Feast day: April 20
Saint Agnes entered the convent of Montepulciano at the age of nine, after badgering her parents for admittance from the time she was six. When Agnes’s spiritual advisor was appointed abbess at Procena, she brought Agnes with her to her new convent.
Young Agnes’s holiness and devotion to Christ drew many new sisters into the abbey. At age 15, Agnes was appointed abbess. She wanted to instill greater strictness in the abbey. She was nourished by bread and water alone and spent her nights on the ground using a rock for a pillow. She was called back to Montepulciano to establish a new Dominican convent. She served as prioress of the new convent for the last 17 years of her life.
Saint Agnes of Montepulciano is well known for her visions, including holding the infant Jesus in her arms and receiving Holy Communion from an angel of the Lord. She levitated during prayer and performed numerous miracles. Like the martyr Saint Agnes of early Christian times, the emblem for Saint Agnes of Montepulciano is a lamb.
(Image by Eugenio Hansen, OFS, Wikimedia Commons)