St. Agnes of Assisi

St. Agnes of Assisi was born in 1197 at Assisi, the younger sister of St. Clare, and died in 1253. Only days after Clare had fled her noble home to give herself to Christ under the guidance of St. Francis, the fifteen-year-old Agnes followed her to join her in the poor and cloistered life, provoking the fury of their relatives, who came to drag her back by force.

According to the beloved tradition, when her kinsmen tried to carry her away her body became so miraculously heavy that they could not lift her, and, struck down and unnerved, they abandoned the attempt, leaving Agnes to receive the religious habit from Francis's own hands. She lived a life of great holiness and penance among the Poor Ladies, and was later sent as abbess to establish and guide new monasteries of the order, notably at Monticelli near Florence. She died shortly after her sister Clare, and the Church keeps her memory on 19 November.