaled for her in marriage. But so resolute was her determination to remain single, because of her vow of chastity.
Immediately after the declaration of the Imperial Edict against Christians, she voluntarily declared herself as a Christian, according to Pope Damascus. Emperors Diocletian, Maximian and Galerius in 303 “rescinded the legal rights of Christians, demanding they comply with traditional Roman religious practices.”
Denounced as a Christian by a suitor, she was brought before a judge who showed her instruments of torture to change her mind. But unshakeable was her resolve to remain a virgin.
She was then sent to a house for prostitution. Agnes calmly listened and, with confidence, proclaimed God would rescue her. Disrobed before an audience of unbelievers, she remained calm.
Saint Ambrose, wrote that “when her hair was loosed, God gave such length and thickness to her flowing tresses that covered her completely.”
When Agnes entered the prison cell, an angel surrounded her with blinding light that no one could look, moreso touch her. As she knelt to pray, the Lord appeared and handed her a snow-white robe.
The son of Symphonianus, who condemned her, came with some friends to heap insult. But Symphonianus’s son immediately fell on his face, dead, while the others fled.
Agnes prayed and restored him to life, which led to his conversion. Symphonianus resigned his post and Aspius took over the trial.
Deputy Prefect Aspius commanded that she be burned in a great fire in Piazza Navona. The flames divided and scorched the people on both sides. Considered as a witchcraft marvel, and excited over screams of “Away with the witch!” Aspius ordered her execution.
Saint Ambrose narrated that Agnes approached death more cheerfully than ladies who go to their wedding.
Saint Ambrose claimed Agnes was 12 when she died, but Saint Augustine stated she was 13 years old.
Saint with a lamb
One of the seven women commemorated by name in the Canon of the Mass, Saint Agnes is the patron saint of the children of Mary, engaged couples, virgins, rape survivors and gardeners.
She was buried in Via Nomentana and those who prayed in her grave were harassed. Her foster sister, Saint Emerentiana was stoned to death.
Constantia, daughter of Emperor Constantine, built the Saint Agnes Basilica over her grave, where the relics of Saints Agnes and Emerentiana, given by Pope Paul V (1605-1621), were deposited.
In the Tridentine Calendar, her feast day is January 28, but it was moved to January 21 in the 1969 based on the Revised Calendar of Saints.
On her feast day, two lambs are blessed in Saint Agnes Basilica. They are cared for until they could be sheared. The wool of the lambs are woven into pallium, or rectangular mantle.
On June 29, on the vigil for the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, the pallium is laid on the main altar of the Saint Peter’s Basilica. The pallium is given by the holy father to archbishops as a sign of their sharing with the pope the fullness of the pontifical office.
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Santiago is a former regional director of the Department of Education National Capital Region. She is currently a faculty member of Mater Redemptoris Collegium in Calauan, Laguna, and of Mater Redemptoris College in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija.
Image credits: Wikimedia Commons