Los Angeles herald., 1906-01-22
EyTOLS VIRTUE
OF ST. AGNES
BISHOP SPEAKS AT CORNER
STONE SERVICES
Defylng Pagans and defending Honor
With Her Life, Young Saint Is
Pointed to as Type Of
Martyr

corner stone OI Ine new OF. AkutS
church, Adams street and Vermont
avenue was lain yesterday afternoon.
1t being the feast day Of the parish.
solemn mass was celebrated at 10;30
O'Clock at which Rev. j. ]. Clifford was
celebrant; Rev. E. Heffernan, deacon;
Rev. S. +. Cain. sub deacon. and Rev.
j. A. Reardon, master OF ceremonies.
Bishop Conaty was attended by Rev.
Edward Lunney, O. f. NJ, as arch
priest, and Revs. John Conlon and j. S.
Laubacher as deacons of honor.
The small chapel adjoining the
new church was elaborately deco
rated, red carnations being used
on the side altars, while tall
Easter lilies graced the main altar.
A special musical program was rem
dered by the choir. with orchestral ac-
compartment. The soloists were Misses
Mary Orth, Katherine McGinn, Messrs.
Joseph Harasta and Robert Tatum.
Miss Hortense Childs sang hymn to
st. Agnes. as offertory. Miss Edith
McGinn presided at the organ.
Bishop breaches
Bishop Conaty preached an eloquent
sermon on the life of the titular saint.
He said:
To-day we lay the corner stone for
the new church of this parish and we
lay it in the faith of Jesus Christ and
under the patronage of st. Agnes. The
story of this virgin girl is one of the
most beautiful in the annals of the
saints The fame of her courage and
constancy has filled the church with
sweetest fragrance. Thirteen years of
age and a martyr, the idol of woman
hood, the pride of all who love virtue,
the honor and glory of the church.
Young girl that she was. her cour-
age was that of lion. The supreme
act of the human heart is the sacrifice
of life. To maintain virtue even at
this sacrifice is the test of the strength
of virtue. st. Agnes the Roman girl,
loved God with all the intensity of her
young life. Her love for Jesus Christ
filled her with joy and gave her the
strength by which she made her double
martyrdom, for as you know, the anger
of the prefect forced her first to the
defense of her purity and secondly to
the defense of her faith. The love
which the son of the prefect had formed
for her led him to seek her in marriage.
Gifts were lavished upon her only to
be scorned; promises of all that which
the world would admire were made to
her relatives, but to all his advances
and his promises Agnes had but one
answer.
Vowed to vrginity
"Her young soul was vowed to vir-
ginity and her life was consecrated TO
the love of Jesus Christ. The prefect
then pleaded the cause of his son, but
to the prefect as well as to the son,
Agnes made the same answer. Accused
of being a Christian and then of being
bewitched, Agnes was summoned before
the tribunal. Pleadings and threats
were equally unsuccessful. The splen-
did defense of her faith against the
ribaldry of the prefect is an evidence
nf f11n I'm lodi Ghn
"The threat to confine her in a house
of evil repute did not shake her firm
ness, for she warned the prefect that
an angel of God would guard her and
that a wall of defense would be built
up around and about her. Agnes was
cast into this den of infamy which be-
came sacred by the miracle performed
in bringing to life the son of the pre-
feet whom the angel of God had
stricken down as he attempted to enter.
when in Rome l visited this small
church of st. Agnes which rises above
the room in which the tyrant had
placed her. L stood in the presence of
the spot where God protected the pur-
ity of his child and manifested his
power.
THE raising to life of the prefect's S
son was heralded by the priests of the
temples as witchcraft. Agnes was SEN
fenced to be burned to death, but the
flames seemed not to touch her. In
the madness OF the moment the execu-
toner was instructed to plunge the
sword into her throat and Agnes, the
Christian virgin, became a Christian
martyr.
Church on Her Grave
Her body was tenderly carried to
the catacombS which bear her name
and over her resting place stands the
beautiful church of st. Agnes outside
the walls.
"St. John Chrysostom, speaking of
the difference between the martyrdom
of men and women, says that while
men had their faith attacked, women
had not only their faith, but their virtue
assailed. The purity of the lives of
the Christian virgins shone forth in
the countenance. Their beauty at
tracted the sensuous affections of the
pagans. Roman emperorS and projects
were at the same time lovers and ty-
rants, the beauty of the woman at
tracted to sensual love, the refusal Of
the woman changed that love to hate
and from ardent lovers the tyrants
became bitter prosecutors.
What a field of study opens to us
from those days of Agnes Poverty
and misery among the poor. wealth
and luxury among the rich; extremes
of wretchedness among the lower class,
extremes or vice among the highest,
and all this at a time when pagan Rome
seemed at the very acme of her power
Victim of Man
Woman was n degraded being, the
toy and plaything of mans passions
Riches and pleasures had corrupted the
lives of men and depraved and de-
based the lives of women. The games
of the amphitheater and the sports of
the circus made her without compassion
and tenderness, but redemption was at
hand and the protest even of a girl
of thirteen against the falsity Of pagan
ism and the wickedness of pagan lives
was the trumpet note that was to
cause their walls to fall and their
Jericho to surrender to the new power
which came from Bethlehem and CAL
vary
1.-THE need OF our age is valiant wom-
ell who dare to defy the abuses Of So
clety and its tyrannies and remain true
TO Christ and to virtue. Women who
are proud to profess religion. who love
the sacraments, who love truth, who
love the family. We need women with
a heart like Agnes filled with a love
q. 10 Co.