The Maiden Agatha was a Sicilian of noble birth.  The citizens of Palermo and Catania dispute as to which city had the honour of being her birthplace.  It was at Catania that, during the persecution under the Emperor Decius, she won the crown of a glorious martyrdom.  She was equally celebrated for her beauty and her chastity, and Quintianus, Governor of Sicily, conceived a passion for her.  He tried every sort of device to overcome her modesty, and when he found it impossible to make her consent to his wishes, he caused her to be arrested on a charge of Christian superstition, and handed over to a woman named Aphrodisia to be corrupted.  The company, however, of this woman had no effect in shaking her constancy in the Christian worship, nor her settled determination to preserve her purity.  Aphrodisia therefore reported to Quintianus that she was only throwing away her pains on Agatha.  He ordered her to be brought before him.  Thou, said he, art the daughter of a noble family―dost thou feel no shame in living the degraded and slavish life of a Christian?  Agatha answered him, "The lowliness and bondage of a Christian are far nobler than the estate and pride of a king."

Then the Governor, being incensed against her, gave her the alternative of either sacrificing to the gods, or being submitted to the torture; and as she remained firm in the faith, she was buffeted and sent back to prison.  The next day she was brought forth, and, because her resolution was still unshaken, she was stretched on the rack and tortured with pieces of white-hot metal.  Then her breasts were cut off.  When Agatha received this injury she cried out to Quintianus, "Cruel tyrant, art thou not ashamed to do this to me, having thyself suckled at a mother's breast?"  She was remanded again to prison and put in irons.  That night an old man, who called himself an Apostle of Christ, came to her, and healed her wounds.  The following day she was brought for the last time before the Governor.  Her constancy was unmoved, and she was rolled on sharp potsherds and live embers.

At that time the whole city was shaken with a great earthquake, and two of the Governor's dearest friends, Silvinus and Falconius, were killed by falling walls.  The townspeople were in an uproar, and Quintianus, in fear of a riot, ordered Agatha, who was half dead, to be carried back to prison quietly.  Then she made the following prayer: O Lord, who hast been my Keeper from my childhood, who hast taken from me all love for this present world, who hast strengthened me so that I am more than conqueror over the cruelty of the executioners, receive my spirit.  With these words she passed to heaven, finishing her testimony on the 5th day of February.  Her body was buried by the Christians.

Agatha is buried at the Badia di Sant'Agata, Catania. She is listed in the late 6th-century Martyrologium Hieronymianum associated with Jerome, and the Synaxarion, the calendar of the church of Carthage, ca. 530. Agatha also appears in one of the carmina of Venantius Fortunatus. Two early churches were dedicated to her in Rome, notably the Church of Sant'Agata dei Goti in via Mazzarino, a titular church with apse mosaics of ca. 460 and traces of a fresco cycle, overpainted by Gismondo Cerrini in 1630. In the 6th century the church was adapted to Arian Christianity, hence its name "Saint Agatha of Goths", and later reconsecrated by Gregory the Great, who confirmed her traditional sainthood. Agatha is also depicted in the mosaics of Sant' Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna, where she appears, richly dressed, in the procession of female martyrs along the north wall. Her image forms an initial I in the Sacramentary of Gellone, from the end of the 8th century.

Agatha is the patron saint of bell-founders because of the shape of her severed breasts, and also of bakers, whose loaves were blessed at her feast day. More recently, she has been venerated as patron saint of breast cancer patients.

She is claimed as the patroness of Palermo. The year after her death, the stilling of an eruption of Mt. Etna was attributed to her intercession. As a result, apparently, people continued to ask her prayers for protection against fire.

The blessing of throats traces back to the 8th century.

St. Blaise was bishop of Sebaste in Cappadocia, and was martyred by beheading about A.D. 316.  One day St Blaise met a poor woman whose only pig had been snatched up in the fangs of a wolf but at the command of the bishop the wolf restored the pig alive to its owner. The woman did not forget the favor, for later, when the bishop was languishing in prison, she brought him tapers to dispel the darkness and gloom. To this story may be attributed the practice of using lighted candles in bestowing the blessing of St. Blaise. While in prison he performed a wonderful cure on a boy who had a fishbone lodged in his throat and who was in danger of choking to death. From this account we have the longtime custom of invoking the Saint for all kinds of throat trouble.

