Cecilia of Rome

Saint Cecilia (Latin: Sancta Caecilia), also known as Cecilia of Rome, was a Roman Christian virgin martyr venerated in the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and some Lutheran churches. She is regarded as the patron saint of musicians, composers, singers, poets, and music in general. Her feast day is November 22, and her name is included in the Roman Canon of the Mass (Eucharistic Prayer I), placing her among the most highly honored saints in Catholic liturgical tradition. According to her hagiography, the Passio Sanctae Caeciliae, Cecilia was born into a noble patrician Roman family and raised as a Christian. She made a private vow of perpetual virginity dedicated to God. Her parents arranged her marriage to a pagan Roman nobleman named Valerian. On their wedding day, she told Valerian that an angel of God watched over her and would punish him if he violated her virginity but love him if he respected it. Valerian, wishing to see the angel, was directed to be baptized by Pope Urban I at the third milestone of the Appian Way. Upon his return after baptism, he found an angel standing beside Cecilia bearing two crowns of roses and lilies, crowning them both. His brother Tibertius was subsequently baptized as well. Both brothers devoted themselves to burying the Christians martyred by the city prefect Turcius Almachius, for which they were themselves executed. Cecilia then distributed her possessions to the poor, enraging Prefect Almachius. She was condemned first to suffocation in a steam-filled bath, but reportedly survived the ordeal for an entire day and night without sweating. She was then condemned to beheading; the executioner struck her neck three times but was unable to sever her head — Roman law forbade a fourth stroke. She survived for three more days, during which she preached, prayed, and reportedly converted approximately four hundred people, baptized by Pope Urban I. She died lying on her right side with three fingers of her right hand extended and one finger on her left — a silent profession of faith in the Holy Trinity. Pope Paschal I discovered her relics in the Catacomb of Saint Praetextatus in the early 9th century and transferred them to the Basilica of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, Rome, a church traditionally believed to have been built on the site of her home by Pope Urban I. When her tomb was opened again in 1599, the body was reportedly still incorrupt. The sculptor Stefano Maderno, said to have witnessed the preserved body, created the celebrated marble sculpture now under the high altar of the basilica, depicting her in the position in which she was found. Cecilia was never formally canonized through the papal process — that process did not originate until the 12th century — but is recognized as a saint through pre-congregation martyrdom. Her association with music derives from the line in her Acts that 'as the musicians played at her wedding, she sang in her heart to the Lord.'