Saint Agnes Feast - Blessing of the Lambs

The 2025 feast

In 2025, January 21st fell on a Tuesday. The community of Lateran Canons and the parish of the Nomentano district celebrated the memorial of Saint Agnes, virgin and martyr, in the sanctuary that houses her relics, with Eucharistic celebrations and the prayers of the faithful.

The ceremony of presenting the lambs to the Pope, which historically accompanies this date, was no longer practiced during that period: the custom, documented since the 15th century, had been suspended during the previous pontificate and would only return the following year. The production of the pallia intended for metropolitan archbishops remained, however, entrusted to the Benedictine monastery of Saint Cecilia in Trastevere.

Even without the papal rite, the basilica on Via Nomentana remained a significant stop on January 21st for those visiting Rome in search of its paleochristian sites, between the 7th-century apse mosaic, the catacombs, and the nearby Mausoleum of Saint Constance.