e give into the hands of the Dear Reader our first novena in honor of St. Agnes. In the liturgy of the Church, the tradition of the novena is affiliated with the nine-month preparation by God of the Mother of God for the miracle of the birth of the Savior. In the usual form, it consists of nine days of prayer related to church ceremonies. The novenas also encompass the cult of the saints. The majority of the canonization miracles of saints occurred through their intercession after saying a novena in their honor.
The everyday prayer of this novena is made of several parts. The first one consists of a fragment of the biography of St. Agnes narrated by herself. The second part is a fragment of advisements and teachings of the Saint. The third part is the direct prayer to the saint Patroness to obtain a particular grace. The fourth part is made of the prayers: Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father and the Litany to St. Agnes Virgin and Martyr. In addition, at the end of the book is located the favorite prayer of St. Agnes and a prayer for daily recitation, both dictated by the Saint.
Saint Agnes is one of the few saints together with Saint Agatha, Lucia, Cecilia and Anastasia mentioned in the Roman Canon of the holy Mass. She owes this important position in the Church to the greatness of the miracles, which began to happen at her grave after her death. The Roman emperor Constantine the Great himself, who in the year 313 issued an edict of tolerance for Christians, owed the healing of his daughter Constance to the intercession of St. Agnes, when Constance suffering from leprosy prayed at her grave and regained health. This event made the grateful father emperor to build a temple on the site of the grave of St. Agnes. After the healing, the future St. Constance did not marry, and founded a sisterhood monastery near this temple. St. Constance lived in the period (325-354). Today, in this place stands a wonderful basilica of St. Agnes outside the Walls (Sant’Agnese fuori le Mura), built at the request of Pope Honorius I in the VII century.
We encourage the beloved Reader to pray the novena in honor of St. Agnes. Let it be a journey towards faith. Saint Agnes is the complete opposite of modern man. In today’s world there are no miracles, because people do not believe. May saying the novena in honor of St. Agnes awaken your faith, because as a 13-year-old girl, she had an astonishing faith, which can be clearly seen in the messages that she gave us. When she walked stripped to the house of debauchery, her purity and innocence have been miraculously preserved by a sudden growth of the hair on her head and the miraculous defense of the angel. Men desirous of debauchery, looking then at her, became blind, because the angel threw lightning at anyone who wished to possess her.
Saint Agnes is remembered on January 21st. Her name in Latin means agnus or lamb, a symbol of purity and innocence. St. Agnes lived in the years approx. 290-304.
The Rev. Piotr Maria Natanek, Ph.D. Hab
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Translated from: Nowenna do św. Agnieszki na podstawie textów św. Agnieszki z Orędzi na Czasy Ostateczne, które własnie nadeszły, Grzechynia 2015, p. 3-5
Christus Regnat 