HOLY FATHER BLESSES LAMBS ON FEAST OF ST. AGNES

VATICAN CITY, JAN 21, 2000 (VIS) - In liturgical memory of the virgin-martyr St. Agnes, for whom the traditional symbol is a lamb, Pope John Paul today blessed several lambs whose wool will be used to make the palliums given every year to new metropolitan archbishops as signs of their office.

In a 1978 document, "Inter Eximina Episcopalis," Pope Paul VI restricted use of the pallium to the Pope and metropolitan archbishops, In 1984 Pope John Paul decreed that it would be conferred on the metropolitans by the Pope on the June 29th solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, Apostles.

The blessing of lambs, who are under one year of age, is traditionally celebrated on the January 21 feast of St. Agnes, who died about 350 and who is buried in the basilica named for her on Rome's Via Nomentana. The lambs are raised by Trappist Fathers of the Abbey of the Three Fountains and the palliums are made from the newly-shorn wool by the sisters of St. Cecilia.

Usually in attendance at the ceremony in the papal apartments are two Trappist Fathers, two Canons of the Chapter of St. John, the dean of the Roman Rota, two ceremonial officers and two officials from the Office of the Liturgical Ceremonies of the Supreme Pontiff.

JPII-BLESSING LAMBS;ST AGNES;...;...;VIS;20000121;Word: 220;