By DEB PIROCH
English alternative: St. Cecily
Virgin and Martyr
Feast: November 22
Birth, death, and martyrdom dates — unknown
Our Church is based on apostolic succession, with our beliefs founded in Tradition passed on directly from Christ Himself and the apostles, as well as through biblical writings. All other religions are either false religions (based on another god rather than on the Trinity) or cannot claim the fullness of the faith.
In discussing St. Cecilia, one of the most ancient martyrs of Catholicism, many of the details of her life cannot be established as easily as with a modern saint. We do not know the dates of her birth, death, or even martyrdom.
However, she was so famous that her legacy, even if perhaps somewhat apocryphal in parts, has been passed down over the centuries. She is one of only seven female saints mentioned in the oldest part of the Mass, the canon, which dates to the seventh century. Her life likely dates to the third to fourth century after Christ, though again, it could have been earlier. By 545 her feast day was reportedly already celebrated by the Church. Centuries later, she was still widely remembered and lauded in in the Middle Ages, in Chaucer’s A Second Nun’s Tale (written in Middle English):
This mayden bright Cecilie, as hir lif seith,
Was comen of Romayns and of noble kynde,
And from hir cradel up fostred in the faith
Of Crist, and bar his gospel in hir mynde.
She nevere cessed, as I writen fynde,
Of hir preyere and God to love and drede,
Bisekynge hym to kepe hir maydenhede.
Cecilia’s story as we know it is simple. The daughter of a noble family, she was raised Christian. She wished to remain a consecrated virgin to Christ, but her father had other ideas and arranged a marriage for her with another patrician, by the name of Valerian. Praying all would be well, Cecilia spoke with him on retiring about her wishes. She further explained to Valerian that an angel accompanied her, intent on protecting her maidenhood. Rather surprisingly, he answered quite reasonably if he, too, could see the angel, he would honor her commitment.
So Cecilia said that if he agreed to Baptism, and acknowledged there to be only one, true God, this would be the next step. She sent him along the Appian Way, where he conveniently ran into Pope Urban. We cannot date the event, because there were a great many Pope Urbans! In any case, when he met this Pope Urban, he was holding a sign. Valerian read it: “One Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all, above all and in us all. Do you believe this?”
Valerian acquiesced and was immediately baptized. Sure enough, he returned to his bride and the angel was plainly visible to him! The moment was literally crowned when the angel placed flowered wreaths on their brows. Not finished by half, Cecilia’s brother-in-law, Tiburtius, soon came to visit and she converted him, as well.
Some have said that the emperor of the period approved of peaceful Christians. If this were the case, Alexander Severus ruled…yet Valerian and Tiburtius were kept busy burying a great many martyred Christians, and in fact were arrested for it. Yet the time frame might work; at the same time the Prefect of Rome, a sort of ruler for the city, was Turcius Almachius, known for his hatred of Christians.
Despite being given chances to worship and sacrifice to Jupiter and false gods, Valerian and Tiburtius repeatedly refused and were first scourged, then eventually beheaded. One bystander, a man who bore the name Maximus, immediately declared himself a Christian on witnessing their martyrdom and he, too, was martyred. All three Cecilia would bury in the catacombs of Praetextatus on April 14, year unknown.
Inevitably, the spotlight then turned on Cecilia. Here there are many stories apocryphal in nature, but they all seem to agree that in the end an attempt was made to behead her with a sword with three strikes. She was not beheaded but lay dying for three days. Other stories state she was to be suffocated, some say she was put in a furnace that was fed a day and a half but she survived unharmed — but in any case even her corpse gave evidence of the blows she received.
She was buried originally in the catacombs of St. Callistus, along the Appian Way, where a number of Popes were buried. As these catacombs were five levels deep, over many acres, Wikipedia estimates that at its fullest these tombs etched in the rock would have held 16 Popes and nearly 50 martyrs. Pope St. Paschal moved her relics to St. Cecilia in Trastevere church in the ninth century. Later, she was moved for church repairs.
In 1599 Stefano Maderno, sculptor, was among those involved with those repairs and sculpted the beautiful work so many of us have seen, of her peacefully lying on her side, as though asleep. Those present for the moving of her body witnessed she was incorrupt, and a statement by the sculptor gave testimony to the same. This church itself dates from the fifth century, but is believed to have been built on the site of a third-century church and an earlier house — hers? Before Cecilia was killed, Pope Urban was said to have baptized over 400 in the church in her own home, where she had hoped a church would exist when she was gone. Whether true or not, history indicates her hope as a possibility.
“The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church” — Tertullian.
Why do we not find Cecilia’s name on lists of ancient martyrs?
The oldest extant list is mostly Roman martyrs and called the Depositio Martyrum (AD 354), but it only begins with the year 258, except for a list of the original apostles. Many other compilations would follow over the years — one by St. Jerome! — but in the scope of God’s creation, many martyrs are known only to God.
Why is there no miracle(s) associated with Cecilia’s canonization?
At this time of the ancient persecutions, a martyrdom such as hers ensured her sainthood and no miracle was required.
Why is she the patron saint of music?
It is said that during her wedding, she “sang in her heart to the Lord” for aid. Other accounts say the tradition came because she sang as she lay dying, and others think the concept didn’t arise until the Middle Ages.
Do we know why her body is incorrupt?
Certain saints, unexplainable by science, have not deteriorated after death. Why not is a mystery known only to God; many holy men and women have certainly disintegrated, as will most of us. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Perhaps we will discover the answer at the Last Judgment!
Some feel that the arrangement of St. Cecilia’s hands in Maderno’s statue of her incorrupt body indicate the Trinity; one hand extends three fingers, the other one. Three in one, Triune God.
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