Saint Agnes of Monteipulciano and the baby Jesus

Mother Mary shares the Baby Jesus with Saint Agnes of Montepulciano

 

It is the evening of the Feast of the Assumption, and we find Saint Agnes kneeling before the Crucifix, praying to Our Lady, expressing her desire to be able to see Jesus. 

 

Whereupon she had an extraordinary apparition:

 

"There was a glimmer of light never seen before; rays abounded around the light; and in the middle of the light, there appeared, dressed with the sun and crowned with stars, the Queen of the Universe, with the Son of God, the Baby Jesus in  Her arms, nestled against Her Holy Breast. 

 

Blessed Mother was breast feeding the Baby Jesus.  Then Our Lady walked over to Saint Agnes and placed the Baby in her arms.  Shaken and a little confused, Agnes took the Baby and embraced Him, drawing Him closer and closer to her.  She was overwhelmed with indescribable joy and immersed in a sea of bliss."[1]

 

When the vision came to an end, Our Lady stepped closer to Sant Agnes, and gently held out Her arms. 

 

But her time with the Baby Jesus had been too short; Agnes wanted that moment to last an eternity.  When she saw that Our Lady's desire was to take back Her Baby, overcome by ecstasy from the time she had held the Divine Baby, her emotions clouding her better judgment, rather than offering Him back to His Mother, she held on to Him more tightly. 

 

Saint Agnes looked down at the Precious Bundle in her arms and she simply could not let go of her tiny Lord Jesus.  She had such a tight grip on the Divine Baby, Our Lady had all to do to keep from pulling the Baby from Agnes' arms with force. 

 

Saint Agnes reluctantly obeyed her Queen and Mother, and gently placed the Divine Infant in Her arms, but not before Agnes reaped a remembrance of her time with the Lord. 

 

Saint Agnes had placed her fingers about a small Cross, attached to a thin thread, hanging around the Baby's Precious little Neck. 

 

When Our Lady and the Divine Child disappeared, the Cross remained tightly gripped in the hand of the Saint, leaving Agnes in such a state of ecstasy that the Sisters, upon hearing her soulful cry, found her prone on the floor, unconscious.