There is a lovely post at Vultus Christi to which I direct your attention.
This is how it begins:
The wintertime liturgy sparkles with a constellation of virgin martyrs and holy women. The Roman Canon enshrines their names: Felicity, Perpetua, Agatha, Lucy, Agnes, Cecilia and Anastasia. In the darkest months of the year, they shine like so many little flames taken from the Paschal Candle in the great and holy night of the Resurrection. Today, we fix our gaze on Agnes.
If I Love Him
The Office of Saint Agnes is one of the most beautiful in the Roman Liturgy. It expresses all the sentiments of the little virgin martyr’s pure and passionate heart. “Christ is my Lover,” she sings in the Third Responsory at Matins, “and I am entering with Him into the marriage-chamber. . . . The instruments of His music sound sweetly in my ears. If I love Him I shall be chaste; if I touch Him I shall be clean; if I embrace Him I shall be a virgin indeed.”
[…]
See the rest there.
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Thank you Father. She is my Confirmation saint and unlike so many of the kids in my 5th grade class who had to be told by an adult what name to choose, I knew instantly upon reading through a Book of Saints my mother and Dad had given me in 4th grade that I would choose Agnes or (I prefer the Italian) Agnese.
A saint of purity and chastity and courage. How interesting her Feast Day immediately precedes the anniversary of Roe v. Wade which is all about the cowardly and unchaste. Truly a saint our poor girls need to know about. Instead our society teaches them about Gardasil and putting a condom on a banana.
Thank you, Father Z, for these beautiful posts about dear Saint Agnes. Our daughter chose Saint Agnes last year as her Patron/Confirmation Saint. What a joy for our family!
Very similar in prose to the Song of Songs. Beautiful!