22
November. Day of Remembrance:
1662 Book of Common Prayer: Cecilia, Martyr
Editors.
“Saint Cecilia.” Encyclopedia Britannica. N.d. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/101046/Saint-Cecilia. Accessed 28 May 2014.
Saint Cecilia, Cecilia
also spelled Cecily (flourished 3rd
century, Rome [Italy]; feast day
November 22), patroness of music, one of the most famous Roman martyrs of
the early church and historically
one of the most discussed.
According to a late
5th-century legend, she was a noble Roman who as a child had vowed her
virginity to God. When she was married against her will to the future saint Valerian, then a pagan,
she told him that an angel of God wished her to remain a virgin. He promised to
respect this wish if he were allowed to see the angel. She replied that he
would if he were baptized. On his return from baptism he found Cecilia talking
to the angel. She then converted his brother Tiburtius, who also saw the angel.
Both men were martyred before she was. She distributed her possessions to the
poor, which enraged the prefect Almachius, who ordered her to be burned. When
the flames did not harm her, she was beheaded. Cecilia was buried in the
catacomb of St. Callistus, near Rome. At the beginning of the 9th century, Pope
St. Paschal I discovered her relics in the catacomb of St. Praetextatus and had
them moved to Rome, to a basilica in Trastevere that now bears her name. She
became the patron saint of musicians and
music; in art she is often represented playing the organ.
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