{"id":9513,"date":"2015-01-21T20:05:00","date_gmt":"2015-01-21T20:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/pope-francis-blesses-two-lambs-on-the-feast-of-st-agnes-35745\/"},"modified":"2015-01-21T20:05:00","modified_gmt":"2015-01-21T20:05:00","slug":"pope-francis-blesses-two-lambs-on-the-feast-of-st-agnes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/pope-francis-blesses-two-lambs-on-the-feast-of-st-agnes\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope Francis blesses two lambs on the Feast of St. Agnes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/p>\n

Vatican City, Jan 21, 2015 \/ 01:05 pm (CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- Pope Francis observed the feast of St. Agnes with the time-honored custom of the blessing of lambs, whose wool will be used to make stoles worn by archbishops and known as palliums.<\/p>\n

\tThe two small lambs, traditionally less than a year old, were placed in baskets and carried to the Casa Santa Marta on Wednesday where they received the Holy Father\u2019s blessing.
\n\t\u00a0
\n\tSt. Agnes, whose name means \u201clamb\u201d in Latin, was a young girl when she consecrated her virginity to God. Although stories of her martyrdom vary, tradition holds that the beautiful young girl was pursued by various men, whom she refused because of her promise to God.<\/p>\n

\tFeeling slighted, these men then turned her over to Roman authorities, outing her as a Christian. She was then put to death by the sword after refusing to give up her virginity or denounce her faith, at the young age of 12 or 13.<\/p>\n

\tThe young saint is buried in the Basilica named for her, located on Rome\u2019s Via Nomentana.<\/p>\n

\tDuring the blessing of the lambs, one lamb wears a white crown symbolizing the saint\u2019s purity, and the other lamb to wear a red crown, symbolic of the saint\u2019s martyrdom.<\/p>\n

\tSt. Agnes is usually depicted as carrying a lamb in her arms, and she is the patron saint of young girls, engaged couples, and victims of sexual assault.<\/p>\n

\tWhen the sheep are shorn in the summer, religious sisters will collect the wool and use it to weave the Pallium, which are white stoles with six black crosses worn by archbishops to show their authority and unity with the Pope.<\/p>\n

\tAfter the Pallium are woven, they are kept in an urn at the tomb of St. Peter until the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, when the Pope presents the stoles to the newly appointed archbishops.<\/p>\n

\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vatican City, Jan 21, 2015 \/ 01:05 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Pope Francis observed the feast of St. Agnes with the time-honored custom of the blessing of lambs, whose wool will be used to make stoles worn by archbishops and known as palliums.<\/p>\n

\tThe two sma…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vatican"],"yoast_head":"\nPope Francis blesses two lambs on the Feast of St. Agnes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Vatican City, Jan 21, 2015 \/ 01:05 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Pope Francis observed the feast of St. Agnes with the time-honored custom of the blessing of lambs, whose wool will be used to make stoles worn by archbishops and known as palliums. The two sma...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/pope-francis-blesses-two-lambs-on-the-feast-of-st-agnes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pope Francis blesses two lambs on the Feast of St. Agnes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Vatican City, Jan 21, 2015 \/ 01:05 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Pope Francis observed the feast of St. Agnes with the time-honored custom of the blessing of lambs, whose wool will be used to make stoles worn by archbishops and known as palliums. The two sma...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/pope-francis-blesses-two-lambs-on-the-feast-of-st-agnes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Catholic News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-01-21T20:05:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/images\/size340\/A_lamb_is_wreathed_in_flowers_during_a_special_Mass_for_the_Feast_of_St_Agnes_at_the_Basilica_of_St_Agnes_Outside_the_Wall_on_Jan_21_2014_Credit_Paul_Badde_CNA_CNA_1_21_14.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"CNA Daily News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"CNA Daily News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/pope-francis-blesses-two-lambs-on-the-feast-of-st-agnes\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/pope-francis-blesses-two-lambs-on-the-feast-of-st-agnes\/\",\"name\":\"Pope Francis blesses two lambs on the Feast of St. Agnes\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-01-21T20:05:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-01-21T20:05:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1\"},\"description\":\"Vatican City, Jan 21, 2015 \/ 01:05 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Pope Francis observed the feast of St. Agnes with the time-honored custom of the blessing of lambs, whose wool will be used to make stoles worn by archbishops and known as palliums. The two sma...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/pope-francis-blesses-two-lambs-on-the-feast-of-st-agnes\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/pope-francis-blesses-two-lambs-on-the-feast-of-st-agnes\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/pope-francis-blesses-two-lambs-on-the-feast-of-st-agnes\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Pope Francis blesses two lambs on the Feast of St. Agnes\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/\",\"name\":\"Catholic News\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1\",\"name\":\"CNA Daily News\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"CNA Daily News\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/author\/cna-daily-news\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Pope Francis blesses two lambs on the Feast of St. Agnes","description":"Vatican City, Jan 21, 2015 \/ 01:05 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Pope Francis observed the feast of St. Agnes with the time-honored custom of the blessing of lambs, whose wool will be used to make stoles worn by archbishops and known as palliums. The two sma...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/pope-francis-blesses-two-lambs-on-the-feast-of-st-agnes\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Pope Francis blesses two lambs on the Feast of St. Agnes","og_description":"Vatican City, Jan 21, 2015 \/ 01:05 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Pope Francis observed the feast of St. Agnes with the time-honored custom of the blessing of lambs, whose wool will be used to make stoles worn by archbishops and known as palliums. The two sma...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/pope-francis-blesses-two-lambs-on-the-feast-of-st-agnes\/","og_site_name":"Catholic News","article_published_time":"2015-01-21T20:05:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/images\/size340\/A_lamb_is_wreathed_in_flowers_during_a_special_Mass_for_the_Feast_of_St_Agnes_at_the_Basilica_of_St_Agnes_Outside_the_Wall_on_Jan_21_2014_Credit_Paul_Badde_CNA_CNA_1_21_14.jpg"}],"author":"CNA Daily News","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"CNA Daily News","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/pope-francis-blesses-two-lambs-on-the-feast-of-st-agnes\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/pope-francis-blesses-two-lambs-on-the-feast-of-st-agnes\/","name":"Pope Francis blesses two lambs on the Feast of St. Agnes","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-01-21T20:05:00+00:00","dateModified":"2015-01-21T20:05:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1"},"description":"Vatican City, Jan 21, 2015 \/ 01:05 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Pope Francis observed the feast of St. Agnes with the time-honored custom of the blessing of lambs, whose wool will be used to make stoles worn by archbishops and known as palliums. The two sma...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/pope-francis-blesses-two-lambs-on-the-feast-of-st-agnes\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/pope-francis-blesses-two-lambs-on-the-feast-of-st-agnes\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/pope-francis-blesses-two-lambs-on-the-feast-of-st-agnes\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Pope Francis blesses two lambs on the Feast of St. Agnes"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/","name":"Catholic News","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1","name":"CNA Daily News","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"CNA Daily News"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/author\/cna-daily-news\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1031"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9513\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}