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Show reliable information concerning the do-' tails of her glorious death. If theie is a kernal of historical truth in the narrative it has not as vet been pos-I pos-I slblc to sift It out from the later embellishments. em-bellishments. The Information at hand shows that Agatha, daughter of a distinguished family and remarkable for her beauty of person, was persecuted persecut-ed by the Senator Quintianus vvifh avowals of love. As his proposals were resolutely spurned by the pious Christian virgin, he committed her to the charge of an evil woman, whose seductive arts, however, were baffled by Agatha's unswerving firmness In the Christian faith. Quintanus then had her subjected to various cruel tortures. tor-tures. Especially inhuman seemed his order to have 'ner breasts cut off, a detail de-tail which furnished .to the Christian medieval iconography the peculiar characteristic of Agatha. But the holy virgin was consoled by a vision of St. Peter, who miraculously cured her. Eventually she succumbed to the repeated re-peated cruelties practised on her. Both Catania and Palermo claim tho honor of being Agatha'o blrlhplace. Her feast Is kept on February 5; her office in the Roman breviary is drawn in part from the Latin Acts. Catania Catan-ia honors St. Agatha as her patron saint, and throughout the region around Mt. Etna she is Invoked against the eruptions of Ihe volcano, as else-frlght else-frlght the trembling ghosts." Around Mt. Etna are woven so many interesting logends that it is Impossible Impos-sible to go into many of the details. The fact that the earthquake and the severe eruptions are closely connected brings lack Ovid's poetic description of Mt. Etna. According to Ovid, "Ty-phoccous "Ty-phoccous lies Imprisoned deep down beneath be-neath the vast island of Trinacria, his right hand placed under Pelorus, his left hand beneath Pachynus. his legs pressed down by LUybaeus. while Etna bears dovsn his head." Thus imprisoned, imprison-ed, the Titan "vomits flame from his raging mouth, struggling to throw off the earth, and to roll away cities and hu?.e mountains from his body." When the monster thus bestirs himself, "the earth trembles, the King of the Shades is himself in dread lett It may be opened, the ground be parted with a wide chasm, and the day let in to af-fight af-fight the trembling ghosts." STATUE OF ST. AGATHA, WHICH IS CARRIED THROUGH THE STREETS OF CATANIA AND PALERMO AND INVOKED AGAINST THE ERUPTIONS OF MT. ETNA. JJ Si. A'-jatha, to the citizens of Catania and Palermo, is one of the highly venerated ven-erated martyr saints, ller particular Klnl'lcanee nt this lime is in connection connec-tion with the eruptions of Mt.' Etna. - St. Agatha it; the one to whom they lnok for protection against the volcanic eruptions. The history of this virgin martvr saint, dates b-di-k to 11. e early Roman periods. The martyrdom of St. Agatha Is not authenticated and we imjssoss no |