FEBRUARY 5
AGATHA OF SICILY, THE MARTYR. Agatha, a wealthy and beautiful girl of fifteen, came to the attention of Governor Quintianus during the Christian persecutions of Emperor Decius. His intention was to take her for his wife because of her beauty and to take control of her lands. She refused, saying that she was betrothed to Christ. He sent her to a woman, Aphrodisia, who together with her nine daughters had a house of ill repute. They attempted to persuade her to the sensual life for a month, but they failed. He demanded that she sacrifice to his gods, but she eloquently refused. He had undressed, bull whipped, burned with a torch, and her breasts cut off. The Apostle Peter appeared to her in a vision in prison, spoke with her, and completely restored her saying, "I heal thee by the grace of Christ." The next day she was chained and thrown into burning coals. She prayed and such a violent earthquake struck the city that the people threatened Quintianus' life if he continued his tortures of Agatha. He removed her unharmed from the flames and imprisoned her, where she prayed and gave up her soul there in Catania, Sicily in the third century. Agatha's guardian angel appeared with 100 other holy angels at her tomb and placed upon it a marble slab that read "A holy and freewill mind, honor from God and redemption of country". Quintianus, learning of her death, went to take control of her lands. Crossing a river on horseback with two other soldiers, one horse trampled him to death. One year after the saint died, lava from a nearby volcano threatened to burn the city of Catania. Both Christians and idol worshippers ran to Agatha's tomb and taking a silk mantle from there, asked God for his protection. The lava flowed back into the volcano and many idol worshippers became Christians.
OTHER SAINTS COMMEMORATED FEBRUARY 5: St. Polyeuktos, Patriarch of Constaninople; Righteous Theodosios; Neomartyr Antonios the Athenian (1744); Martyr Theodula of Cilicia and with her Martyrs Macarios, Evagrios, and Helladios; Russian New Martyrs Ågatha, Eugene, and Paramon.
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