Blessing of the candles

P: Our help is in the name of the Lord.
R. Who made heaven and earth.
P: The Lord be with you.
R. May He also be with you.
                                                                Let us pray.

God, almighty and all-mild, by thy Word alone thou created the manifold things in the world, and willed that that same Word by whom all things were made take flesh in order to redeem mankind; thou are great and immeasurable, awesome and praiseworthy, a worker of marvels. Hence in professing his faith in thee the glorious martyr and bishop, Blaise, did not fear any manner of torment but gladly accepted the palm of martyrdom. In virtue of which thou bestowed on him, among other gifts, the power to heal all ailments of the throat. And now we implore thy majesty that, overlooking our guilt and considering only his merits and intercession, it may please thee to bless + and sanctify + and impart thy grace to these candles. Let all men of faith whose necks are touched with them be healed of every malady of the throat, and being restored in health and good spirits let them return thanks to thee in your holy Church, and praise thy glorious name which is blessed forever; through Christ our Lord.

R. Amen.
                                                They are sprinkled with holy water.

Prayer:
After blessing the candles on the feast of St. Blaise, the priest holds two candles fastened like a cross to the throat of the person kneeling before him, and says:

By the intercession of St. Blaise, bishop and martyr, may God deliver you from every malady of the throat, and from every possible mishap; in the name of the Father, and of the Son, + and of the Holy Ghost.

R. Amen.

Ignatius was the third Bishop of Antioch after the Apostle Peter.  When Trajan stirred up his persecution, he was condemned to be devoured by wild beasts, and sent to Rome in chains.  When on his journey thither he arrived at Smyrna, where Polycarp, the disciple of John, was Bishop, he wrote an Epistle to the Ephesians, another to the Magnesians, a third to the Trallians, and a fourth to the Roman: and after leaving Smyrna, he addressed a further Epistle to the Philadelphians, and another to the Smyrnians, along with a private Epistle to Polycarp, to whose care he commended the Church of Antioch.  In this last he quoteth a passage regarding the Person of Christ from the Gospel, which I have recently translated.

It is fitting that, as we have made mention of a man of so much importance, we should also note briefly the Epistle which he addressed to the Romans.  I am on my way, saith he, from Syria to Rome, and am already fighting with beasts on sea and on land all the way.  I may say I am chained day and night to ten leopards, for indeed the soldiers, who have charge of me, are no better.  The more courteous I am to them, the worse they use me.  But still their wickedness is good schooling for me, though I know that my mere sufferings cannot in themselves gain me justification.  I earnestly wish for the beasts which are to devour me; at any rate, I pray they may put me out of pain quickly, and fly on me willingly, that I be not like some other Martyrs, whose bodies the animals have refused to touch.  If I find that they will not come on, I will run at them as quick as I can, to make them devour me.  Let me be, my little children: I know what is good for me.

I feel now that I am beginning to be Christ's disciple; I desire none of those things which are seen, if so be I may find Christ Jesus.  I care not that there come upon me fire, or cross, or wild beasts, or breaking of my bones, or sundering of my members, or destruction of my whole body, yea, or all the torments of the devil, if only so be I may win Christ.  When he was brought condemned to the theatre, and heard the roaring of the beasts which were to devour him, he felt so strong an eagerness to suffer, that he cried out: I am Christ's wheat, and so let the beasts' teeth be my mill, that I may be ground, and be found to make good bread.  He suffered in the eleventh year of Trajan.  What was left of his body lieth at Antioch, in the graveyard outside the gate which leadeth toward Daphne.

