Agnes of Montepulciano
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Saint Agnes of Montepulciano | |
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Born | c. 1268, Montepulciano in Tuscany |
Died | c. 1317, Montepulciano in Tuscany |
Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
Canonized | 1726 by Benedict XIII |
Feast | 20 April |
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Saint Agnes of Montepulciano (Italian Agnese Segni di Montepulciano) (1268 – 1317) was born into a noble family in Gracciano, a small village near Montepulciano in Tuscany, Italy where, at the age of nine she entered the monastery.
Some four years later the administration of the castle of Proceno, a fief of Orvieto, invited the nuns of Montepulciano to send some of their sisters to Proceno to found a new monastery. In 1288 Agnese, despite her youth, was selected as prioress. There she gained a reputation for performing miracles: people suffering from mental and physical ailments seemed cured by her mere presence and she was reported to have multiplied loaves—recalling the Miracle of the loaves and fishes—on a number of occasions.
Later, probably in 1306, she established a convent of Dominican nuns in Gracciano over which she presided until her death.
It is said that after her death her body remained "incorrupt", rather than decomposing, and that a perfumed liquid flowed from her hands and feet. Raimondo da Capua, confessor to Saint Catherine of Siena, wrote an account of Agnese some fifty years later; Catherine referred to her as ”Our mother, the glorious Agnes”.
She was canonized by Pope Benedict XIII in 1726. Her feast day is April 20.
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.