I don’t imagine anybody thought we took the identify for our daughter, Agnes, from the then-recently launched Despicable Me, however it usually produced dialog. Amongst midwesterners, she inevitably hears, “Oh, I had a grandmother” — or great-grandmother — “named Agnes.” However few understand that the identify has a particular Christian heritage, starting with the early martyr Agnes of Rome.
In naming our daughter after a martyr, we have been looking for to form our (and her) creativeness in regards to the excellent Christian life. Agnes of Rome’s story, transient as it’s, reminds us that gladly confessing Jesus as Lord and acknowledging our identification in Christ are crucial issues about us. The martyr second brings the great issues of this earth into everlasting perspective. Agnes exhibits the ability of Jesus’s promise to the church in Smyrna — “Be devoted unto demise, and I offers you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:10) — and asks if we actually imagine it.
Pure Lamb
Early authors usually remarked that Agnes’s life matched her identify. Agnes conveys a double which means associated to the Greek phrase for “pure” (hagne) and the Latin phrase for “lamb” (agnus). In Christian artwork, she is at all times depicted with a lamb, which makes her simple to identify in an previous church or an artwork museum. She exemplifies a younger single lady who died for her Christian religion.
As with many martyr tales, Agnes’s demise seemingly occurred in the course of the “Nice Persecution” round AD 304. The Roman emperor Diocletian feared the rising Christian inhabitants and sought to unify the empire after a sequence of insurrections and rebellions. He closed church buildings, arrested church leaders, and examined the loyalty of distinguished Romans by making them supply a sacrifice to the gods or else face lethal penalties.
Amongst these dropped at trial in Rome in the course of the persecution was a twelve-year-old lady (or probably 13) named Agnes. She got here from a Christian household and was most likely denounced as a result of she refused to marry the son of a Roman official.
‘New Sort of Martyrdom’
We all know Agnes from two texts within the late fourth century. The primary is an inscription, which nonetheless exists, in a church honoring Agnes in Rome. Damasus, bishop of Rome (AD 366–384), feedback on her braveness amid the degrading humiliation of being uncovered earlier than the gang: “Although of so little power she checked her excessive worry, and lined her bare members along with her plentiful hair lest mortal eye would possibly see the temple of the Lord.” Damasus emphasizes each her vulnerability and her steadfast conviction, certainly willingness, to die for Jesus.
The second witness is Ambrose (c. AD 339–397), bishop of Milan and mentor to Augustine. He delivered an deal with on January 21, 377, which he notes is Agnes’s “birthday” (her martyrdom day). If she died in AD 304, Ambrose was retelling the story 73 years after the very fact, roughly our distance from the Second World Warfare. He might have identified individuals who had witnessed the occasion, so his story has substantial credibility.
“An adolescent isn’t too younger to testify to Jesus Christ as Lord, Savior, and Treasure.”
In response to Ambrose, after refusing a proposal of marriage, Agnes stated, “He who selected me first for Himself shall obtain me. Why are you delaying, executioner? Let this physique perish” (“Regarding Virgins,” 1.2.9). Ambrose praises her within the excessive classical fashion of preaching in that day: “She was fearless below the merciless fingers of the executioners, she was unmoved by the heavy weight of the creaking chains, providing her entire physique to the sword of the raging soldier, as but unaware of demise, however prepared for it” (1.2.7).
He marvels that one so younger would die:
A brand new type of martyrdom! Not but of match age for punishment however already ripe for victory . . . she stuffed the workplace of instructing valor whereas having the drawback of youth. . . . All wept, she alone was with no tear. (1.2.8)
In devotion past her age, in advantage above nature, she appears to me to have borne not a lot a human identify, as a token of martyrdom, whereby she confirmed what she was to be. (1.2.5)
That’s, the double which means of her identify confirmed her to be a lamblike sacrifice and a pure virgin. She understood herself to be espoused to Jesus and so denied the declare of a human suitor.
Hagiography
One problem in appropriating Agnes for immediately is that medieval Roman Catholic writers added substantial particulars to her story. As an example, The Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine (1275) data that the Roman prefect despatched her to a brothel to be abused since she refused to recant and be married. God protected her in order that when the prefect’s son approached her, he was struck useless. However Agnes prayed for the younger man, and he instantly recovered. When she was sentenced to demise within the fireplace, the flames parted in order that she was unharmed. After failing to kill her on this means, the officers executed her with a sword.
That is hagiography, an expanded account of martyrdom that mixes a historic core with further (usually invented) particulars to focus on the martyr’s heroism. We will see the place the medieval authors creatively embellished Agnes’s story. Whereas the motive could also be commendable, we must be content material with the less complicated accounts by Ambrose and Damasus, even when the small print are usually not so vivid.
However what in regards to the emphasis in all these sources on virginity? Agnes’s dedication to Christ was examined due to the advances of a non-Christian man looking for a spouse. We have no idea whether or not she refused marriage in precept or solely refused to be married to an unbeliever. Both means, whereas we immediately could also be hesitant to affirm the principled denial of marriage, you will need to see that the early church rejoiced within the newfound freedom of a sacred singleness exemplified by Jesus and Paul. To early church authors similar to Ambrose, the refusal of marriage on this world pointed strongly to 1’s belonging to Jesus Christ.
No matter Agnes’s precise motivation, we are able to agree with Ambrose that she refused the earthly good of marriage and accepted demise (the top of all potentialities for good issues on this earth) as a result of she belonged to Jesus Christ. Regardless of the legendary sides added to this story, the principle occasion continues to attract our consideration: a twelve-year-old lady stood earlier than a Roman official and confessed her religion in Jesus.
Not Too Younger to Testify
Ambrose and others marveled at Agnes’s youth. Her story presses dwelling that a teenager isn’t too younger to testify to Jesus Christ as Lord, Savior, and Treasure. And once they achieve this, particularly within the face of opposition, they take part within the victory of Jesus over sin, demise, and hell. When youngsters immediately confess that their choices and actions are motivated by religion in Jesus, they show the braveness and religion that overcomes the world (1 John 5:4–5). A confession of Jesus has extra significance than any accomplishment — whether or not at school, sports activities, or society.
Notice how Ambrose and Damasus remind us of Agnes’s bodily vulnerability as a baby and a girl however then present her indomitable belief in Jesus. When Augustine displays on Agnes, he compares her to Hercules. He overcame the lion and Cerberus the three-headed canine, however “Agnes, a thirteen-year-old lady, overcame the satan” (Sermon 273.6).
C.S. Lewis knew that easy religion possesses nice energy in opposition to Christ’s enemies. The demon Screwtape seethes simply fascinated about a godly younger lady like Agnes:
[She is not] solely a Christian however such a Christian. . . . The little brute. She makes me vomit. She stinks and scalds by the very pages of the file. It drives me mad, the best way the world has worsened. We’d have had her to the sector within the previous days. That’s what her kind is made for. Not that she’d do a lot good there, both. A two-faced little cheat (I do know the type) who appears to be like as if she’d faint on the sight of blood after which dies with a smile. . . . Appears as if butter wouldn’t soften in her mouth and but has a satirical wit. The kind of creature who’d discover ME humorous! (The Screwtape Letters, 117–18)
We have no idea if Agnes died with a smile or laughing on the impotence of the demons, however she did die confessing her Lord. And the demons shuddered.
Elevating Our Youngsters for What?
Lewis’s imaginative description brings Agnes dwelling to us. Are we elevating kids whose highest intention is to testify faithfully to their Savior, the risen and exalted Jesus Christ? Would our daughters die with a smile, use satirical wit in opposition to a demon, and even look into the face of our biggest enemy and snicker as a result of they’re so safe of their religion?
Right here is the place martyr tales are so useful. The image that comes into our minds of a profitable Christian life determines to a substantial extent what our personal Christian life will seem like — and the type of Christian life we’ll maintain earlier than our youngsters. Agnes offers such an image.
There’s contemporary speak immediately about generational affect and secure households. By all means, it’s a blessing to supply your grandchildren with a practice of laborious work and respect for household continuity. However this need can so simply develop into a temptation to intention primarily at wealth, affect, and property. The martyrs, then again, remind us that, no matter we construct on earth, we have to be able to say goodbye to all the things and quit management over our earthly future in a second of witness. Christian dad and mom will do no higher than to hope that they and their kids show the devoted confession of Agnes and the opposite martyrs.
Jesus’s promise in Revelation 2:10 — “Be devoted unto demise, and I offers you the crown of life” — doesn’t apply solely to those that face imminent execution for confessing Jesus as Lord. The language of martyrdom offers a peg, a hook, on which to hold the remainder of our Christian life and the tradition of Christian life we’re creating as a household and church. The transient account of Agnes doesn’t inform us all the things in regards to the Christian life, however it does illustrate the acute state of affairs that ought to anchor our expectations of life on this world.
Augustine concludes with encouragement: “Pray that you simply might be able to observe within the footsteps of the martyrs. It isn’t, in any case, the case that you’re human beings they usually weren’t; not, in any case, the case that you simply have been born, they usually have been born fairly otherwise” (Sermon 273.9). Certainly, Agnes’s story reminds us that every one of God’s individuals can discover the braveness to admit Christ publicly based mostly on a settled conviction that we belong to Jesus.
