At midnight the holy apostle Peter appeared to her and healed her wounds, and after that an extraordinary light filled the prison throughout the entire night, so that the prison guards ran away in fear and left the prison unlocked. The other prisoners tried to convince Saint Agatha to escape, but she did not want to be deprived of a martyr’s crown. Soon the brutal persecutor once again called Agatha to him, and becoming enraged at the sight of her blooming appearance, gave her over to even crueler tortures. At that time a strong earthquake shook the city, and the frightened citizens demanded from the persecutor to let go the innocent maiden, for whose sake the earthquake had occurred. Quintian, fearing both the earthquake and popular unrest, once more ordered the holy martyr to be taken to prison, where she finally died. Then the inhabitants of the city took her body and buried it with honor.

After that Quintian took his soldiers and set out for the city of Palermo, in order to take Saint Agatha’s wealth and seize her estates. Along the way he had to cross a deep river. He stepped with his horses onto a ferry boat and sailed across the river, but suddenly the horses went mad and turned against him, wounding him terribly and pushing him into the river, in which the persecutor drowned, ending his evil life with a horrible death. His body was searched for a long time, but never found: it perished together with his soul. After that none of the Emperor’s governors dared offend any of Saint Agatha’s relatives. Her fame spread widely, and a church was built over her holy relics; the ragged clothes which she deliberately wore as a symbol of being the servant of Christ were placed on her tomb in remembrance of her humility.

A year after Saint Agatha’s death, the nearby mountain Etna began erupting fiery lava. The inhabitants of Catana were terrified, fearing the destruction of their city. Then not only Christians but also infidels gathered in the holy martyr’s church, took her clothes and used them to defend themselves from the fiery torrents rushing at the city, for as soon as the martyr’s clothes appeared, the fire miraculously ran back and became extinguished. Seeing such a great miracle, all the inhabitants gave glory to God and the holy martyr Agatha.