St. Thomas & St. Agnes

[Geremia]

Happy feast of St. Agnes, whose relics St. Thomas carried with him and imposed on Reginald, curing him!

Ystoria 50, p. 356 (Tocco 50, p. 124; Tolomeo XXIII 10): "reliquias dicte sancte [Agnetis], quas ad poctus suspensas ex deuotione portabat"

Torrell p. 271:

To celebrate the memory of this event, Thomas declared that he wanted to give his students a good dinner each year for the saint's feast. He hardly had the time to do it once, remarks the storyteller, for he died the following year.¹⁷
17. Tolomeo XXIII 10; the miracle therefore is situated in the spring or in early summer 1272; the feast day dinner on 21 January 1273; the next year Thomas was ill and already on the way to Lyon.

cf. St. Ambrose's De virginibus I ch. 2

Super Sent. lib. 4 d. 48 q. 1 a. 4 qc. 3 ad 2 (English):

admiratio solet esse de his quae nostram cognitionem excedunt vel facultatem; et secundum hoc virtutes caelorum admirabuntur divinam virtutem alia facientem, inquantum ab ejus imitatione et comprehensione deficiunt; per quem modum dixit Agnes, quod ejus pulchritudinem et sol et luna mirantur; et sic non ponitur in Angelo ignorantia, sed tollitur Dei comprehensio.

Wonderment is usually about what exceeds our knowledge or capacity. And in this regard the virtues of heaven will wonder at the divine power doing other things, inasmuch as they fall short of imitating or comprehending it, after the manner whereby Agnes said: sun and moon wonder at its beauty [St. Ambrose, De virginibus 1.2]. And in this way we do not posit ignorance in the angels but rather exclude their comprehension of God.

Love of God and the Cross of Jesus (vol. 1), Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., pp. 360-1 (PDF p. 184) quotes St. Agnes, from this ℟ for Matins of her feast:

℟. Amo Christum, in cujus thálamum introíbo [chant, motet], cujus mater virgo est, cujus pater féminam nescit, cujus mihi órgana modulátis vócibus cantant: * Quem cum amávero, casta sum; cum tetígero, munda sum; cum accépero, virgo sum.
℟.Christ is my Lover, and I am entering with Him into the marriage-chamber. His Mother is a Virgin, and His Father knoweth not a woman. The instruments of His music sound sweetly together in my ears. * If I love Him I shall be chaste, if I touch Him I shall be clean, if I embrace Him I shall be a virgin indeed.

[Geremia]

From the book of St. Ambrose, Bishop, on Virgins, Book I, near the beginning:

Today is the birthday of a Virgin; let us imitate her virginal innocence. It is the birthday of a Martyr; let us also bring sacrifice. It is the birthday of St. Agnes; let men look up in admiration and children not be disheartened. You married, be filled with wonder; you unmarried, follow in her footsteps. But where shall we find words of adequate praise, since her very name bespeaks her glory and renown? In her we see a devotion that far surpasses her age; a virtue that exceeds all Power of nature. Hence, it seems to me that she had not merely a human name, but, prophetically, she was given the name of a Martyr to indicate beforehand what she was to be. The name of our Virgin to a guarantee of her purity. If I call her Martyr, already I have praised enough. For, that is great praise indeed, which one does not need to seek but is freely given by others. No one can be more praised than one who is praised by all. As many men, so many encomiums. They have only to mention her name to praise her as a Martyr. According to tradition, it was in her thirteenth year that she suffered martyrdom. How despicable the cruelty that spared not even this tender age! But how great the power of faith that found even that age its witness.

Golden Legend:

The name Agnes comes from agna, a lamb, because Agnes was as meek and humble as a lamb. Or her name comes from the Greek word agnos, pious, because she was pious and compassionate; or from agnoscendo, knowing, because she knew the way of truth. Truth, according to Augustine, is opposed to vanity and falseness and doubting, all of which she avoided by the virtue of truth that was hers.

No wonder St. Thomas was devoted to her!