The cult of some martyrs such as St. Lucy or St. Agatha enjoyed great popularity in past centuries. St. Agatha possessed, in the eyes of traditional society, all that a young woman could desire: position, distinguished family and extraordinary beauty, treasuring much more than all that: her faith in Jesus Christ. This was demonstrated when the proconsul of Sicily, Quintianus, "libidinous, avaricious and idolatrous", according to the hagiographies of the saint, took advantage of the persecution of the emperor Decius (250-253) against Christians to try to possess her. His proposals were resolutely rejected by the young virgin, because she was engaged to her husband Jesus Christ. The tyrant did not give up and gave her into the hands of Aphrodisia, a perverse woman, who ran a brothel with her ten daughters, with the idea that she would bend her to the temptations of the world. Her evil arts were contradicted by the virtue and fidelity to Christ that the young woman witnessed. Quintiano then, dominated by anger, tortured her cruelly, to the point of ordering her breasts to be cut off. On that occasion, he received a famous reply from Agueda: "Cruel tyrant, are you not ashamed to torture a woman with the same breast with which you fed yourself as a child? The saint was consoled by a vision of St. Peter who miraculously healed her. But the tortures continued and she finally deserved the palm of martyrdom, being thrown on burning coals in Catania. In addition, it is said that she gave a great cry of joy at her death, giving thanks to God.

Iribarren, Satrústegui, Idoate, Jimeno Jurío and Usunáriz have provided numerous testimonies of the festivity in the rural world of Navarre in past centuries, almost always with three rites: bonfires, postulations and ringing of bells. In Navarre there are two parishes (Idoate and Aizoain) and twenty-three hermitages. This last data is significant within the issue of that subject of sanctuaries dedicated to saints: Saint Lucia has 54 hermitages, Saint Barbara, 45; María Magdalena, 24; Saint Agueda, 23; and Saint Catalina and Saint Engracia, 22. Regarding relics, the most important one is review in the inventories of the parish of San Miguel de Estella, consisting of a shin of his arm, sent from Naples, by Don Bernardo de Luquin.

Her feast day is commemorated with solemnity in some towns such as Legarda. Cáseda celebrates her as patron saint with bells, procession, fireworks, music and the participation of the town council in the religious acts.

A year after her death, the volcano in the city of Catania erupted, but the lava stopped in front of her tomb, so she was declared patron saint of the city, considering her as an advocate against fires, burns, lightning and volcanic eruptions. Thus, in Urzainqui if there was a fire, it was poured on the blessed bread of the saint, as well as on the roofs of the houses that were in danger by the flames. In Ablitas the night of the saint's day, bonfires were lit in the bell tower, because it was popular belief that it was at that time when the summer storms were distributed. In some villages of the Barranca, the day of the saint was chosen by the authorities to go out to inspect the chimneys of all the neighbors, taking advantage of the occasion to collect succulent food.

Her cruel martyrdom made women invoke her against breast disease and lactation, mothers and wet nurses. Coplas, like this one from La Ribera, refer to that event: "Gloriosísima santa Águeda / de las santas sin rival / que te cuertaron los pechos / igual que se cuerta un pan".

From the eve of the saint's feast day, the ringing of bells took on a special role, surely evoking a passage of her life, recorded in some hagiographies of the saint, according to which, as a child, she got lost and, hearing the bells, was able to return home.

The first printed testimony on the use of bells on her feast day dates back to 1510, when the Peraltés canon Martín de Andosilla wrote in De supersticionibus, these words "ringing the bells on the day of St. Agatha to ward off evil spells falls into the field of superstition".

This custom spread throughout the whole of the region. Various episcopal mandates and ecclesiastical visitators tried, in vain, to put an end to this immemorial tradition, threatening with excommunication. In Cascante, among the obligations of the sacristan, in 1582, it is pointed out that he must ring the bells in the hours of prayer in the morning, noon and afternoon; in the cloudy days, for mass and vespers; in the processions, for the deceased "and the night of Santa Agueda the whole night, although they give him two and a half reals for this night". In Azuelo, in the middle of the XVIII century, it was the young men who rang the bells for a while. In other towns such as Bargota, Aras, Marañón or Viana there is evidence that they did the same and until recent times the custom has been perpetuated in several towns of Tierra Estella, Salazar, Igal, Roncal, Mélida and Ablitas.   

According to Iribarren in De Pascuas a Ramos, in the town of Igal, until well into the twentieth century, the young men climbed the tower and rang the bells for several hours. The town council paid for the wine, which was consumed during the ringing. In Mélida, until the end of the 19th century, it was the women who rang the bells in a frenzied manner. In general, it was believed that the sound of the bells preserved the villages from fires during summer storms, which could ruin the crops.

The songs and coplas during the postulations of the feast gave way to the "Coros de Santa Agueda" (Choirs of St. Agatha), which, at dusk, go through the streets with lighted lanterns and sticks, singing and collecting a donation. In Los Arcos and Sesma the altar boys carried the image of the saint through the streets. At the same time that the protection of the saint was invoked with naive couplets, food was collected in the houses for the snack. In the capital of Navarre, the arrival of the choirs dates back to 1964, when the Muthiko Alaiak peña started singing to the saint.

A judicial process, studied by Florencio Idoate, tells us how at the beginning of the XVII century, in Burgui there was a curious custom, according to which, "for St. Agatha of every year, they take away the keys of the doors of their houses and then they turn them all together and take them out two by two, so that the keys that came out together, the two houses come together and eat and strike each other on the said day of St. Agatha, and have their charities, and those who are at enmity are put in peace."

