Above: During a solemn ceremony in front of Cattedrale Metropolitana di Sant’Agata this week, relics of Saint Agatha are returned to her newly restored reliquary. Screen grab from video on La Sicilia, August 17, 2026.
Saint Agatha (231?-251?) has been celebrated in the news recently, nowhere more than in Sicily. The occasion was the 900th anniversary of her return to her birthplace, Catania, and the Vatican marked it with a major meaningful gift. Would have loved to be there to witness it but will have to rely on others.
Affectionately called Santuzza by some, Saint Agatha was martyred in her hometown. After a vindictive, spurned suitor reported her illegal Christian beliefs to the Roman authorities, her torture began. If you do not know Agatha’s story, look back to this post from one of our visits to Sicily. One of the devious punishments inflicted upon her led her status as the patron saint of those women suffering from breast cancer and workers who toil in bell foundries.
One of the 12 Virgin Saints celebrated during Mass, Agatha gained popularity in Catania immediately following her death, as she received credit for miraculously halting an impending eruption of Mount Etna. The faithful enshrined her remains as sacred relics.
Unfortunately, Saint Agatha’s popularity attracted the lust of others to possess her relics. In 1031, General Giorgio Maniace drove the Arabs out of this region of Sicily, restoring it to the Byzantine Empire. Maniace had crudely insulted the emperor’s chief eunuch and his brother. To further assuage the anger of Emperor Romanos III (968-1034), Maniace seized Saint Agatha’s remains for him before sailing home to Constantinople.
Emperor Romanos only ruled because he married the eldest, at age 50, surviving daughter of Constantine VIII (960-1028), and it seems he should have taken Maniace’s insult as a warning. Romanos was distracted building churches and monasteries, while Empress Zoe (978-1050) took the eunuch’s brother Michael as her lover. Emperor Romanos wore no clothes as he was drowned in his bath. Obviously not part of the cult following the path of Agatha, Zoe married the man 30 years younger than she on the same day her first husband died. The son of a peasant became Emperor Michael IV (1010-1041). Zoe lived on to wed yet again.
More than 80 years later, two daring Sicilian soldiers plotted to re-steal the patroness of Catania. They succeeded by dissecting her body into portions they could secrete in arrow quivers. On the route from Constantinople to Catania, the pair stopped at Gallatina, the birthplace of one of them, to gift the church there one of Saint Agatha’s breasts. The soldiers returned with the rest of Santuzza as heroes, 900 years ago this week.
Different parts of saints require appropriately shaped reliquaries for preservation and display. A goldsmith working in the papal court in Avignon was commissioned for the gilded bust in 1376. Through the years, pilgrims calling upon Saint Agatha deposited jewels as ex-voto offerings. A gleaming crown bestowed by King Richard I of England (1157-1199) as he returned from a crusade. Pectoral crosses from bishops. An emerald necklace from Viceroy Fernando de Acuna (?-1495). A ring from Queen Margherita (1851-1926). A golden outer garment was added to Saint Agatha’s wardrobe to display the mounting tributes.
Eying the 900th anniversary of Saint Agatha’s return, the Vatican sent its restoration experts to Catania to restore the precious reliquary and bejeweled cloak.
Above: Images of the restored reliquary bust of Saint Agatha and her ex-voto jewels from the Vatican News, July 21, 2025.
Her skull was returned to its container in front of the Duomo of Catania. Nothing like this ever happened in front of little Star of the Sea in Virginia Beach. In fact, during childhood I never would have envisioned such a ceremony as part of Catholicism.
Of course, such a homecoming needs fireworks to alert all to the momentous occasion.
As though Mount Etna were a participant, Mother Nature has been displaying her own nightly fireworks.
Saint Agatha’s home was much calmer during our most recent visit.
Above: Metropolitan Cathedral of Saint Agatha. The top of its facade on the right shows Mount Etna smoldering in the distance. Both images taken in September of 2024.
Through travels, I have learned you can’t begin to understand the history and culture of numerous countries without learning about their saints.
And girlfriends, whisper a prayer to Saint Agatha as you head to your annual mushing of the breasts.