Saint Agnes of Montepulciano

Agnes Segni was born around 1268 near Montepulciano in Tuscany. At only nine years old she entered a community of sisters in Montepulciano known for their coarse sackcloth habits. Her maturity and holiness were such that she was sent with others to found a new monastery at Proceno, and at fifteen she was made its abbess with special papal permission.

She led her sisters with gentleness and deep prayer, eating and sleeping very little. Many visions and miracles were attributed to her, including the tradition that the Virgin Mary allowed her to hold the Child Jesus. Around 1306 the people of Montepulciano asked her to return, and she founded a monastery there that adopted the Rule of Saint Dominic. She died on April 20, 1317. Decades later Saint Catherine of Siena visited her tomb and spoke of her with great reverence. Agnes was canonized in 1726.

Montepulciano honors Agnes as its patroness, and her incorrupt body rests in the church of Sant'Agnese there. Dominican nuns and friars celebrate her feast, and her story is a favorite example of holiness in the young.