The life of St Agatha of Palermo in Sicily
During the persecution under the emperor Decius, the prefect Quintianus, who had heard of Agatha's wealth and beauty, had her brought to Catania and housed for a time with a woman who had five daughters, hoping they would draw her into worldly pleasure and turn her from Christ. She would not be moved, and prayed instead that she might be found worthy of martyrdom.
Brought before Quintianus and pressed to renounce her faith and sacrifice to the pagan gods, Agatha held firm, and was subjected to cruel torments, remembered above all in the mutilation of her breasts, from which later devotion took her most familiar image. Orthodox tradition holds that the Apostle Peter appeared to her in prison and healed her, so that when she was brought out for further torment, Quintianus found her whole and unmarked. An earthquake is said to have struck the city during her renewed suffering, killing some of his officials and driving the frightened people to demand an end to her torment. Quintianus sent her back to her cell, where she gave thanks to God and died in peace. The fact of Agatha's martyrdom and the antiquity of her veneration are attested from the earliest centuries of the Church, though the vivid narrative details that later grew up around her story cannot be confirmed as history beyond that ancient core. She remains one of the most honored virgin martyrs of the early Church, kept with particular devotion in Sicily each February.
