Intentional Discipleship, Renewed Daily
Christians are called to be intentional disciples who make a conscious decision ...
Christians are called to be intentional disciples who make a conscious decision ...
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12 February, 2016St. Agatha suffered martyrdom at Catania in Sicily, probably during the persecution of the Roman emperor Decius in 251 AD. From antiquity devotion to her spread throughout the Church; her name was therefore inserted into the Roman Canon (Eucharistic prayer I in the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church). The following is an excerpt from a sermon by Saint Methodius of Sicily, bishop, and is used in the Roman Catholic Office of Readings for the feast (liturgical memorial) of Saint Agatha on February 5.
My fellow Christians, our annual celebration of a martyr’s feast has brought us together. She achieved renown in the early Church for her noble victory; she is well known now as well, for she continues to triumph through her divine miracles, which occur daily and continue to bring glory to her name.
She is indeed a virgin, for she was born of the divine Word, God’s only Son, who also experienced death for our sake. John, a master of God’s word, speaks of this: He gave the power to become children of God to everyone who received him.
The woman who invites us to this banquet is both a wife and virgin. To use the analogy of Paul, she is the bride who has been betrothed to one husband, Christ. A true virgin, she wore the glow of pure conscience and the crimson of the Lamb’s blood for her cosmetics. Again and again she meditated on the death of her eager lover. For her, Christ’s death was recent, his blood was still moist. Her robe is the mark of her faithful witness to Christ. It bears the indelible marks of his crimson blood and the shining threads of her eloquence. She offers to all who come after her these treasures of her eloquent confession.
Agatha, the name of our saint, means “good.” She was truly good, for she lived as a child of God. She was also given as the gift of God, the source of all goodness to her bridegroom, Christ, and to us. For she grants us a share in her goodness.
What can give greater good than the Sovereign Good? Whom could anyone find more worthy of celebration with hymns of praise than Agatha?
Agatha, her goodness coincides with her name and way of life. She won a good name by her noble deeds, and by her name she points to the nobility of those deeds. Agatha, her mere name wins all men over to her company. She teaches them by her example to hasten with her to the true Good. God alone.
Banner/featured image stained glass of St. Agatha by an unknown artist in an unknown Church. Public domain.
Methodius was born in Sicily in the late 8th century. Since his parents were prosperous, they were able to send him to the imperial city of Constantinople for further education. There Methodius responded to a vocation to the monastic life. He suffered persecution at the hands of iconoclastic emperors but was ultimately elected bishop and patriarch of Constantinople. In 843 he presided over the formal restoration of icons, an event celebrated annually in Orthodox Churches and known as “the Triumph of Orthodoxy.” Since Methodius died in Constantinople in 847, he is also known as Methodius of Constantinople and, since he is the first of several patriarchs by the same name, St. Methodius I. – bio by Dr. Italy.
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