is the patron saint of musicians and church music. Revered in both East and West, she is one of eight women commemorated by name at Mass.
Cecilia she was a young noblewoman from Rome. A devout Christian, she had pledged herself to chastity. However, her parents arranged for her to marry the noblewoman Valeriano. At the wedding celebration, while the musicians and singers performed music of a secular nature, her thoughts were only of God.
On the wedding night instead of consummating the marriage, her husband also became a Christian and joined her in a celibate marriage commitment. He and his brother Tiburcio then suffered martyrdom as a result of their public charity as Christians. Cecilia, still a virgin, soon joined them in her own glorious death. The dates of these martyrdoms are clouded.
The life of Saint Cecilia
Like other famous saints of the early Christian church, Saint Cecilia’s life is heavily adorned by legend. According to her story, probably written in the 5th century, she was virgin of a senatorial family and had been a Christian since childhood.
He adopted the asceticism that was popular among pious Christians of his time, wearing a rough cloth sack next to his skin, fasting and praying to saints and angels to guard her virginity.
When he came of age, was given in marriage by her parents to a noble young nobleman named Valerian. Her acts declare: “While the profane music of her wedding was heard, Cecilia sang in her heart a hymn of love to Jesus, her true husband.”
After their wedding celebration, the couple retired to the bridal chamber, where Cecilia confided that she was loved by an angel. who jealously guarded his body. Therefore, she warned Valeriano that he should be careful not to violate his virginity:
“I have an angel who loves me, who guards my body whether I sleep or wake, and if he finds that you touched my body out of anger, or out of dirty and polluted love, he will certainly kill you, and thus you will lose the flower of your youth. And if you love me with a holy and clean love, he will love you as he loves me and show us his grace.”
Valerian asked to see this angel for himself. Believing that he must first be a Christian, Cecilia sent him to the third milestone of the Appian Way, where she would meet Bishop Urban.
Valeriano obeyed and allowed himself to be baptized, returning to Cecilia as a Christian. Upon entering, he saw Cecilia praying in her room. Next to her was an angel with wings of fire, that crowned them with roses and lilies, symbols of love and chastity. The two thus entered into a spiritual marriage without sex.
When Tiburcio approached Valeriano and Cecilia, he felt a sweet presence. He too was conquered by Christianity. As good believers of the faith, they both decided to distribute large donations and buried the bodies of those who fell for Christ.
However, the prefect Turcius Almachius sentenced the brothers to death, naming his officer Maximus, to run them. However, he too suffered martyrdom along with the brothers. His corpses were buried in a tomb by Cecilia.
This was the death of this saint
After the execution of the husband and brother-in-law, Cecilia was being searched by the prefect’s officials Turcius Almachius. After performing prestigiouslywas punished to be drowned in the bathroom of her own house.
Nevertheless, miraculously unharmed in the room overheated and deprived of oxygen, and seeing this the prefect ordered that she be beheaded instead. The executioner proceeded to hit her neck three times with her sword without being able to sever her head.
Terribly frightened he fled, leaving Saint Cecilia bathed in her own blood. Santa Cecilia managed to live for three days, in which she placed her fortune in favor of the poor, and gave the order that immediately after her death her house be offered as a gift.. When Saint Cecilia died, the Pope buried her among the other patriarchs of Rome and her priests, in the catacomb of Callistus.