Saint Agnes and Saint Disciola

Her progress in Christian perfection was such that the queen, admiring her virtues, venerated her as her mistress and as her mother, and wished to place herself under her direction along with all the virgins from the greatest families who were flocking to the monastery. Therefore, with the consent of the sisters and all the prelates of the province, Agnes received the abbatial blessing from the bishop of Paris, Saint Germain, whom Clotaire had brought with him to Tours and presented to the pious queen. She made the journey to Arles with S sainte Radegonde Queen of the Franks and founder of the Sainte-Croix monastery in Poitiers. aint Radegund, and adopted, for the new monastery of Poitiers, the Rule d rawn up by Sa saint Césaire Abbot of Lérins and later Bishop of Arles, mentor to Siffrein. int Caesarius for a Congregation of virgins that his sister Caesaria directed.

Agnes showed as much prudence as zeal, as much firmness as gentleness in her government. She soon had two hundred nuns under her guidance. Finally yielding to her insistent prayers, Meroveus, Bishop of Poitiers, accepted the high direction of the monastery. Saint For tunatus, who l Saint Fortunat Bishop of Italian origin exiled to France in the 6th century. ater ascended to the see of Poitiers and who exercised the priestly ministry in the abbey during the lifetime of Agnes and Saint Radegund, has left us in his poems precious testimonies of the virtues of the holy abbess. He represents her as the model of virgins through her fidelity to the celestial Spouse, as the example of abbesses through the zeal of her duties, and speaks of her only in terms of pious veneration.

Saint Agnes Sainte Agnès First abbess of the Sainte-Croix monastery in Poitiers. flew into the bosom of celestial beatitude on the 13th of May, in the year 588, nine months after Saint Radegund; she was buried in the church of Saint Mary, outside the walls, today known as Saint-Radegund.

Among the nuns whom the example and conversations of Saint Radegund attracted in great numbers to the monastery governed by Saint Agnes, there was one who shone in a particular way through her humility, her modesty, the simplicity of her manners, and her attentive observance of the Rule: this was the blessed Disciole, niece of Sa bienheureuse Disciole Nun of the monastery of Poitiers, known for her humility and modesty. int Salvius , Bishop of saint Sauve Bishop of Albi and uncle of Saint Disciola. Albi. Feeling that she was near death, she said to her sisters gathered around her, who were saddened by the expectation of her final breath: "Withdraw a little so that I may rest." They therefore left her, though they did not move far from her cell, and were able to perceive the ardent desires for heaven that she expressed through her fervent aspirations. After her precious death before God, her body shone with an extraordinary radiance.

The remains of Saint Agnes and Sa int Disciole we sainte Disciole Nun of the monastery of Poitiers, known for her humility and modesty. re deposited near the tomb of their mother, already venerated at the time as a Saint, and who had preceded them by a short time into blessed eternity. Placed, one on the right because of her dignity as abbess, the other on the left of the illustrious queen, they seemed to consecrate together, in the crypt of the church built by her, the pious memory of their religious intimacy. There, both were and still are the object of the prayers and veneration of the populations of Po itou, Poitou City where the saint settled and lived as a recluse. to which are added, each year, those of all the neighboring provinces, drawn to them by a confidence that striking miracles have justified a thousand times.

Often, no doubt, many portions of these precious relics were drawn from these two tombs; for, during the repairs of the crypt and its perimeter, restored in 1854 to their primitive state by the orders of Bishop Pie; when it was given to the one who tr Mgr Pie Bishop of Poitiers who made a pilgrimage in 1851. aces these lines to draw from their fourteen-century-old obscurity the two stone coffins that had enclosed the sacred bodies of the holy daughters, only rather rare fragments were found mixed with debris of silk and gold fabrics. What was notable had therefore disappeared for some causes of which there is no memory; but the last remains, whose authenticity was then canonically recognized, do not cease to sanctify by their presence the underground church, where Saint Radegund also has only a portion of herself. To the main altar of the holy queen, fixed in the eastern apse of the crypt, two others have been annexed and each occupy one of the two other arms of the cross: the one to the north, to the right of Saint Radegund, consecrated under the title of Saint Agnes; the one to the south, under that of Saint Disciole. They cover the sarcophagi, and, as in the primitive church, the holy sacrifice can be offered there on the venerable remains of the friends of God.

Proper of Poitiers, and M. the Abbé Aubert, canon, historiographer of Poitiers.