A patron saint's feast with an international scope that sees the city of Catania at the height of its folkloristic expression.
Saint Agatha is remembered and celebrated not only on the day of her death, the 5th of February (the feast begins on the 3rd until the 6th of February); but also for the Eighth, the 12th of February, where the reliquaries are exposed to the faithful and after a short procession they will be kept again until the 17th of August, with the feast of Saint Agatha in Midsummer, date that marks the return to Catania of the relics of the saint after they were stolen and taken to Constantinople.
The story tells of Agatha was born in 230 B.C. to a family of Christian nobles from Catania, during the period when Catania was under Roman domination that persecuted Christianity, which is why Agatha's family lived their faith in silence.
In spite of this, Agatha decided to consecrate herself to God and as soon as Quirino became proconsul of the city with the intention of enforcing the emperor's edict.
Having met the girl, Quirino himself fell in love with her and ordered her to deny her faith and worship the pagan gods, even though it is said that her intentions were more to confiscate the property of Agata's rich family.
When Agatha refused, Quirinus handed her over to the courtesan Aphrodisia, in order to bribe her with material goods. But to the attempts of the perverse courtesan, Agatha always opposed her unshakable faith.
Quirinus initiated a trial against Agatha and the dialogue between the young girl and the proconsul shows Agatha's ability to stand up to those who were judging her. From trial to prison the step was short.
After several days of fasting, the tortures began, from the flogging to the tearing of the breasts, which is told to grow back prodigiously during the night thanks to the intervention of St. Peter. The girl's faith condemned her to the last of the tortures, a bed of burning embers, during which it is said that while her body was disfigured by fire, the red veil, symbol of her consecration to God, did not burn.
After the torment, Agatha died in prison on 5th February 251.
Her body was embalmed and wrapped in a red veil which, it is said, stopped the lava that threatened the city several times, as happened exactly one year after her death. Following these miraculous wonders, Agatha was proclaimed a saint.
The legends linked to Saint Agatha and her cathedral are numerous, but one of them is particularly well known: the one about Frederick II.
When in 1232 Catania joined a revolt against Frederick II of Swabia, who had gathered under his command several Sicilian cities, he ordered to attack the Etnean city destroying it and killing all its inhabitants. He stopped when, listening to a mass in the cathedral, the phrase "Noli offendere Patriam Agathae quia ultrix iniuriarum est" or "do not offend Agathae's homeland, because it is avenger of all injustice" suddenly appeared in his breviary and decided to withdraw.
