Gospel 2-5-24. Matt 19:3-12. St Agatha, Virgin, Martyr

⁣And there came to him the Pharisees tempting him, and saying: Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?
Et accesserunt ad eum pharisaei tentantes eum, et dicentes : Si licet homini dimittere uxorem suam, quacumque ex causa?
⁠ 4 ⁠Who answering, said to them: Have ye not read, that he who made man from the beginning, made them male and female? And he said:
Qui respondens, ait eis : Non legistis, quia qui fecit hominem ab initio, masculum et feminam fecit eos? Et dixit :
⁠ 5 ⁠For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they two shall be in one flesh.
Propter hoc dimittet homo patrem, et matrem, et adhaerebit uxori suae, et erunt duo in carne una.
⁠ 6 ⁠Therefore now they are not two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.
Itaque jam non sunt duo, sed una caro. Quod ergo Deus conjunxit, homo non separet.
⁠ 7 ⁠They say to him: Why then did Moses command to give a bill of divorce, and to put away?
Dicunt illi : Quid ergo Moyses mandavit dare libellum repudii, et dimittere?
⁠ 8 ⁠He saith to them: Because Moses by reason of the hardness of your heart permitted you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.
Ait illis : Quoniam Moyses ad duritiam cordis vestri permisit vobis dimittere uxores vestras : ab initio autem non fuit sic.
⁠ 9 ⁠And I say to you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and he that shall marry her that is put away, committeth adultery.
Dico autem vobis, quia quicumque dimiserit uxorem suam, nisi ob fornicationem, et aliam duxerit, moechatur : et qui dimissam duxerit, moechatur.
⁠ 10 ⁠His disciples say unto him: If the case of a man with his wife be so, it is not expedient to marry.
Dicunt ei discipuli ejus : Si ita est causa hominis cum uxore, non expedit nubere.
⁠ 11 ⁠Who said to them: All men take not this word, but they to whom it is given.
Qui dixit illis : Non omnes capiunt verbum istud, sed quibus datum est.
⁠ 12 ⁠For there are eunuchs, who were born so from their mother's womb: and there are eunuchs, who were made so by men: and there are eunuchs, who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven. He that can take, let him take it.
Sunt enim eunuchi, qui de matris utero sic nati sunt : et sunt eunuchi, qui facti sunt ab hominibus : et sunt eunuchi, qui seipsos castraverunt propter regnum caelorum. Qui potest capere capiat.


Born in Sicily of noble parents, St Agatha suffered dreadful torture at the hands of her persecutors but she was healed on the following night by a vision of St Peter. Other sufferings were inflicted upon her, and from there she died A.D. 254.