The Patron Saint of Breast Cancer Survivors

When I was first diagnosed with breast cancer (still thinking it was Ductal Carcinoma In Situ), my mom sent me a beautiful necklace with many charms. She had originally bought the necklace with only a single charm on it many years ago when she had a breast biopsy and was nervous about the results. Hopefully I will faithfully retell her story, but back then I believe biopsies were really more like mini-surgeries that required anesthesia and them removing a bigger chunk of flesh. Now you get a vacuum needle biospy where they just numb you up and jam a big 12-gauge needle in to suck out some tissue.

The necklace she picked had a charm of a heart that had little chimes inside that jingled softly when you moved. She liked it because it made her feel like an angel was watching over her. She wore the necklace under her scrubs as she anxiously awaited the results. Fortunately, everything came back normal. But as she learned of other people in her life who were going through difficult times, she would send the necklace to them. Over the years it has gone to people who were getting treatment for breast cancer, bladder cancer, other medical issues or just difficult times. Everyone has added a charm to it since then. When my mom sent me the necklace, it already had a St. Agatha medal on it – the patron saint of breast cancer survivors. But this is what took me down the path of looking more into St. Agatha’s story and ultimately let me to learn of St. Macrina.

St. Agatha

The story of St. Agatha, also referred to as St. Agatha of Sicily, was about a young, beautiful woman born to a noble family. Her story is very graphic and morbid. At a young age, she committed herself to Jesus and became a consecrated virgin. A rich nobleman, Quintianus, wanted her for himself and believed that he could turn her away from her sacred vow. Despite numerous attempts, she kept refusing his marriage proposals.

He decided to compel her to marry him by arresting her and bringing her before him as he also served as the judge for their jurisdiction. Still refusing him, he imprisoned her in a brothel to try to break her down to relent to his wishes. Despite being assaulted repeatedly while in the brothel, she did not give in and reaffirmed her commitment to Jesus.

Since his first plan didn’t work, he then decided to have her imprisoned in an actual jail, but this time he ordered that she be tortured. She was whipped, burned and stretched on a rack, but she still did not give into him. Finally, he decided that they would cut off her breasts and that she would not be given any medical treatment.

While in prison, Agatha had a vision of St. Peter who came to comfort her and heal her wounds. Quintianus refused to take a hint when she was miraculously healed and still could not believe she wouldn’t just give into him. He decided to have her stripped naked and rolled over hot coals. Agatha prayed to God to receive her soul and it is believed that this is when Agatha died. She was around 20 years old.

Personally, I feel like this is not exactly the story I wish to think about as I pursue my treatment. In addition to being the patron saint of breast cancer patients, she is also the patron saint of Sicily, rape victims, wet nurses and a few other things. I don’t know about you, but I’d like to not think of my journey with breast cancer to even approximate St. Agatha’s experience. And while many women do have double mastectomies, I sincerely hope their experience is better and more compassionate than having their breasts gruesomely cut off and being refused medical treatment! Given all of this, I wondered if there was any other saint related to breast cancer and that’s when I came across this journal article about St. Macrina the Younger.

St. Macrina the Younger

In my Google searching, I came across an article written in 2005 for the journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery by Cicero Urban, et al. The article tells the story of St. Macrina who comes from a family of Saints including her grandmother, St. Macrina the Elder, and her brothers, St. Basil and St. Gregory of Nyssa. It’s actually her brother Gregory who recounts her story.

Essentially, when she is very young, Macrina discovers a lump on her breast. Despite her mother’s continuous pleas to seek medical attention, she decides to ask for God’s help. I guess it helped that this was the 4th century and medical care wasn’t exactly great. Pretty sure there was no anesthesia and surgical outcomes were pretty terrible.

Macrina instead asks her mother to make the sign of the cross on her ”near gangrenous breast” (yuck!). She does this because she’s a mom and that’s what moms do. St. Gregory believes God himself heals her, because after this happens (and I’m assuming some time passes), the wound heals and all that remains is a little scar. She ends up living until 51, which is pretty good for those days.

The authors make the argument that St. Macrina’s story is way better for breast cancer survivors. She was healed with only a tiny scar remaining while St. Agatha was horribly mutilated and tortured. This is the main goal of oncoplastic surgery – to remove the tumor and cure women with nothing but a little scar. I know whose story I would prefer to experience! I’m pretty confident that most people, even Catholics aren’t terribly familiar with St. Macrina’s story and I found it to be pretty interesting.

Traveling to see St. Macrina

When she was traveling out to Maryland, my mom found out there was a monastery in Pennsylvania called the Sisters of St. Basil. The area is just outside of Pittsburgh in Uniontown and it is located on Mount Saint Macrina, named after St. Basil’s sister. On her way out to Maryland, she decided to stop there and check it out.

When she stopped, she found the statue of St. Macrina and said a prayer for me in the grotto they have on the grounds of the monastery. There is a little trail to walk along as well. When my mom went to the gift shop she said the ladies in the gift shop didn’t know much about St. Macrina, so she schooled them real good! That sounds more confrontational than it probably was, but I’m pretty sure she got there about 15 minutes before the gift shop closed after driving hours from Michigan. She was able to pick up a beautiful plaque of St. Macrina and a laminated card of St. Agatha.

On the day of my sentinel lymph node surgery, my mom rubbed the plaque of St. Macrina on my right side – the side that had the tumor I no longer had! Fortunately for my mom, she did not need to touch any gross tissue nor did I have a gangrenous anything on my body. It must have worked because my sentinel lymph nodes all came back negative!

In addition to the plaque, I also keep my mom’s charm necklace with me and wear my St. Michael’s medal that I received from my aunt and uncle when I was confirmed. All of these objects help to remind me to stay strong and that there is support out there for me. Hopefully the strength of all of those people who had the charm necklace before me, the help of St. Macrina and everyone else’s support will get me through this treatment!

I may not be an active Catholic at this time, but prayer and reflection on these stories has been comforting and helpful. There is also something to say about spiritually reflecting on this situation, because sometimes the science and facts aren’t completely comforting. Also, when thinking about your soul, the purpose of life and understanding what you want out of your life, I’ve found that you can’t always easily ”logic” your way through that. You can’t know everything about everything in the world, because that’s just too much knowledge. At some point, you need to just believe and trust in the people around you that are there to help you.