Quinziano, as soon as he saw her, was kidnapped by her beauty. A passionate ardor invaded him, but his attempts at seduction were all in vain, because Agatha always rejected him with great firmness. The proconsul then thought that a re-education program could transform the young woman and convince her to give up her vows and give in to her flattery. He entrusted her for a month to a courtesan, a dissolute matron, a teacher of vices and corruption, who was known as Aphrodisias.
The woman lived in the house with her daughters, nine according to tradition, diabolical and licentious at least as she. It was the hardest and most terrible month for the young Agatha. Her purity was forced to suffer continuous insults, bad examples and immoral invitations. To make her forget Jesus, Aphrodisias tried her with every means: banquets, feasts, amusements of all kinds, promised her jewels, riches and slaves. But Agatha despised each of these gifts. When the instrument of persuasion proved incapable of bending his iron will, Aphrodisiaa and her daughters attempted to achieve the same vile goal through threats. "Quinziano will have you killed ", they told them. But the incorruptible virgin rejected every proposal, showed herself insensitive to every threat, opposed dry refusals using words of fire: Vain are your promises, foolish words, powerless threats. Know that my heart is firm as a stone in Christ and will never give in.
The young Agatha was always faithful to her only Bridegroom; to him she offered the sufferings she suffered for the faith and day after day her soul was more and more tempered. At the end of the month and faced with the firmness of Agatha, Aphrodisias could only give up. Defeated and humiliated, he returned the young woman to Quinziano: "She has the toughest head of the lava of Etna, she does nothing but weep and pray to her invisible Bridegroom. Hope from her a minimum sign of affection is only lost time ".