Quintianus then ordered Agatha to be subjected to a series of taunts and insults, and then ordered her to be tortured. Her executioners, in a fit of insanity, cut off her breasts. A certain hagiography preserves her words in the face of such wickedness: “Cruel tyrant, are you not ashamed to torture in a woman the same breast which fed you as a child?”
Tradition has it that Agatha miraculously survived the horrors and cruelties committed against her, and during the night while she was bleeding to death, St. Peter the apostle appeared to her to heal her wounds and encourage her to remain steadfast.
At dawn, when the guards realized that the woman had recovered, the executioners resumed the tortures and Agatha gave up her life. It was the fifth day of the second month of the year 251.
One year after the martyrdom of St. Agatha, the volcano Etna erupted. The lava that spread along the slopes of the volcano threatened to destroy Catania. Then, some of its inhabitants who remembered the young martyr asked for her intercession to stop the fury of nature.
Miraculously, the sea of burning rock and ash that began to move never reached the city. In gratitude, Catania and other surrounding towns chose Agatha as their patron saint.
Today, devotees of St. Agatha ask her to intercede for women who have complicated childbirths or problems with lactation. She is also invoked by those who suffer from breast ailments. She is considered the protector of women and patron saint of nurses.
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