
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Martyrdom of Sant’Agata, Berlin, Gemäldegalerie
The oldest source on the martyrdom of the young Catania Agate, which in Greek meant good, it is the Passiowhich dates back to the second half of the fifth century (of which there are two Greek variations and one Latin that substantially coincide).
Being a literary edifying text, it presents historical data that must be read with caution, but which agree on the time of death that would have occurred on February 5, 251, during the persecution of Decio, a date that can be accepted.
Agata, raised in an illustrious and rich family, soon felt the desire to give himself totally to Christ: which did at about 15 years.
In the early days of Christianity, the consecrated virgins, with their choice of life, represented a different example within a paying world and in defeat.
The bishop of the city, in the ceremony of the veiledimposed the flammeumred veil brought by consecrated virgins; According to some, it was likely that Agata was already 21 years old, in fact it is represented with white tunic and the Red Pallium (for example in the mosaic of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna of the 6th century is depicted with the long tunic, Dalmatian and shoulder stole) signs) of the Diagonessa, that is, of a woman with an active role in the Christian community, with the task, among others, to instruct the new followers.
In the year between 250 and 251 the Proconsole Quinziano had come to Catania – flourishing city located in an excellent geographical position, with a large port, which constituted a lively point of commercial and cultural exchange of the entire Mediterranean – also to do respect the imperial edict who asked all Christians the public abjuration of their faith.
Fascinated by Agata who was able to be a consecrated one, he ordered her to worship the pagans. At his dry refusal, the proconsul entrusted it for a month to the courtesan aphrodisia (perhaps a priestess of pagan rites that included sacred prostitution) with the aim of corrupt it.
Failed any attempt at corruption, Quinziano started a trial against agate, of which the dialogues between the proconsul and the saint refer, which reflect the feelings and language of Christians, and from which it is understood that the young woman was buddy in dialectic and rhetoric.
The passage where Agata is suggestive, to the question about his family, he replies that he is free and noble by birth; Then the magistrate asks them because he leads a life as a slave, the young woman replies: “The supreme nobility consists in being slaves of Christ”. Translated into prison she was subjected to torture that culminated with the tear of a breast.
On the same night he was visited by St. Peter who reassured her and heard her wounds. ADIATE Quinziano, whose passion for Agata had turned in hatred, made her naked on cocci of burning vases and carbon: suddenly there was an earthquake and the place where the torture occurred, buried the executioners, collapsed. Finally he was subjected to the torture of burning coal. At this point, according to tradition, while the fire burned her meats, it did not burn the veil she brought; For this reason “The veil of Sant’Agata” immediately became one of the most precious relics.
While the city was in panic Agata Spirava, in the presence of many witnesses, in his cell praying and thanking God for preserving his virginity. The faithful collected their remains and with great honor they placed them in a new sepulcher.

The intervention of Agata saved Catania from the lava of Etna
On the first anniversary of the death of Agata, a violent eruption of Etna threatened to bury Catania: in memory and admiration for the martyr the Catania, including the pagans, took the veil deposited on the sepulcher and used it as a shield against the burning lava: immediately The river of fire stopped. From this episode the extraordinary cult dedicated to them by the city of Catania develops, of which he is patronage. The use of opposing the lava the miraculous veil has continued over time. Still in 1886 the veil stopped the lava at the Borgo Nicolosi, located on the slopes of the volcano, which was spared from destruction.
Agata was first buried in the suburb of Hybla Maior. In 1040 his body was stolen and brought to Constantinople, but in 1126 two soldiers of the imperial court, the Provencal Gilberto and the Apulian Goselmo, to whom the saint had appeared, brought him back to Catania with a ship that landed on the night of August 7 In a place called Ognina. All the people of Catania, woke up, noticed to honor their patron: On August 17 the relics returned to the Duomo, where they are kept in nine relics.
The cult of Agata, widespread also in the East, occurs several times in the Geronimian martyrology and its name was included in the canon of the Roman Mass, perhaps at the behest of Gregory the Great (for which it is venerated with mandatory memory even today) and in the Ambrosian one e Ravenna.
