The judge asked, 'How long wilt thou, unhappy,
protract this vanity by confessing Christ
Renounce thy Christ, and call upon the gods,
lest thou lose thy life in thy youth.'
Agatha answered simply, and said,
' Renounce thou thy gods which are of stone and wood,
and pray to thy Creator who truly liveth;
if thou despisest Him, thou shalt suffer in eternal torments.'
Then the impious man became incensed, and bade stretch her on the rack,
and cruelly twist her like a withy-rope, and said,
' Forsake thy self-will, that thy life may be saved.'
Agatha answered on the rack thus,
'So greatly I rejoice in these painful torments
even as he that seeth him whom he hath desired,
or as he that findeth many hoards of gold.
My soul cannot be brought with joy to Heaven
except my body be cramped in thy bonds,
and by the executioners be gripped in thy fetters.'
Then raged the cruel one, and bade men torture her
on the breast in the rack, and bade it afterward be cut off.
Agatha said to him, ' O thou most wicked!
aft thou not ashamed to cut off that which thou thyself hast sucked?
but I have my breast sound in my soul,
with which I shall at any rate feed my understanding.'
Then Quintianus bade them conduct her to prison,
and bade them deprive her of food and drink,
and said that no leech should be permitted to cure her.
Lo then! at midnight came a hoar-haired man[1]
into the prison, and his servant before him,
having a lamp in his hands, desiring to heal the saint.
The blessed Agatha said to the leech,
'I never cared for any leechcraft in my life,
I have my Jesus who healeth me by His Word;
He can, if He will, mightily heal me.'
- ↑ St. Peter.
