Description
St Agnes of Montepulciano healing oil
The St Agnes of Montepulciano healing oil is dedicated to the 13th century Italian saint. She was a Dominican prioress in medieval Tuscany. Agnes was known as a miracle worker during her lifetime. She is honored as a saint by the Catholic Church.
Agnes was born in 1268 into the noble Segni family in Montepulciano, then part of the Papal States. At the age of nine, she convinced her parents to allow her to enter a Franciscan monastery of women. They were known as the “Sisters of the Sack”. This was because of the rough religious habit they wore. They lived a simple, contemplative life. She received the permission of the pope to be accepted into this life at such a young age.
In 1281, the lord of the castle of Proceno, invited the nuns of Montepulciano to send some of their Sisters to Proceno to found a new monastery. Agnes was among the nuns sent to found this new community. At the age of fourteen, she was appointed bursar.
Agnes becomes Abbess
Agnes was noted for her devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and deep life of prayer. In 1288 Agnes, despite her youth at only 20 years of age, she was elected as the abbess of the community. There she gained a reputation for performing miracles. People suffering from mental and physical ailments seemed cured by her presence. She was reported to have “multiplied loaves”, creating many from a few on numerous occasions. These events recalled the Gospel miracle of the loaves and fishes. She herself, however, suffered severe bouts of illness which lasted long periods of time.
In 1306 Agnes was recalled to head the monastery in Montepulciano. Agnes reached a high degree of contemplative prayer and is said to have been favored with many visions. After her return, she proceeded to build a church, Santa Maria Novella in Florence. It was to honor the Blessed Mother, as she felt she had been commanded to do in a mystical vision several years earlier. She also had a vision of St. Dominic Guzman, under the inspiration of which she led the nuns of her monastery to embrace the Rule of St. Augustine as members of the Dominican Order. She was frequently called upon to bring peace to the warring families of the city.
Agnes’s death
By 1316, Agnes’ health had declined so greatly that her doctor suggested taking the cure at the thermal springs in the neighboring town of Chianciano Terme. The nuns of the community prevailed upon her to take his recommendation. While many of the other bathers reported being cured of their illnesses, Agnes herself received no benefit from the springs. Her health failed to such a degree that she had to be carried back to the monastery on a stretcher.
Agnes died the following 20 April, at the age of forty-nine. The Dominican friars attempted to obtain balsam (or myrrh) to embalm her body. It was found, however, to be producing a sweet odor on its own, and her limbs remained supple.
When her body was moved years after her death to the monastery church, it was found to be incorrupt. Her tomb became the site of pilgrimages.
Some fifty years later, a Dominican friar, the Blessed Raymond of Capua, who served as confessor to St. Catherine of Siena, wrote an account of Agnes’ life. He described her body as still appearing as if she were alive. Catherine herself referred to her as “Our mother, the glorious Agnes”.[ Catherine made a pilgrimage to Montepulciano while visiting her niece, Eugenie, who was a nun there.
Agnes was canonized by Pope Benedict XIII in 1726. Her feast day is celebrated within the Dominican Order on 20 April.
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