Martina was a maiden of a most illustrious Roman family, daughter of a Consul.  She lost her parents while still very young, and, being inflamed with Christian zeal, she distributed her wealth, whereof she had abundance, with great profusion among the poor.  Under the Emperor Alexander, she was commanded to sacrifice to the imaginary gods, and refused with much boldness to commit this great wickedness.  Upon this she was again and again scourged, and mangled with iron prongs and hooks, and pieces of broken pottery.  Her limbs were cut piece by piece with sharp swords, and boiling tallow poured upon the living trunk.  Lastly she was sent to be eaten publicly by the wild beasts in the amphitheatre, but by the will of God they would not touch her, and she was then thrown upon a burning pile, but still remained alive.

Some of her tormentors were so moved by the spectacle, that they repented, and, by the grace of God confessing the faith of Christ, through which she remained constant, were themselves tortured and beheaded.  Martina herself lay praying, with a brightness on her face, while a matter like milk oozed from her body along with the blood, emitting a soft, sweet smell.  She was as it were unconscious of an earthquake and most violent thunderstorm which arose and was raging, and while the lightning struck temples, and melted statues, she seemed in spirit rather to be seated above on a queenly throne, praising God in heaven among the Blessed.

The judge being infuriated at what had taken place, and chiefly at her unbending firmness, ordered the head of the martyr to be cut off.  At the moment this was done, a peal which shook the city was heard, like a voice calling her home, and so great was the consternation, that it was made the means of conversion to many idolaters.  The holy body of Martina wherein she had suffered in the Pontificate of Urban I, was discovered in the time of Urban VIII, in the very old Church called after her, situated at the foot of the Capitoline Hill, near the Mamertine Prison, along with the bodies of the holy martyrs Concordius, Epiphanius, and others.  The Church was then altered and restored and handsomely decorated, and then the body was replaced in it, amid public rejoicings, with a solemn ceremony and procession.

According to tradition, Saint Agnes was a member of the Roman nobility born c. 291 and raised in a Christian family. She suffered martyrdom at the age of twelve or thirteen during the reign of the Roman Emperor Diocletian, on 21 January 304.

Agnes, whose name means “chaste” in Greek, was a beautiful young girl of wealthy family and therefore had many suitors of high rank. Tradition holds that the young men, slighted by Agnes' resolute devotion to religious purity, submitted her name to the authorities as a follower of Christianity.

The Prefect Sempronius condemned her to be dragged naked through the streets to a brothel.  As she prayed, her hair grew and covered her body. It was also said that all of the men who attempted to rape her were immediately struck blind. The son of the prefect is struck dead, but revived after Agnes prayed for him, causing her release. There is then a trial from which Sempronius excuses himself, and another figure presides, sentencing her to death. When led out to die she was tied to a stake, but the bundle of wood would not burn, or the flames parted away from her, whereupon the officer in charge of the troops drew his sword and beheaded her, or, in some other texts, stabbed her in the throat. It is also said that the blood of Agnes poured to the stadium floor where other Christians soaked up the blood with cloths.

Agnes was buried beside the Via Nomentana in Rome. A few days after Agnes' death, her foster-sister, Saint Emerentiana, was found praying by her tomb; she claimed to be the daughter of Agnes' wet nurse, and was stoned to death after refusing to leave the place and reprimanding the pagans for killing her foster sister. Emerentiana was also later canonized. One night when the parents of the blessed Agnes were watching at her grave, she appeared to them in company with a band of virgins, and said to them: Father and Mother, weep not for me as though I am dead; for now these virgins and I live together in him whose love was my whole life upon earth.  Some years afterwards, Constance, the daughter of the Emperor Constantine, being sick of an incurable ulcer, betook herself to the said grave, although she was not yet a Christian, and as she lay by it and slept, she seemed to hear the voice of Agnes, saying to her: Constance, be of good courage: believe in Jesus Christ the Son of God, and he will make thee whole.  The Princess, being healed, was baptized, along with many others of the Emperor's family and household, and afterwards built over the grave of the blessed Agnes a Church named in her honour.