Jimeno Jurío described the "special flavor" of the celebration in Alsasua, describing it as follows: "the "quintos" dress in white, adorning themselves with colorful neckerchiefs and terciados, and carrying petition trays and "korosti" (holly) sticks, decorated with colored ribbons. The two "kings" administrators preside over the festivities. One of them collects the cakes with which they are presented by the girls, stringing them on a long stick. They postulate, eat and dance together. At night they dance in the place the traditional zortziko".

Several towns in the Guesálaz Valley celebrated the day in past centuries with a special meal. This is clear from some lawsuits litigated in the Royal Courts, in 1565, in which Salinas de Oro, Muniain, Izurzu, Muez and Lerate asked the parish councils of the mentioned places for certain quantities of wheat, wine and decimal fruits for the celebration of the council meals on the day of Saint Agatha.

In Arróniz, the custom of electing a "town council for a day" has been preserved in the feast of the saint. The tradition has to be framed in the line of the winter parodies and carnivals starring young people and children. Valentín Galbete Echeverría - under the pseudonym of Ángel Cruz de Ibarrea - gave an account of how the celebration had evolved in 1968 in this same newspaper (February 13, 1988). Until well into the 20th century, the three neighborhoods of the town: Milarin, Greta and Barrionuevo, celebrated the festivity on a rotating basis. Along with the dawn and the religious acts, those chosen to be part of the corporation were dressed in the old style, with jackets, capes and hats. A photograph from the year 2000, kindly provided to us by the former municipal secretary Pablo Echeverría, sample shows the quintos as mayor and councilors, in the arcades of the town hall, reading their petitions, criticisms, satires and other burlesque witticisms that they pronounced before the rest of the inhabitants. In recent years, children have taken center stage in this particular municipal corporation.

Of enormous expressiveness is the scene of her martyrdom, which we find in the copy of the bible of Sancho el Fuerte, preserved in Augsburg, a work from the end of the 12th century, in which no less than six passages are dedicated to the saint, on three pages, which is the largest iconographic cycle of the martyr in Navarrese art. As is known, the so-called Pamplona Bibles are two codices made by Ferrando Petri de Funes and his workshop, shortly before 1200, copies of which are preserved today in Amiens and Augsburg. It is in the latter copy that we find greater emphasis on the female saints, giving space to some of the oldest narrative cycles of some female saints in the West. In this regard, it should be remembered that the aforementioned codex must have been made for the sister of Sancho el Fuerte, Doña Berenguela, wife of Richard the Lionheart.

A cycle with the narrativism typical of Gothic appears in the frescoes of the parish church of Olloqui, related to those of Ororbia, both works of great quality, made in the second quarter of the 14th century, in the circle of Juan Oliver, the author of the mural of the refectory of the cathedral of Pamplona, today in the Museum of Navarre. Four scenes make up the singular set studied by Carlos Martínez Álava and Javier Martínez de Aguirre. The cycle itself is of great importance both for its authorship and for its patron, the hospital canon Pedro de Olloqui of Pamplona between 1331 and 1357. Four passages are narrated in two registers, in the upper one the martyrdom (the saint before Quintiano, represented as a king and with Afrodisia) and in the lower one the burial and cult.

Another small cycle of her life can be found in the main altarpiece of the parish of Aizoáin, the work of Martín de Elordi and Pedro Moret, valued in 1597. In the main body of the altarpiece, on both sides of the carving of the saint, we find two reliefs. One narrates the martyrdom with the saint half-naked and the executioner grabbing her breast that he is about to cut with a large scissors, partially disappeared. Although the story is atrocious, there are other examples of the same in Navarre, such as the one in the parish of Mañeru, where the sadistic executioner's large pincers are used to cut the breasts of the virgin Águeda. The other scene of the Aizoáin altarpiece is centered on the visit of Saint Peter, identified by his keys, to cure the saint, closely following the conversation between the two, narrated in the Golden Legend, when Águeda does not allow herself to be cured out of modesty, until the prince of the apostles identifies himself as such.

It is usual from the late Gothic period and throughout the 16th century and the beginning of the following century to find the saint paired with another martyr (Sangüesa, Cárcar...). In the altarpiece of the saints Juanes de Muruzábal, a work from the beginning of the 16th century attributed to Diego Polo by A. Aceldegui, she is found with Saint Catherine. In a panel by the master of Gallipienzo, identified by Pedro Echeverría with Pedro Sarasa, we see her with Saint Barbara; in the main altarpiece of Burlada (Museum of Navarra), with the Magdalena and in the main altarpiece of Etayo with Saint Ursula. Her identification is always easy because she carries her breasts, an attribute of her martyrdom, and the palm, which assures triumph and victory.

Its images corresponding to the first Renaissance and Romanesque periods are abundant throughout Navarre and are counted by more than a hundred. Around 1570 dates the table of the saint from Sarriguren, which is preserved in the Museum of Navarre, work of Ramón de Oscáriz, in which there are two scenes of martyrdom and the visit of St. Peter to cure him.

Among the Mannerist paintings, the examples of Fitero and Cortes stand out. In the first case, a A panel of the main altarpiece of the monastery, a work contracted by Rolan Mois in 1590, shows the quality of a master who had been in Italy and knew the models of those lands, as well as the representation in prints by Cornielis Cort and other engravers. The painting of Cortes, from the beginning of the 17th century, is the work of Juan de Lumbier and forms a pair with another of the same characteristics of Saint Lucia. The iridescent and vivid colors testify the way of working of that painter, protagonist of the Mannerism in the Ribera de Navarra. Also noteworthy are a panel from the parish of Milagro, made in 1619 by the painter Celedón Pérez -perhaps Celedonio Pérez del Castillo-, and a canvas from the middle of the 17th century, kept in the Carmelitas de Araceli de Corella.