Happy Feast of St. Agnes

 Today on via Nomentana, at the basilica of S. Agnese fuori le Mura (St. Agnes Outside the Walls), two lambs were blessed, representing St. Agnes as both virgin (S.A.V., in white) and as martyr (S.A.M., in red).

As the lambs grow, their wool will be sheared to make pallia for new metropolitan archbishops, which will be presented on the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul.  

 It's pretty neat that this morning I was able to witness the lambs being presented for their blessing on this feast, and knowing that at another of my favorite basilicas on the other side of Rome, some Benedictine nuns will weave this wool into the pallia. 

Before today, I never would have guessed that the lambs would be so small at the time of their presentation and blessing.  They reminded me of little babies at their own baptisms with their plaintive bleatings as they were sprinkled with holy water and their curiosity in looking around at the crowd in the basilica as they were carried to and from the altar.