Agatha was born around 238 AD into a wealthy Sicilian family of noble origins. Quinziano, proconsul of the emperor Decius, arrived in Catania with the intention of enforcing the imperial edict which required Christians to renounce their faith. The suffering was severe but brief and, after floggings, the tearing of the breasts and the torture of hot coals. During the torture, Catania was hit by a strong earthquake and Quinziano was held responsible by the citizens as he was guilty of having tortured the servant of God. Frightened by the earthquake and the riot of the people, Quinziano, after having ordered the torture to be interrupted and to accompany Agata in prison, he escapes from a secondary door of the Praetorium. The young woman, taken in agony to her cell, died on 5 February 251 while Quinziano, directed towards the house of his family with the aim of arresting them and seizing their assets, was thrown off his horse by the runaway horses while crossing the Simeto river, dying by drowning.
Quinziano fell in love with the young deaconess and after unsuccessfully ordering her to repudiate her religion, he tried to re-educate her through the action of the courtesan Afrodisia and her daughters but, in the face of Agata's stubbornness and her determined refusals, he summoned her to the praetorian palace, starting the trial and the consequent persecution . ( P aolo Gismondi, Sant'Agata nel lupanare di Afrodisia – 1636 – Fresco in the church of Sant'Agata dei Goti - Rome)
The suffering was severe but brief and, after floggings, the tearing of the breasts and the torture of hot coals. During the torture, Catania was hit by a strong earthquake and Quinziano was held responsible by the citizens as he was guilty of having tortured the servant of God.
( Giambattista Tiepolo, The Martyrdom of Saint Agatha – circa 1755 – Berlin Staatliche Museen )
Frightened by the earthquake and the popular uprising, Quinziano, after having ordered the torture to be stopped and Agata accompanied to prison, escapes from a secondary door of the Praetorium. The young woman, taken in agony to her cell, died on 5 February 251 while Quinziano, directed towards the house of his family with the aim of arresting them and seizing their assets, was thrown off his horse by the runaway horses while crossing the Simeto river, dying by drowning.
Related topic:
- Agatha, noble and holy
- Catania and the veneration of Saint Agatha
- Saint Agatha, the origins of the festival.
- The relics of the Saint
- The Vara
- The candlesticks
- The habit
- The sack
- The offering of wax
- Agatha's treasure
- The sweets
