Daily Wisdom

“The bread that you store up belongs to the hungry, the cloak that lies in your hest belongs to the naked; the gold that you have hidden in the ground belongs to the poor.”

St. Basil the Great

St. Agnes, virgin and martyr

Today we celebrate one of those ancient martyrs of whom we know more about what happened to their bones than about what happened to their lives. The reason is because they are ancient and very much venerated. Legends were mixed with facts. Today, it is difficult to draw the line clearly between story and history. But we do know that they lived in a period when they were much venerated because on top of martyrdom, they had the merit of virginity added on.

In the Old Testament, to die a virgin was something to lament about, it was as if it meant the wasting of one’s fertility, which the early church frowned upon. The reason is that virginity expresses a kind of martyrdom without death; the martyr gives up his life in a single moment; the virgin gives up her life to God, just as the spouse gives her life to the husband, totally, freely and exclusively. Both exhaust their lives for God. The martyr, in a moment that kills her; the virgin, in her whole life that consecrates her. It is only natural that the early church admired so much those few chosen Christians who were able to enjoy both privileges.