Saint Cecilia

Virgin and Martyr, Patron of Music
(2nd–3rd century)

Saint Cecilia is one of the most universally beloved martyrs of the early Church, the patron saint of musicians and of sacred music, whose fame has inspired countless works of art, music, and literature throughout the centuries of Christian civilisation. She is among the saints commemorated in the ancient Roman Canon of the Mass, a testimony to the esteem in which she was held from the earliest centuries, and her basilica in Trastevere in Rome, built over the traditional site of her home and martyrdom, has been a place of pilgrimage since the fourth century.

The Acts of Saint Cecilia, which date from the late fifth or early sixth century, tell the story of a Roman noblewoman who had consecrated her virginity to God and who was given in marriage to a young nobleman named Valerian. On their wedding night she told Valerian of her vow and of the angel who guarded her, and she asked him to respect her consecration. Valerian agreed to visit the bishop Urban and be baptised, after which he was indeed able to see the angel who stood beside Cecilia with a crown of roses and lilies in his hands.

Valerian and his brother Tiburtius became fervent Christians and devoted themselves to burying the bodies of martyrs. They were eventually arrested and martyred, and Cecilia herself was then brought before the prefect and condemned for burying their remains and for refusing to sacrifice to the gods. She was placed in the steam bath of her own house to be suffocated but emerged unhurt. A soldier was sent to behead her, but the three strokes permitted by law left her wounded but alive. She survived for three days, during which she arranged for her house to be given to the Church, and then died.

She is the patron of musicians because a passage in her Acts states that while the musicians played at her wedding she sang to God in her heart. Her feast is celebrated on November 22nd.