Cardinal Parolin praises the enduring witness of St. Agatha’s immense faith while in Sicily as papal legate for the celebrations marking the 900th anniversary of the translation of the martyr’s relics.
By Tiziana Campisi
“The strength of Saint Agatha sprang from her “communion with Christ. For this reason, she did not allow herself to be overcome by violence, threats or promises of power.”
Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, made this point during a prayer vigil he presided over Sunday evening, 16 August, in Aci Castello, Sicily, commemorating the return of the martyr’s relics to Catania 900 years ago.
The saint’s mortal remains, after she had been tortured and killed while still a teenager in the third century for refusing to renounce her faith during the anti-Christian persecutions unleashed by the Roman Emperor Decius, had been taken to Constantinople by the Byzantines in the 11th century during a campaign against the Saracens.
Eighty-six years later, they were brought back to Sicily. After arriving in Aci Castello following a brief stop in Puglia, the relics were carried in procession to Catania on 17 August 1126.
An example of fidelity to Christ
Pope Leo XIV appointed Cardinal Parolin as the papal legate for the celebrations of the 900th anniversary of the event in Catania.
In his homily, he emphasized that “after so many centuries, Agatha’s witness continues to speak to the Church,” which in her celebrates “the fruitfulness of a life, fruitful because it remained always united to God.”
“For those who put down their roots in the Lord can pass through even the most difficult trials without losing hope and can continue to bear fruit,” he said.
In his letter to the Cardinal, Pope Leo XIV likewise highlighted that “in the martyrdom of Saint Agatha, an illustrious example of fidelity to Christ and of love expressed through the complete gift of self, the ecclesial community contemplates the victory of grace over violence, of faith over fear and of charity over death.”
Faith does not eliminate trials but gives us strength
Reflecting on Psalm 1, which was proclaimed during the vigil, the Cardinal Secretary of State focused on Verse 6: “The Lord watches over the way of the righteous.” He explained that the righteous person is not “spared from suffering,” as Saint Agatha’s story demonstrates.
“Faith does not eliminate trials, but it gives us a new presence and a new strength with which to face them,” the Cardinal said.
“The Lord,” he reassured, “knows the path of His children, accompanies their steps and transforms even their wounds into places of grace.”
The Word of God: the path that leads to freedom
Continuing his reflection on Psalm 1, Cardinal Parolin explained that a struggle “runs through the life of every person: on the one hand, the voice of God, which leads to life; on the other, the many voices that risk drawing us away from Him.”
These voices, he stated, represent “evil,” which “often does not come through dramatic acts, but through small steps”—through “habits that gradually change our hearts and our way of thinking.”
In this way, “we become accustomed to living without God, as though God were not necessary. This is the condition of many of our contemporaries. There is no longer a concern to deny God, but rather to live as if God did not exist,” the Cardinal observed.
Finding our joy in the Lord’s Word
He observed that they live their lives “organized as if He had not spoken to us, as if He had not come to meet us, as if He had not shown us the path to happiness.”
By contrast, the person “who finds his joy in the law of the Lord,” he marveled, is “the person who knows where to draw the source of his life”; he is “the righteous person.”
For such a person, “the Word of God is not a burden, but a source; it is not a limitation on freedom, but the path that leads to true freedom.”
By meditating on it, the Cardinal continued, “Scripture becomes a mirror in which we recognize our own lives and a voice” that prompts us to ask: “What path am I following? What words are guiding my heart? Where am I seeking my happiness?”
Being rooted in God like Saint Agatha
The righteous person, Cardinal Parolin noted, is compared in Psalm 1 to “a tree planted beside streams of water.” Such a person bears fruit “because he has deep roots” that “reach a source of water.” From that source, he draws “strength” and therefore, in the face of adversity, “remains alive.”
Thus, he reflected that Saint Agatha is an example of “a life rooted” in God—a life that “does not wither, but continues to bear fruits of hope over time.”
The Cardinal concluded by inviting the faithful “to remain steadfast in the Lord” and to ask Him “to make us men and women with deep roots, capable of not being swept away by the winds of fear, fashions and illusions, but of finding in the Word of the Lord the source of our lives.”
The Pontifical celebration
The relics of Saint Agatha, brought to Aci Castello in the late afternoon on Sunday and displayed in Piazza Castello, are available for veneration in the Mother Church until Monday morning, after which they will return to Catania.
There, at 8 p.m., the relics will be placed in Piazza Duomo for the Pontifical Mass presided over by Cardinal Parolin, with the granting of the Jubilee indulgence and the Papal Blessing.
The Archbishops and Bishops of Sicily will participate, together with the Archbishop of Otranto and the Bishop of Nardò-Gallipoli, in whose dioceses tradition holds that the Saint’s relics passed, as well as the Bishop of the Diocese of San Marino-Montefeltro, where the Sicilian martyr is venerated as co-patroness.
