A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Agatha
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AGATHA, a Sicilian Martyr, A. D, 251,
Was of a noble family at Palermo. Her beauty inspired Quintius, governor of Sicily, under the emperor Decius, with the most violent love: and, being a Christian, he employed not only intreaties, but menaces, to seduce her; till, wearied out by the obstinacy of her virtue, he thought only of vengeance. Her body was cruelly mangled, and afterwards rolled on burning coals and broken potsherds. She was then carried back to die in prison: and her name is still ranked in the list of saints in the Roman calendar.
F. C.