Feast day: April 20
St. Agnes of Montepulciano
An Italian girl made prioress of a convent while still in her teens, a Dominican mystic whose holiness drew pilgrims and who was later honored by St. Catherine of Siena.
Agnes was born about 1268 near Montepulciano in Tuscany and showed an extraordinary religious bent from childhood, entering a convent as a girl of nine. So evident were her gifts that, while still only about fifteen, she was sent to help establish a new monastery and made its bursar, and soon its superior — a remarkable charge for one so young.
She was later recalled to Montepulciano, where she founded a monastery that adopted the Rule of St. Dominic, and governed it as prioress for the rest of her life. She was known for her austere penances, her gift of prayer, and the miracles and visions attributed to her, including reports of being fed by angels.
A woman of practical wisdom as well as mystical grace, she guided her community with firmness and warmth and was sought out for counsel. Her reputation for holiness spread well beyond her convent walls during her own lifetime.
She died in 1317. A century and a half later her younger Dominican sister St. Catherine of Siena came to venerate her tomb. Agnes was canonized in 1726.
She was running a convent before she was out of her teens, dispensed from age by the pope himself, and became one of Tuscany's most loved holy women.
Image: Sailko (CC BY-SA 4.0), via Wikimedia Commons.
Source: newadvent.org/cathen/01213c.htm
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