Cecilia

The Holy Martyr Cecilia was a Christian virgin of Rome, killed for her faith in Christ. The Orthodox Church commemorates her on 22 November, new style (5 December in Churches keeping the old calendar), together with her husband, Valerian, his brother, Tiburtius, and the soldier Maximus. In the West she is also honoured as patroness of music and musicians, and her name is spoken in the Canon of the Latin Mass.

Her life, as the Church tells it

The story of her life comes from her Acts, written probably in the fifth century, so for many details we rely on tradition. According to it, Cecilia was born at Rome into a wealthy and noble family, still pagan. Hearing the Gospel, she believed in Christ and made a vow of virginity. Her parents nevertheless betrothed her to a young pagan nobleman, Valerian, and forced her to wear fine clothes and jewels. Beneath them she wore a rough hair shirt and prayed with tears that the Lord would prevent the wedding.

On the wedding day Cecilia wept and prayed that the Lord would send an angel to guard her chastity. Her honour as patroness of music comes from the wedding music: it is said that, while the instruments played, she "sang in her heart to the Lord".

On the wedding night she told Valerian that an invisible angel defended her and would strike him if he touched her. Valerian asked to see the angel, and Cecilia answered that no one can see him who does not know the true God, but that if he were baptized by Bishop Urban he would see him. Urban was hiding from the persecution in a cave near the Appian Way. Valerian received his teaching with joy and was baptized.

Returning home, he found Cecilia praying and saw beside her an angel of indescribable beauty, holding two crowns of red roses and white lilies. The angel placed them on their heads and told them to keep them by purity of heart and body. Then Valerian asked that his brother, Tiburtius, also come to know God. Tiburtius smelled the roses and lilies, believed and was baptized by the bishop.

The martyrdom of Valerian, Tiburtius and Maximus

The two brothers gave part of their inheritance to the poor, cared for the sick and buried the Christians killed by the persecutors. The eparch Almachius, learning of it, seized them, tried them and, when they refused to sacrifice to the idols, had them scourged without mercy. Valerian urged the Christians not to fear torments. Fearing that the crowd would be drawn to them, the eparch ordered them taken outside the city and killed.

The soldiers escorting them were led by Maximus. He marvelled at their courage and asked why they did not fear death. The brothers answered that they were exchanging this passing life for eternal life. Maximus wished to learn the Christian teaching and took them to his house, where they talked all night. When she heard of it, Cecilia came with a priest, and Maximus and all his household were baptized. The next day Valerian and Tiburtius were beheaded, and Maximus declared before everyone that he had seen their souls rising to heaven. For this he was beaten to death with whips.

The martyrdom of Cecilia

The eparch wished to seize the property of those killed, but learned that Cecilia had given it to the poor and had brought about four hundred people to Christ by her preaching. He then ordered her killed. For three days she was kept in a heated bath, in steam and smoke, but the grace of God protected her. The executioner then struck her neck with the sword three times but did not sever her head. Cecilia lived three more days, fully conscious, strengthening those around her in the faith, and fell asleep in prayer. According to tradition, she asked Bishop Urban to make a church of her house.

Date and historicity

The time of her martyrdom is not certain. It is most often said that she suffered around the year 230, under the emperor Alexander Severus. The historian Giovanni Battista de Rossi argued that she died in Sicily, under Marcus Aurelius, between 176 and 180, on the testimony of Venantius Fortunatus. Scholars consider the existence of the martyr a fact, but some details of the Acts belong to a pious tale. Her feast has been known since the fourth century.

Relics and veneration

Her relics were placed in the catacomb of Callixtus, and in the ninth century Pope Paschal I moved them to the church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere at Rome, believed to stand on the site of the house in which she lived and died. In 1599, when the casket was opened by Cardinal Sfondrati, her body was reported to be intact, as if asleep. The sculptor Stefano Maderno then made the statue beneath the altar, in the position in which she was found.

In the West, from the late Middle Ages, Cecilia is painted with a musical instrument and with roses. From the sixteenth century she is patroness of church music. In 1585 Pope Sixtus V founded at Rome the Academy of Santa Cecilia, one of the oldest institutions of higher musical education in the world, and her day, 22 November, is an occasion for concerts and festivals. The Orthodox Church commemorates her as a martyr of the Church of Rome in the undivided Church, among the martyrs Valerian, Tiburtius and Maximus.