Lives and legends of the great hermits and fathers of the church, with other contemporary saints . re praying at her tomb, St. Agnes appeared tothem with a lamb of snowy whiteness by her side, and said : Weep not, but rejoice with exceeding joy: for me a throneis prepared by the side of Him whom on earth I preferred toall others, and to whom I am united for ever in heaven. Onaccount of this vision, or because her name signifies lamb, thechief attribute in art of St. Agnes is a lamb, and it becamecustomary in Rome to offer at her altar on her fSte-day,January 21, a lamb, which was afterwards pr
Lives and legends of the great hermits and fathers of the church, with other contemporary saints . re praying at her tomb, St. Agnes appeared tothem with a lamb of snowy whiteness by her side, and said : Weep not, but rejoice with exceeding joy: for me a throneis prepared by the side of Him whom on earth I preferred toall others, and to whom I am united for ever in heaven. Onaccount of this vision, or because her name signifies lamb, thechief attribute in art of St. Agnes is a lamb, and it becamecustomary in Rome to offer at her altar on her fSte-day,January 21, a lamb, which was afterwards presented to thePope. The ceremony of the blessing of the lambs still takesplace on that day in S. Agnese fuori le Mura, and in theMonastery of the same name is kept a special breed of sheep,from the wool of which the archiepiscopal pallia are girls invoke St. Agnes to insure the faithfulness of theirlovers, and think that if they are betrothed on her ffete-day allwill go well with them. She is also supposed, though why isnot known, to protect her votaries from all perils of the sea,. Alinari phofo\ [Duomo, Pisa ST. AGNESBy Andrea del Sarto To face p. 84 ST. AGNES 85 and she is one of the chosen patrons of the Order of Trini-tarians, founded in her native city in the twelfth century for therescue of Christians from slavery. St. Agnes was a very favourite Saint with Italian and Spanishpainters, and she is constantly introduced in devotional pictures,either kneeling with a lamb beside her or in her arms, with alily or a palm in one hand and a book in the other, the lastprobably on account of her love of the Holy Scriptures, orbecause her name was early written in the Book of rarely she has a sword in her hand or plunged into herthroat. Sometimes, as in one of Fra Angelicos many Corona-tions of the Virgin, St. Agnes may be recognised by her longhair, covering her as with a garment, and occasionally anangel stands beside her, in allusion to the supernatural aids
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectpainting, bookyear190
