AGNES of Assisi, St. — Younger sister of St. Clare, born at Assisi in 1197 and died there on 16 Nov. 1253. Fifteen days after Clare had joined the movement inspired by St. Francis (1212), Agnes followed her to the monastery of S. Angelo di Pansa outside Assisi. In vain did their uncle Monaldo attempt to drag her from the cloister and return her to the family. Soon afterwards St. Francis took the two sisters to S. Damiano, from which Agnes was later sent temporarily to Florence as abbess of the Clarissan monastery founded there in 1219. On her return to S. Damiano she was favoured by the apparition of the Christ Child. She died three months after Clare. Her tomb was renowned for miracles. Her cult was permitted by Benedict XIV in 1752. Her feast is celebrated on 16 Nov.
AGNESE DI ASSISI, SANTA
Bibl.: Vita di s. Agnese di Assisi, compiled by a Clarissan nun, Lecce 1913; Leone (de Clary), L'Aureola serafica, IV, Quaracchi 1900, pp. 294-99; an ancient legend (14th cent.) with a letter to St. Clare, is reproduced in Analecta Franciacena, III, Quaracchi 1897, pp. 173-82, based in part on the Legenda s. Clarae, nn. 24-26, ed. F. Pennacchi, Assisi 1910, pp. 33-37.