Sermon for the Feast of St. Agatha 2024
On one of the many tours I organized and led to Italy, we stopped in Padua and visited the shrine church of Saint Anthony. The saint’s body is under the altar in a special chapel to the left of the high altar. But if you go to the area in back of the high altar, there one sees in reliquaries some parts of St. Anthony’s body, namely his larynx and his tongue, preserved in a chemical preservative. I took the group there and pointed out these relics of the saint. The reaction was not positive. Most could not understand why his tongue and larynx were displayed in this way. I pointed out that these two body parts were preserved for display because St. Anthony was known as a great preacher. But they still thought it weird. Many Americans, even those who are good Catholics, breathe the air, especially in the Northeast, that is still imbued with the Puritan negative view of the human body.
Some years ago– more than some, I think– I was in lower Manhattan and walked by a church I had never seen. It was dedicated to St. Anthony of Padua. I walked in and was amazed at the number of statues along the side aisle of the nave. I knew this had to be an Italian church. Everyone was there, including local saints from Italy that meant a lot to those who built this church so many years ago. And many carried or displayed the body parts that were involved in the torture they underwent for the sake of Christ and his Church. I immediately recognized St. Lucy because she was holding her eyes on a plate. Part of her torture was the ripping out of her eyes from her head. There was a statue of St. Lawrence holding the gridiron on which he was tortured. I came to a statue of a woman whom I did not recognize until I saw what she was carrying on her plate with arm outstretched. It was a pair of breasts. Ah, I said to myself, here is St. Agatha, the third century saint from Sicily, who was martyred for her Christian faith after undergoing terrible bodily torture, which included having her breasts chopped off. On her feast day in Sicily special pastries are made called Minne di Sant’Agata. They are in the shape of breasts covered in white frosting and a cherry on top. I doubt if these pastries were available today here in Whole Foods.
St. Agatha, like the other women that are in the Roman Canon at the Mass– Felicity, Perpetua, Agatha, Lucy, Agnes, Cecilia, Anastasia– are all women martyrs who sacrificed their lives because of their faith in Jesus Christ. The Roman Canon used to be the only Eucharistic Prayer in the Mass. Only after 1970 were a number of new Eucharistic Prayers written and included in the Missal. Although the Roman Canon was kept as one of the Eucharistic Prayers, it is not used that often, because it is longer than the rest. And when the Roman Canon is used at Mass, the celebrant has the option of skipping the names of those brave women saints of the early Church.
We remember St. Agatha today at Mass today in thanksgiving for her courage, her example of faith and her imitation of Christ. And we remember her as a part of that remembrance that lies at the very heart of the Mass: Hoc facite in meam coomemorationem: Do this in remembrance of me. St. Agatha, who is present at this Mass, pray for us.
Excursus: Students of papal history may find interesting the dedicatory inscription of the chapel in which the above image of St. Agatha is be found:
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