St. Agatha

St. Agatha is one of the most highly venerated virgin martyrs of Christian antiquity.

• Born: 231 AD, Catania, Italy
• Died: Catania, Italy
• Feast: February 5 (251?)
• Buried: Church of the Abbey of Saint Agatha, Catania, Italy
• Patron saint of breast cancer patients

St. Agatha was a young, Sicilian woman and victim of the Decian persecutions circa 251. At the age of 15, she refused marriage to a Roman prefect. St. Agatha was soon arrested and sent to a brothel and then to prison. She was tortured for her faith and had her breasts cut off. St. Agatha was sentenced to be burnt at the stake but an earthquake delayed her sentence. She was sent to prison where St. Peter appeared to her and healed her wounds. St. Agatha eventually died in prison from repeated torture. She is one of seven women to be remembered in the Canon of the Mass and is also patroness of breast cancer patients, rape victims, nurses and bakers. Her incorrupt body lies in a crypt on Malta. (Source: The Lives of the Saints)