what burning feels like: come here and
try a little of it" While his burning
clothes and flesh proved bis sincerity,
he went on talking so earnestly and so
persuasively, that Agnes was first terrified at the judgments in store for her; then, horrified at her evil life,' she
resolved to forsake it. She went and
told the king what bad happened, and
that she wished now to be converted.
Next morning the repentant courtiers
confessed to him that they bad been
jealous of William's influence, and had
set this snare for him. Soon afterwards,
when William came again to preach to
the court, Roger and George ran to
meet him, and knelt at his feet William
taught Agnes to pray for true penitence,
and when, some years later (1123), be
founded his great double monastery at
Guleto (afterwards called St. William's),
near Nuscum, in Apulia, she became a
nun in it. She sold all that she had, and
with the proceeds he built a nunnery at
Venosa, and bere Agnes seems to have
eventually become abbess. When William felt the approach of death he gave
bis parting advice and blessing to the
monks of Monte Yergine, and then to
the nuns, and died in the house of the
latter, in 1142. St. Agnes erected a
marble tomb over him in her church.
The story is told by Pinius the Bollandist, in the Life of St. William, pp. 113, 128, 131, Juno 2,5. AA.SS, She is not
there called a saint, but is so called in
the Analecta Juris Pontificii, vol. iii.
p. 523. Her name is also in Ferrarius'
Calendar, Sept 1.
It has been conjectured that she is the same as the Benedictine abbess who died at Eome, but the date of the latter is considerably later.
B. Agnes (13), Feb. 21, V. † 1186. Cistercian nun at Nuitz (Nonessium), in Germany. Her soul was seen by her twin sister, St. Hildegund, carried to heaven by angels with celestial music. Henriquez, Lilia Cist. Monstier, Gynecæum. Boll., AA.SS. says she is not worshipped.
B. Agnes (14), June 14 or 15, V. Early in 13th century. Cistercian nun at Bamey, in Brabant. B. Ida of Nivelle saw a place prepared in heaven for Agnes long before her death. Bucelinus. Henriquez. Monstier.
B. Agnes (15), Jan. 21, April 5. 13th century. Of Liege. O.S.B. Nun of the Cistercian convent Qf Mont Cornillon, near Liege, under her younger sister, B. Juliana. Boll., AA.SS. Henriquez. Bucelinus.
B. Agnes (16), Sept 1. † 1241. O.S.B. Abbess. Illustrious for miracles. Died at Rome, and was buried in the church of St. Agnes (2) there. This is perhaps the same as St. Agnes (12), abbess of Yenosa ; if so, there is a mistake of a century in the date. Pinius, the Bollandist, thinks they are not the same, but throws no light on this one. AA.SS. Wion, Lignum Vitæ,
St. Agnes (17) of Assisi, Nov. I6. † 1253. When her sister, St. Clara, had been placed, by St. Francis, in the Benedictine convent of St. Angelo do Panso, near Assisi, Agnes, then about 14, who was the object of her strongest human affection, and whose company in her retreat she asked of God, went to her and said she would stay with her, and follow her example and advice. Their relatives were very angry, and twelve of them came to take Agnes away by force. She appealed to her sister not to allow her to be carried off. Clara prayed that this violence might be prevented, and when they had gone a little way down the hill on which the convent stood, the little Agnes became so heavy that the twelve persons who were conducting her were unable to lift her across a narrow brook, although they called some labourers to their assistance. Her uncle Monaldi, who was of the party, was so enraged that he drew his sword, and would have stabbed her, but his hand became power- less, and ho could neither strike with the weapon nor put it back into the scabbard. Clara now appeared amongst them, and was allowed to take her sister back to the convent: this was in 1212. Very soon afterwards they both removed thence to the church of St. Damian, the third of those repaired by St. Francis. It became the first great convent of Franciscan or Clarissan nuns. The following year they had several disciples, of whom the first wore BB. Pacifica,
