Pope: Saint Agatha demonstrates the victory of love over death

Vatican News

“In the martyrdom of Saint Agatha, an illustrious example of fidelity to Christ and of love to the point of full self-offering, the ecclesial community contemplates the victory of grace over violence, of faith over fear, and of charity over death.”

Those were the words of Pope Leo in a letter to Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, who has been appointed Pontifical Legate for the celebrations to be held in Catania, Sicily, on the 9th Centenary of the return of the relics of the martyr Saint Agatha to the city.

Saint Agatha was tortured to death as a teenager for refusing to deny her faith during the anti-Christian persecutions unleashed by the Roman Emperor Decius in the 3rd century.

In his letter, Leo writes that the saint participated in Christ's Passion and shines as a "luminous testimony of the strength that the Lord instils in those who persevere steadfast in temptations and trials."

A ‘living presence’

The Pope writes that the "Santuzza" (Little Saint), as Saint Agatha is called in Catania, therefore remains a "living presence that guards the Christian memory of the people and calls them to evangelical consistency of life, as well as to hope and charity."

Her presence, the Pope emphasies, makes the communion of saints visible and "strengthens in the faithful the awareness that the pilgrim Church on earth is sustained by the intercession and example of those who have already become partakers of heavenly glory."