Vincent was born at Huesca in Granada in Spain.  He was early turned to study, and learned sacred letters from Valerius, Bishop of Saragossa.  He was accustomed to deliver discourses for this Prelate, who, owing to an impediment in his speech, was not able to preach himself.  This coming to the ears of Dacian, Prefect of the province under Diocletian and Maximian, he caused Vincent to be arrested at Saragossa, and brought before him at Valencia in bonds.  The saint was scourged, and afterward tormented on the rack, in presence of numerous spectators, but neither torture, threats, nor fair words could bend his resolution.  He was then laid on a grating over hot coals, his flesh mangled with iron hooks, and white-hot plates of metal applied to the wounds.  The still breathing remains were taken back to a prison, and laid on broken potsherds, that the agony of his naked body might prevent his sleeping from exhaustion.
As he lay in his dark cell, a glorious light suddenly filled the prison, to the astonishment of all who saw it.  The gaoler informed Dacian, who caused the martyr to be brought out and cared for in a soft bed, hoping that though he had failed to move him by cruelty, he might seduce him by pretended kindness.  But the indomitable soul of Vincent, armed with faith and hope in Christ Jesus, remained unconquered even to the end, and triumphing over the fire, the steel, and the cruelty of the tormentors, passed away to receive the victorious crown or martyrdom in heaven on the 22nd day of January.

His body was thrown out unburied.  A raven perched upon it and kept off with his beak, claws, and wings both the other birds and a wolf, which came to prey on it.  Dacian then had it thrown into the sea, but by the will of God it was washed up again, and the Christians took and buried it.

Anastasius was a Persian monk who made a pilgrimage to the Holy Places at Jerusalem in the reign of the Emperor Heraclius, during which journey he endured bonds and stripes on account of his confession of Christ at Caesarea, in Palestine.  Soon after his return, he was arrested by the Persians for the same cause, and, after enduring divers torments, he and seventy other Christians were beheaded by order of King Chosroes.  His relics were first carried to Jerusalem, to the monastery in which he had made his monastic profession, and afterwards to Rome, where they were laid in the monastery of Saints Vincent and Anastasius.

Fabian was a Roman, and sat as Pope from the reign of the Emperor Maximian till that of Decius.  He appointed a deacon to each of the seven districts of Rome to look after the poor.  He likewise appointed the same number of subdeacons to collect the acts of the Martyrs from the records kept by the seven district notaries.  It was by him that it was ordained that every Maundy Thursday the old Chrism should be burnt and new consecrated.  He was crowned with martyrdom upon the 20th of January, in the persecution of Decius, and buried in the cemetery of St. Callistus on the Appian Way, having sat in the throne of Peter fifteen years and four days.  He held five Advent ordinations, in which he ordained twenty-two priests, seven deacons, and eleven bishops for divers Sees.

The father of Sebastian was of Narbonne, and his mother a Milanese.  He was a great favourite of the Emperor Diocletian, both on account of his noble birth  and his personal bravery, and was by him appointed captain of the first company of the Praetorian Guards.  He was in secret a Christian, and often supported the others both by good offices and money.  When some shewed signs of yielding under persecution, he so successfully exhorted them, that, for Jesus Christ's sake, many offered themselves to the tormentors.  Among  these were the brothers Mark and Marcellian who were imprisoned at Rome in the house of Nicostratus.  The wife of Nicostratus himself, named Zoe, had lost her voice, but it was restored to her at the prayer of Sebastian.  These facts becoming known to Diocletian, he sent for Sebastian, and after violently rebuking him, used every means to turn him from his faith in Christ.  But as neither promises nor threats availed, he ordered him to be tied to a post and shot to death with arrows.

Sebastian was treated accordingly, and left for dead, but in the night the holy widow Irene sent for the body in order to bury it, and then found that he was still alive, and nursed him in her own house.  As soon as his health was restored, he went out to meet Diocletian, and boldly rebuked him for his wickedness.  The Emperor was first thunderstruck at the sight of a man whom he believed to been some time dead, but afterwards, frenzied with rage at the reproaches of Sebastian, ordered him to be beaten to death with rods, under which torment the martyr yielded his blessed soul to God.  His body was thrown into a sewer, but he appeared in sleep to Lucina, and made known to her where it was, and where he would have it buried.  She accordingly found it and laid it in those Catacombs, over which a famous Church hath since been built, called St. Sebastian's-without-the-Walls.