TO Naples His cult is meant by a fresco of the fourth century in the catacomb of San Gennaro. TO Rome Pope Simmaco, at the beginning of the 6th century, named her a basilica on the Aurelia and Gregorio Magno reports in his writings that he has reopened a basilica to the Catholic worship erected in Trastevere by the patrician Retimero for the Aryans, introducing the relics of the saints Agata and Sebastiano .
The cult was widely widespread in northern Italy: in the thirteenth century the Diocese of Milan It counted 26 churches to her entitled. The veneration for the martyr is scattered all over the world. Agata protects 44 Italian municipalities, of which 14 bear their name. He is compatroned with Malta with Saint Paul, as well as of the Republic of San Marino. The veneration of Agata in Spain is very widespread, and therefore in Latin America.
In Barcelona, the chapel of the Royal Palace is named after Agata where the Catholic kings, Isabella and Ferdinando, received Christopher Columbus on his first return from America, and near Segovia There is the curious tradition that women who even elect a mayor, while men hurry up household chores, even command.
Sant’Agata was invoked against the fires, and since when they burst, the bells was used in hammer, the habit of affecting his name on these, together with that of the Madonna and other protectors. For this reason, the Campania manufacturers placed themselves under the protection of Agata. In relation to the torture that he snatched her breasts, the Saint of Catania was very invoked by mothers for breastfeeding and consequently by the bales.
Catania reserves to her patron saint, from 3 to 5 February, grandiose celebrations, where the devotional element mixes with the folkloric one.
The city is crossed by a solemn and imposing procession, in which the silver fercolo called “to Vara” is brought, Inside which the relics of the Saint are kept, accompanied by eleven huge candlesticks, called “canal”, imaginative vertical wooden sculptures with compartments where the salient episodes of the life of the Saint are carved, each belonging to the corporations of the city craftsmen.
Considered among the three main Catholic holidays worldwide by turnout, the feast of Sant’Agata was included in the system of the assets of the Val di Noto declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO: In fact, these celebrations are considered an intangible asset of ethno -anthropological type.

The procession of the relics of Sant’Agata which takes place in Catania
The dispute of the relics between Galatina and Gallipoli
Among all the Italian cities of which Sant’Agata is compatroned, Gallipoli (Diocese of Nardò-Gallipoli) and Galatina (Archdiocese of Otranto), in Puglia, are involved in a singular dispute that features a relic of Sant’Agata as protagonist, the breast.
A legend widespread in Puglia would explain with a miracle the presence of the relic to Gallipoli. It is said that on August 8, 1126 Sant’Agata appeared in a dream to a woman who had fallen asleep after washing the role on the beach of Purmity in Gallipoli and warned her that her baby tightened something among the lips: it was the breast of the Holy.
The woman woke up and confirmed it, but could not convince him to open his mouth. He tried for a long time: then, in the grip of despair, he turned to the bishop, who quickly came to the beach together with other ecclesiastics. The prelate recited a litany invoking all the saints, and only when he pronounced the name of Agata did the child opened his mouth. From it a breast came out, evidently that of Sant’Agata.
The relic remained to Gallipoli, in the basilica basilica of Sant’Agata, from 1126 to 1389, when Prince Orsini del Balzo transferred it to Galatina, where he built the church of Santa Caterina d’Alessandria in Egypt, in which he is still kept at a convent of Franciscan friars.
According to Bishop Gallipolino Montoya de Cardona, the relic was stealthily stolen by the inhabitants of Galatina “ex Auctor” and was “stealthily stolen and unbeknownst to the Gallipolitana University”. There have been numerous attempts of the Gallipolini to bring back the relic in the Co -Cathedral of Sant’Agata, starting with Bishop Gaetano Muller, who wrote a letters to the Cardinal Prefect of the time, up to Achille Starace, secretary of the Fascist National Party.