Saturday, February 5, 2011

Saintly Saturday: St. Agatha the Virgin Martyr

Today is the Feast of St. Agatha the Virgin Martyr who was killed brutally in 251 in Catania in Sicily. One of the most widely venerated virgin martyrs in Western Christendom, she is famous for saving the city that killed her. When she finally died after being viciously tortured (accounts include fire and the removal of her breasts) an angel placed a stone on her grave with this prophecy:
A righteous mind, self-determining, honor from God, the deliverance of her father-land.
This was fulfilled when, through her prayers, Catania was spared from a violent eruption of the volcano Mt. Etna.

This week I have been trying to put together a (bad) illustration of what this might look like in a fantasy version of Catania, where a wave of lava is held back by prayer and now stands as a stone wall that reminds everyone of the miracle that saved the city:


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