| Saint Agatha, is a famous saint of Sicily, proclaimed the | | | | found guilty. |
| patron saint of Catania. The story of her life and | | | | This would ultimately cause the little teenager a major |
| martyrdom has been passed down through the | | | | problem with one of the officials of the city whose |
| centuries, through one occupation after the other, just | | | | ardor suppressed any sense of decency he might |
| as the Faith has survived, from one generation to the | | | | have possessed. He insisted she should love him |
| next, her story on the lips of the natives of this city. | | | | above anyone, and be demonstrative in her love for |
| Her short life ended cruelly in 251. She is one of the | | | | him, in such a way that she would prove to him that he |
| most well-documented Martyrs in the history of the | | | | was more important than this Christian God whom she |
| Church, despite the persecution by Diocletian, the Arab | | | | embraced. |
| invasion, and the suppression of the Christian faith in | | | | It is reported Saint Agatha was born in 231 to a very |
| Sicily. | | | | well-to-do family, from the upper class of Catania. As |
| Saint Agatha and Saint Lucy, another Sicilian Saint and | | | | the Greeks inhabited Sicily at that time, her parents |
| Martyr are on the Martyrology calendar. And if you | | | | named her Agatha, which in Greek, means GOOD. |
| consider the Renaissance period, with all the influences | | | | She was not only from birth, a good girl, she was a |
| of secularism, it's a miracle that the people were able | | | | beautiful girl. Her parents had a premonition of Agatha's |
| to maintain their faith and devotion to the little heroic | | | | sanctity from her earliest years. Her radiant piety was |
| virgin and martyr. | | | | enriched by her parents Rao and Appola and their |
| Agatha's story is very simple; she loved Our Lord | | | | profound Christian faith, who early on made sure that |
| Jesus with all her heart and all her life, and was willing | | | | this special child was baptized, received First Holy |
| to give up her life for that love. Her love for Jesus | | | | Communion, and was confirmed, as well as giving their |
| began at a very early age. She could very well have | | | | consent to her being consecrated as a Virgin to God |
| been accused of loving Jesus more than any one or | | | | at an early age. |
| anything on earth, to which she would have been | | | | |