SAINT AGATHA OF SICILY

Feast Day - February 5

Lived (b. 231, Catania or Palermo, Sicily - d. 251, Catania, Sicily)

Patron Saint of Breast Cancer Patients and Nurses

Almost nothing is known about Agatha, except that she was martyred in Sicily under the persecution of Emperor Decius in 251.

According to legend, Agatha dedicated her life to Our Lord at a very tender age, rejecting the proposal of any man who wants her hand in marriage. Agatha was arrested after refusing the advances of Quintian, a powerful man of high rank, who imprisoned her in a brothel.

She spent a month being tortured in the brothel, and in there she would pray, “Jesus Christ, Lord of all, you see my heart, you know my desires. Possess all that I am. I am your sheep: make me worthy to overcome the devil," and was preserved from being violated.

Agatha was removed from the brothel and again advanced upon by her captor.

Again, she refused him, saying she was for God alone. Her captor then sent her to prison, and tortured repeatedly.

He refused her medical care, but God comforted her in the form of a vision of Saint Peter. Agatha was tortured yet again, and this time her body was grossly mutilated.

She died with this prayer on her lips: "Lord, my Creator, you have always protected me from the cradle; you have taken me from the love of the world and given me patience to suffer.”

About a year after her death, Agatha was attributed with calming a volcanic eruption, and is revered as a protector against fires.