St. Agatha

St. Agatha tended by St. Peter and an Angel in Prison (c.1640) by Alessandro Turchi

St. Agatha tended by St. Peter and an Angel in Prison (c.1640) by Alessandro Turchi
house at The Walters Museum in Baltimore. This beautiful piece is oil on slate instead of canvas, which makes the piece more durable and lends itself to tenebrism technique employed by Turchi.

February 5th is St Agath's Feast Day. St. Agatha was a brave woman from Sicily in the third century, living in Catania during the Christian persecution under Emperor Decius. She came from a noble family and had promised to stay chaste, so she rejected the advances of Quintianus, a Roman consul who found her beautiful. Quintianus tried to break her will by forcing her to live in a brothel for a month, but she remained untouched. When she refused to worship pagan idols, he had her breasts cut off and sent her to jail without food, water, or medical care. One night in jail, St. Peter visited her, sent by God to comfort her. When the jailers saw a supernatural light, Peter disappeared, and Agatha's wounds were miraculously healed. Quintianus didn't give up; he had her placed naked over burning coals, but an earthquake from heaven saved her. Finally, back in jail, she prayed to God to end her suffering and peacefully passed away.

Interesting fact not only is St. Agatha the patron saint of rape victims, breast cancer patients and wet nurses; she's also the patron saint of bell-founders (people who make bells). "Because of the shape of her severed breasts." according to the wiki page.