THÁNH AGATHA 2/5/2013

THÁNH AGATHA

"Phúc thay ai bị bách hại vì sống

công chính, vì Nước Trời là của họ."

(Mát-thêu 5:10)

Chúc Mừng Lễ Bổn Mạng - Happy Feastday

Sơ Agatha Yến Phạm, OCD (Oklahoma)

Thứ Ba Ngày 5 Tháng Hai, 2013.

Hoan ca Bổn Mạng Ma Sơ

A-ga-tha chết, ước mơ Thiên Đàng

Sống đời trinh khiết nồng nàn

Hy sinh đổ máu vô vàn hùng anh

Bạo Vương quyền lực gian manh

Thầm yêu đòi cưới nữ thanh mỹ miều

Nhưng rồi không thỏa ưng chiều

Ông bèn hành hạ trăm điều bất nhân

Lệnh truyền Cô bị giam thân

Trong nơi tù ngục vọng ngân vui mừng

Cuối cùng nàng được tưng bừng

Ra đi lìa thế vang lừng hương thơm!

* Nguyễn Sông Núi

(Tv Thánh Gioan Neumann, Dallas, TX, Feb. 4, 2013)

The Martyrdom of St. Agatha

February 5 is the feast day for St. Agatha of Sicily, the patron saint for breast cancer. St. Agatha was born into a wealthy family, and consecrated to God at an early age. She was a lovely girl who attracted the attention of a judge, Quintianus, who wanted both her body and her money. When she refused him, he had her arrested and put into a brothel run by Aphrodisia. She prayed and wept, and her virtue was intact after 30 days. The judge then had her taken to prison to be beaten and stretched on the rack. While chained, she was whipped, cut, burnt, and finally her breasts were cut off. She reportedly said to her guard: "Cruel tyrant, do you not blush to torture this part of my body, you that sucked the breasts of a woman yourself? " That night, St. Peter appeared and gave her a miraculous healing. Quintianus, still not satisfied, ordered her to be rolled naked over live coals mixed with sharp bits of broken pottery. St. Agatha made no other request after this, except that God would "receive now my soul." She was martyred in 251 A.D. St. Agatha is usually depicted carrying her breasts on a plate, as in this painting by Francisco de Zurbarán.