St. Agnes Parish Center

Where once St. Agnes Parochial School once stood is now the Church Parish Center. Located right behind St. Agnes Church – a place dear to me as I was baptized there, the Parish Center is the ecumenical seat of activity for the Portuguese community, who are ardent Catholics and generally, avid church-​goers.
The mission-​style building and the Church proper are named in honor of St. Agnes, one of the most venerated of the virgin Saints. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, «since the close of the fourth century the Fathers of the Church and Christian poets have sung her praises and extolled her virginity and heroism under torture.» St. Agnes is represented by a lamb, which is to suggest her innocence amid the Roman religious persecutions of her time. «Agnes voluntarily declared herself a Christian, and suffered very steadfastly the martyrdom of fire, giving scarcely a thought to the frightful torments she had to endure, and concerned only with veiling, by means of her flowing hair, her chaste body which had been exposed to the gaze of the heathen multitude,» said the Catholic Encyclopedia.
5 Unilocal STARS for the Parish Center, named along with the Church, in honor of this brave female martyr. Joan of Arc may get all the glory but St. Agnes went to her final reward via the fiery stake as well, remaining blessedly chaste and pure until the end! Glory to God!