St. Agnes was a Roman girl who was only thirteen years old when she suffered martyrdom for her faith. St. Agnes is the patron saint of the children of Mary. She was condemned as a witch and led out tied to a stake to be burned. However, the bundle of wood would not burn her, whereupon the officer in charge drew his sword and struck off her head.

St. Dymphna is the patron saint of the nervous, emotionally disturbed, mentally ill and those who suffer neurological disorders. She was 15 when she was beheaded by the sword of her father, Damon. It is reported that many miracles have taken place at her shrine, built on the spot where she was buried in Gheel, Belgium.

St. Margaret was the daughter of a pagan priest at Antioch in Pisidia. Also known as Marina, she was converted to Christianity, whereupon she was driven from home by her father. She became a shepherdess and when she spurned the advances of Olybrius, the prefect, who was infatuated with her beauty, he charged her with being a Christian. He had her tortured and then imprisoned, and while she was in prison she had an encounter with the devil in the form of a dragon. According to the legend, he swallowed her, but the cross she carried in her hand so irritated his throat that he was forced to disgorge her (she is patroness of childbirth). The next day, attempts were made to execute her by fire and then by drowning, but she was miraculously saved and converted thousands of spectators witnessing her ordeal-all of whom were promptly executed. Finally, she was beheaded.