The Soviet government reports that religion is definitely on the decline in the USSR. And given the persistent harassment of the state, one might expect that—but trustworthy sources say it isn't so.
From the bitter persecution of Diocletian (303–305), a heroine emerged. Agnes embodied the two ultimate devotions of Christianity: virginity and martyrdom. Since church fathers often spoke in glowing, almost worshipful, terms of both virgins and martyrs, it was natural that they would hail this young girl, martyred in about 304 A.D. The early-5th-century poet Prudentius takes up the story:
