St. Agatha

As some of you know, my parents suffered a house fire in the home I grew up in last March. They are in the midst of the rebuilding process now, and are still sorting through what that remains of our belongings.

A few nights ago, they were cleaning out a portion of our backyard garden where there was quite of bit of debris when my dad noticed a small silver medallion amongst the ashes, almost completely untouched by fire. When they picked it up and cleaned the face of it, they were amazed to find that it was a St. Agatha medallion, the Patron Saint of fires. One side showed a picture of St. Agatha and the inscription, "Pray for Us", on the other, "Protect Us From Fire".

Its almost chilling to think that this tiny medallion not only survived the fire, but was relocated to a place where my parents would find it. Its also very strange that my mother, who had lots of these Patron Saint medallions, doesn't know when or where she got this one. Agatha is also the Patron Saint of nurses, so she is assuming she received it sometime during her career as a nurse, but to have her also be the saint for fires is such a weird coincidence.

My mom now wears the medallion around her neck as a reminder of how lucky they are to have survived.