AGAPE, SS.

The name of several saints honored as martyrs in the early Church. The name Agape (Charity) is sometimes confused with Agatha.

Agape (Charity), daughter of St. Sophia (Wisdom), is associated with SS. Pistis (Faith) and Elpis (Hope) and, according to a seventh-or eighth-century passio written by John the Priest, she was allegedly put to death at Rome during the persecution of Hadrian. The itineraria located her grave on the Via Aurelia, while the Notula of Olea of Monza placed it on the Via Appia. Ansa, wife of King Desiderius of the Lombards (756–774), gave her relics to the monastery of St. Giulia in Brescia.

Feast: Aug. 1 in the Roman Church; Sept. 17 in the Greek Church.

Agape of Thessalonika, honored with her sisters SS. Chionia and Irene in the Syrian Breviary on April 2, in the Roman Martyrology on April 3, and among the Greeks on April 16. The sisters, after a legal process under the Roman prefect Dulcitius on April 1, 304, were allegedly burned to death for refusing to eat food sacrificed to the Roman gods and for hiding Christian books. Irene survived her sisters and companions for two days. The Basilica of Thessalonica was erected in their honor. The acts of the three judicial processes have been preserved.

Agape, associated with St. Marina, is mentioned in the Syrian martyrology as having been martyred at Antioch on March 11, 411. According to later Spanish legends she is said to have been put to death with the Bithynian martyrs in Spain during the Decian persecution, but this story resulted from a misreading of the Roman martyrology by the Spanish hagiographer Gale-sinius.

Agape of Terni, mentioned in the Roman martyrology as a virgin and martyr for Feb. 15. A protégé of Bishop Saint Valentine of Terni, she was reputedly beheaded in the Aurelian persecution on Feb. 15, 273, and her body buried on a spot known as Inter Turres. In 550 Bishop Anastasius erected a church there in her honor, confiding the body to a Benedictine monastery. In 1174 the church was in ruins; St. Agape's head was then sent to Rome and kept in the Basilica of the Apostles.

St. Jerome's martyrology mentions another St. Agape for Aug. 8, supposedly honored at Trier, but there is no mention of her in the liturgical books of the diocese.

Bibliography: a. frutaz, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (Freiburg 1957–65) 1:182; g. de tervarent, Analecta Bollaniana 68:419–423; "Passio" in Bibliotheca hagiographica latina antiquae et mediae aetatis (Brussels 1898–1901) 2966–73. a. palmieri, Dictionaire d'histoire et du géographie eccléssiastiques, ed. a. baudrillart et al. (Paris 1912) 1:876–877. s. salaville, Dictionaire d'histoire et du géographie eccléssiastiques, ed. a. baudrillart et al. (Paris 1912) 1:875–876. h. delehaye, "Les Martyrs d'Interamna," Bulletin d'ancienne littérature et d'archéologie chrétiennes 1 (1911) 161–168; Synaxarium ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Brussels 1902) 605–606. f. de' cavalieri, ed., "Nuove note agiografiche: Martyrium SS. Agapes, Irenes et Chiones," Studi e Testi 9 (1902) 1–20.

[e. g. ryan]