Prayer to St. Agatha
Dear St. Agatha, glorious virgin and martyr, you suffered yourself to be reviled and buffeted, to be tortured by rack, fire, and sword in a most ignominious and painful manner; and by this fortitude and heroism you merited to be consoled and gladdened in the midst of your dreadful torments by the sight of your guardian angel and the prince of the apostles: obtain for me, I pray, by your merits and by your intercession with Jesus Christ, your divine Spouse, that I may suffer joyfully every temporal loss, rather than prove unfaithful to my Lord and my God, to Whom I have promised everlasting fealty, both at Baptism and at my first holy communion. Ask for me the grace of perseverance, that I may with thee enjoy the beatific vision and praise God forevermore. Amen.
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Jesu Corona Virginum
Jesu, the Virgins' crown, do thou Accept us as in prayer we bow; Born of that Virgin, whom alone The Mother and the Maid we own.
Amongst the lilies thou dost feed, By Virgin choirs accompanied; With glory decked, the spotless brides Whose bridal gifts thy love provides.
They, wheresoe'er thy footsteps bend, With hymns and praises still attend: In blessed troops they follow thee, With dance, and song, and melody.
We pray Thee therefore to bestow Upon our senses here below Thy grace, that so we may endure From taint of all corruption pure.
To God the Father, God the Son, And God the Spirit, Three in One, Laud, honor, might, and glory be From age to age eternally. Amen
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Hymn to St. Agatha and St. Lucy
One virgin sought another--
The Bright * one sought the Good, **
She pleaded for her mother,
And won the grace she sued.
But why shouldst thou, blest Lucy,
To Agatha resort?
No grace will God refuse thee.
Who owneth all thy heart.
As Catana draws thousands
To Agatha's fair shrine,
So shall the Syracusans
With Lucy's glory shine.
So Lucy to the needy
Divided all she had,
And blithely made her ready
To meet the headsman's blade.
No cruel torment shook her,
Beneath no threat she quailed;
Her courage ne'er forsook her,
By Jesus' self upheld.
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Novena Prayer in Honor of St. Agatha
O Sweetest Lord Jesus Christ, source of all virtues, lover of virgins, most powerful conqueror of demons, most severe extirpator of vice! deign to cast Thine eyes upon my weakness, and through the intercession of Mary most blessed, Mother and Virgin, and of Thy beloved spouse St. Agatha, glorious virgin and martyr, grant me the aid of Thy heavenly grace, in order that I may learn to despise all earthly things, and to love what is heavenly; to oppose vice and to be proof against temptation; to walk firmly in the path of virtue, not to seek honors, to shun pleasures, to bewail my past offenses, to keep far from the occasions of evil, to keep free from bad habits, to seek the company of the good, and persevere in righteousness, so that, by the assistance of Thy grace, I may deserve the crown of eternal life, together with St. Agatha and all the saints, forever and ever, in Thy kingdom. Amen.
(Indulgence 100 days, Pius IX, 1854)
