AGNES OF MONTEPULCIANO, ST.

Dominican nun, patroness of Montepulciano; b. Agnes Segni, Gracciano-Vecchio, Tuscany, c. 1268; d. Montepulciano, Italy, April 4, 1317. At the age of nine she induced her parents to let her join a community at Montepulciano called "Sisters of the Sack" because of their coarse garments. Her holiness and intelligence impressed the nuns, and she was made bursar when only 14. A year later she accompanied an older nun to Proceno to found a new convent. She was soon elected abbess. In her new position she increased her austerities, fasting on bread and water, and sleeping on the ground. The citizens of Montepulciano, desiring her return, offered to build a convent in a place formerly occupied by a house of ill fame. Agnes became prioress there (1306) and placed the convent under Dominican patronage. She was a competent administrator, often providing miraculously for the needs of her sisters.

Simplicity and ardor were the keynotes of her spirituality. Her vita reports that she was favored by apparitions of the Blessed Virgin, the Christ Child, and the angels, and that showers of white, cross-shaped particles "like manna" fell upon her and the places where she prayed. She died after a painful illness. As patroness of Montepulciano, she is represented with a model of the city in her hands; in Italian art she is associated with catherine of siena and rose of lima. She was canonized by Benedict XIII in 1726.

Feast: April 20.

Bibliography: raymond of capua, Vita, Acta Sanctorum April 2:790–810. Année Dominicaine, 23 v. (Lyons 1883–1909) April 2: 519–546. a. walz, Die hl. Agnes v. Montepulciano (Dülmen 1922). a. butler, The Lives of the Saints, ed. h. thurston and d. attwater (New York 1956) 2:135–137. g. di agresti and d. valori, Bibliotheca sanctorum (Rome 1961) 1:375–381.

[m. j. finnegan]