Faithful Unto Death: The Witness of St. Agnes
In the letter to the church in Smyrna in Revelation 2, Jesus predicts that some of them will be put to death for their faith. And then he assures them, Revelation 2:10,
“Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.”
I would like to introduce you to a 12-year-old girl named Agnes. She is called Saint Agnes in church tradition and she is one of those who was faithful unto death, a martyr who confessed Jesus and was executed because of it.
As with many of the martyr stories, it comes from what is called the “Great Persecution” around the year 304 AD. The Roman Emperor Diocletian was afraid of the rising Christian population and sought to unify the Roman Empire after a series of coups and assassinations.
He decided to close churches, arrest church leaders, and to test the loyalty of prominent Romans by making them offer a sacrifice to the gods or else face deadly consequences.
Among those brought to trial in Rome during the persecution was a 12-year-old girl named Agnes. She came from a Christian family and was probably denounced because she refused to marry the son of a Roman official (Roman women were married very young).
We know about Agnes from a sermon preached by Ambrose, bishop of Milan and mentor to Augustine. He preached on this day, January 21, in the year 377 AD. That was 75 years after Agnes was martyred. If I retold a story from the 2nd World War, that would be about the same distance in time. Ambrose could have known people who had witnessed this event and so his story has substantial credibility.
Now, Roman Catholic history has added all sorts of colorful stories to Agnes’s death. But we are only concerned with the main event: a 12-year old girl stood before a Roman official and confessed her faith in Jesus. After refusing an offer of marriage and hearing dire threats to her life, she clung to Christ. According to Ambrose she said,
“He who chose me first for Himself shall receive me. Why are you delaying, executioner? Let this body perish…” (Ambrose, 2.9)
Ambrose continues in the high classical style of preaching in that day:
“A new kind of martyrdom! Not yet of fit age for punishment but already ripe for victory…she filled the office of teaching valour while having the disadvantage of youth….All wept, she alone was without a tear.” (Ambrose, “Concerning Virginity” book 1, 2.7-8)
If you see sacred art in a museum or a traditional church, it is easy to spot St. Agnes, because she is always accompanied by a lamb — since the name Agnes is similar to the latin word for Lamb, Agnus.
As testified by the martyrs who were “faithful unto death,” and from strong church tradition about the death of the 12-year-old Agnes, I offer you two exhortations:
First, to children here — you are never too young to testify to Jesus Christ as your Lord, Savior, and treasure. And when you do, especially in the face of opposition, you participate in the victory of Jesus Christ over sin, death, and hell. When you confess that your decisions and actions are motivated by your faith in Jesus, you demonstrate the courage and faith that overcomes the world.
Just think, your confession of Jesus as your Savior has more significance in reality than any of your accomplishments — whether in school, sports, or popularity.
In Lewis’s Screwtape Letters, the demon Screwtape is horrified that their man is spending time with a godly young woman:
“[She is] Not only a Christian but such a Christian…The little brute. She makes me vomit. She stinks and scalds through the very pages of the dossier. It drives me mad, the way the world has worsened. We’d have had her to the arena in the old days. That’s what her sort is made for. Not that she’d do much good there, either. A two-faced little cheat (I know the sort) who looks as if she’d faint at the sight of blood and then dies with a smile…Looks as if butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth and yet has a satirical wit. The sort of creature who’d find ME funny!” (Screwtape, ch. 22).
I don’t know if St. Agnes died with a smile, but she died confessing her Lord. And the demons shuddered.
And to us all, are we raising children whose highest aim is to testify faithfully to their savior, the risen and exalted Jesus Christ?
Such high callings lead us to confess our sins, let’s pray.
Gracious Father, to confess Jesus as Lord is for us to participate in the goal and purpose of the universe. To know you is true life, and to delight in your glory as revealed in Jesus is to know this true life. And yet our hearts are pulled in so many directions. We do that which devalues your name or else we leave undone that which would glorify your name.
Please awaken our hearts to know you and to see your glory more clearly. Show us our weaknesses and sins now, in this time of silent confession…