Vatican City - This morning, on the liturgical memorial of St Agnes, at 8.30 a.m., an ancient tradition was renewed in the Vatican, one that weaves together martyrdom, symbolism and the governance of the Church: the blessing of the lambs whose wool will be used to make the pallia of metropolitan archbishops. It is a rite that, in recent years, had been set aside under Pope Francis.
This morning, however, in the Chapel of Urban VIII in the Apostolic Palace, Leo XIV blessed the lambs, restoring a practice attested for centuries and directly linked to the figure of the young Roman martyr.
History and tradition
The link between Agnes and the lamb is first and foremost symbolic and linguistic. The saint’s name evokes both the Greek haghnós (pure) and the Latin agnus. In iconography, Agnes is often depicted beside a lamb, a sign of purity, sacrifice and fidelity to Christ, the Bridegroom whom the martyr refused to renounce even in the face of death. The tradition of the blessing, already attested between the fourth and sixth centuries, has endured as a visible sign of this living memory. In recent years, regrettably, the Pope no longer blessed the lambs, and the rite was celebrated during Holy Mass in the Basilica of St Agnes Outside the Walls by the Canons Regular of the Lateran. Today, however, Leo XIV has resumed this beautiful tradition, which also allowed him to meet the religious who brought the lambs to the Vatican.
The lambs are donated by the Trappist monks of the Abbey of the Three Fountains in Rome. The monks entrust the animals to the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, who raise and care for them. These religious sisters are also responsible for dressing the lambs, placing a kind of mantle on their backs. One lamb wears red, in memory of the saint’s martyrdom; the other wears white, recalling her virginity. The same colours are used for the floral wreaths placed on the animals’ heads, and small ribbons are tied to their ears. After this form of vesting, the two lambs are each placed in a basket and brought to the Holy Father for the blessing, before being taken to the Basilica of St Agnes.
In the Basilica of St Agnes Outside the Walls, during Mass presided over by the Abbot General of the Canons Regular of the Lateran, the lambs are placed on the altar, above the relics of Agnes and Emerentiana, the martyr’s foster sister. Emerentiana died two days later: she was a catechumen, close to receiving Baptism. According to tradition, she was found praying at Agnes’s tomb; dragged out of the church, she was stoned to death.
Preparation of the pallium
The lambs are shorn, not killed. Their wool is then used to make the pallia, the liturgical insignia that express the special bond between the Pope and metropolitan archbishops. The pallium is a white woollen band, adorned with six black silk crosses, which visibly recalls communion with the Church of Rome and the pastoral responsibility entrusted to metropolitans within their ecclesiastical provinces.
The pallium is blessed by the Pontiff on 29 June, the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, and then imposed on the metropolitans. This year, moreover, Leo XIV has decided to convene all the cardinals in the Vatican in the days immediately preceding the solemnity for an extraordinary consistory. The journey that begins with the blessing of the lambs on the feast of St Agnes unfolds over months of careful craftsmanship and culminates in the solemn gesture that makes visible the hierarchical communion of the Church.
Today’s rite, celebrated by Leo XIV in the Chapel of Urban VIII, is an act rich in ecclesial significance: from the witness of a young fourth-century martyr to the pastoral governance of local Churches, the blessing of the lambs continues to tell—through an essential symbolic language—how the Church’s tradition is able to unite memory, faith and responsibility.
fr.M.C.
Silere non possum