Saint Agnes
An early virgin martyr.
Agnes was a girl of 12 or 13, who, when proposed with marriage, told her suitor she would only marry Jesus. Upon hearing this — it was the early 4th century — a Roman judge commanded her to be stripped and led naked to a brothel. But as soon as they tore off her clothes, her long hair fell even longer, covering her body on every side. When they got to the brothel, an angel lay waiting, exuding an overwhelming light. In one telling, Saint Ambrose described the scene this way: “All the house shone like the sun in the daytime, and the more intently they tried to look at her, the more their eyes were dazzled.”