NOVENA TO SAINT AGNES

PATRONESS OF THE CHILDREN OF MARY

O singular example of virtue, glorious Saint Agnes, by the living faith which animated you from your tender years, and rendered you so pleasing to God that you did merit the martyr's crown: obtain for us the grace to keep our holy faith inviolate within us, and to profess ourselves Christians sincerely in word and work; may our open confession of Jesus before men cause Him to bear a favorable witness to us before His eternal Father.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father.

O invincible Martyr, Saint Agnes most renowned, by your confidence in God's help, when, being condemned by the impious Roman prefect to see the lily of your purity stained and trampled in the mire, you did not despair, still trusting firmly in the God who gives His angels charge over them that trust in Him: we beseech you by your intercession to obtain for us from Almighty God the forgiveness of all our sins and the sure confidence that He will bestow upon us life everlasting and the means necessary to merit it.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father.

O courageous maiden, Saint Agnes most pure, by the burning love with which thy heart was on fire, and which preserved thee from harm in the midst of the flames of passion and of the stake, where the enemies of Jesus Christ sought to destroy thee: obtain for us from Almighty God that every unclean flame may be extinguished in us and only that fire, which Jesus Christ came to enkindle upon the earth, may burn within us; so that, after spending a blameless life in the practice of this fair virtue, we shall be worthy to have a share in the glory thou didst merit by the purity of thy heart and by thy martyrdom.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be.

(Indulgence of 300 days)