ICONOGRAPHIE CHRÉTIENNE: Sainte CECILIA de ROME (CÉCILE), vierge et martyre

Sainte Cécile de Rome

Vierge romaine (+ 230)

Au IXe siècle, ses reliques furent transférées dans une église romaine proche du Tibre: Sainte Cécile au Transtévère.

Hors de là, ce ne sont qu'embellissements d'une poétique admiration. La Cécile légendaire, promue vierge et martyre, a suppléé la Cécile historique, dame romaine opulente et donatrice secourable qui "chantait dans son cœur la Gloire de Dieu."

Ce qui, en passant, est une belle référence pour tous ceux qui, chanteurs et chanteuses, veulent se mettre sous son patronage.

Sainte Cécile est titulaire de l’église Cathédrale et patronne principale du diocèse d'Albi. (Les saints de chez nous - diocèse d'Albi - Tarn)

"Selon la tradition, elle fut fiancée à un jeune homme prénommé Valérien, qu’elle convertit au Christianisme. Ayant refusé d’honorer les divinités romaines, ils souffrirent tous deux le martyre aux alentours de l’an 220; Tiburce, le beau-frère de Cécile, fut également martyrisé." Sainte Cécile dans les peintures de la voûte de la cathédrale.

La dévotion du monde Chrétien envers la sainte n’a pas cessé de se maintenir. Son nom figure au premier canon de la messe. Elle est devenue la patronne des musiciens. (Diocèse aux Armées françaises)

Depuis l’antiquité, à Rome, un titre d’église au Transtévère porte son nom, sa tombe est vénérée au cimetière de Calliste sur la voie Appienne et son culte s’est répandu dans toute l’Église grâce au récit de sa Passion, montrant en elle un exemple parfait de femme Chrétienne qui a embrassé la virginité et subi le martyre pour l’Amour du Christ.
Martyrologe romain.

O Sainte bien-aimée, je contemple ravie, Le sillon lumineux qui demeure après toi. Je crois entendre encore ta douce mélodie. Oui, ton céleste chant arrive jusqu’à moi.

Sainte Thérèse de Lisieux - Poésie en l’honneur de Sainte Cécile.

SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/18/Sainte-Cecile-de-Rome.html

Santa Cecilia

Bernardo Daddi, Scomparto di polittico con Santa Cecilia (1340-1348), tempera su tavola; Milano, Museo Diocesano

Sainte Cécile

Vierge et Martyre

(† 230)

C'est sous l'empereur Alexandre Sévère que souffrit cette jeune Sainte, l'une des fleurs les plus suaves de la virginité chrétienne et du martyre. Fille d'un illustre patricien, seule chrétienne de sa famille, bien qu'elle eût consacré sa virginité à Jésus-Christ, elle dut se résigner à sortir de la maison paternelle, où elle vivait dans la prière, la lecture des Livres saints et le chant des cantiques, pour épouser le jeune Valérien, noble et bon, mais païen.

Le soir des noces, quand les époux se trouvèrent seuls, Cécile s'adressa doucement à Valérien:

"Ami très cher, lui dit-elle, j'ai un secret à te confier: mais peux-tu me promettre de le garder?" Ayant reçu le serment du jeune homme, elle reprit:

"Écoute. Un Ange de Dieu veille sur moi, car j'appartiens à Dieu. S'il voit que tu m'aimes d'un mauvais amour, il me défendra, et tu mourras; mais si tu respectes ma virginité, alors il t'aimera comme il m'aime, et sa grâce s'étendra aussi sur toi." Troublé, Valérien répondit:

"Cécile, pour que je puisse croire à ta parole, fais-moi voir cet Ange.

— Si tu crois au vrai Dieu et si tu reçois le Baptême des chrétiens, tu pourras voir l'Ange qui veille sur moi."

Valérien accepta la condition, se rendit près de l'évêque Urbain, à trois milles de Rome, fut instruit, reçut le Baptême et revint près de Cécile. Près d'elle, il aperçut un Ange au visage lumineux, aux ailes éclatantes, qui tenait dans ses mains deux couronnes de roses et de lis, et qui posa l'une de ces couronnes sur la tête de Cécile, l'autre sur la tête de Valérien, et leur dit:

"Je vous apporte ces fleurs des jardins du Ciel." Valérien avait un frère nommé Tiburce; au récit de ces merveilles, il abjura les idoles et se fit chrétien.

Les deux frères furent bientôt dénoncés, demeurèrent invincibles dans la confession et leur foi et eurent la tête tranchée. Quant à Cécile, elle comparut elle-même devant le tribunal du préfet de Rome:

"Quel est ton nom et quelle est ta condition? lui dit-il.

— Devant les hommes, je m'appelle Cécile; mais chrétienne est mon plus beau nom.

— Sacrifie aux dieux!

— Tes dieux ne sont que des pierres, de l'airain ou du plomb."

Le préfet la fit reconduire chez elle et ordonna de la laisser mourir dans la salle de bains embrasée de vapeurs; Dieu renouvela pour elle le miracle des Hébreux dans la fournaise. Le bourreau vint pour lui trancher la tête; mais il le fit si maladroitement, qu'elle ne mourut que trois jours après. Sainte Cécile est la patronne des musiciens.

Abbé L. Jaud, Vie des Saints pour tous les jours de l'année, Tours, Mame, 1950

SOURCE : http://magnificat.ca/cal/fr/saints/sainte_cecile.html

Santa Cecilia

Francesco Botticini (1446–), Saint Cecilia between Saint Valerian and Saint Tiburtius with a Donor, circa 1470, tempera on panel, 52 x 44.5, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid

Sainte Cécile de Rome

Vierge et Martyre

+ en 230

Fête le 22 novembre

Pendant déjà plus de mille ans, Cécile a été l'un des martyrs des débuts de l'Eglise les plus vénérés. Son nom, le fait qu'elle fonda une église et qu'elle fut enterrée dans une crypte des catacombes de Saint Callixte, le contexte tout comme l'existence d'un Valérien et d'un Tubercius est tout ce qui est historiquement vérifiable a son sujet. Toutefois, il est certain que cette vie de saint est basée sur quelques faits réels. L'histoire de Sainte Cécile, qui n'est pas dénuée de beauté et de mérite, est construite en partie de légendes. La romance de Cécile et Valérien est connue depuis la légendaire passion de Cécile écrite en 535. A cette époque, beaucoup de fondateurs d'église et martyrs ont été canonisés. La première mention de Cécile dans le canon de la messe date de 496.

Sainte Cécile naquit dans la noble famille pratiquante de Rome des Coecilia dont sont issus beaucoup de sénateurs. Elle possédait tous les dons de grâce, de beauté et d'innocence qu'une jeune fille pouvait avoir. Riche et cultivée, elle était fervente des arts et avait un talent tout particulier pour la musique. Très jeune, elle voua sa vie à Dieu et fit vœu de virginité. Contre son gré, son père la maria à un jeune païen nommé Valérien. Le jour des noces arriva et, pendant que tout le monde chantait et dansait, Cécile s'était retirée pour invoquer la protection du Ciel dans cette situation difficile, tout en chantant dans son cœur et en récitant des psaumes. Cette situation est à l'origine de la vénération en temps que patronne de la musique. Valérien, homme remarquable, était connu pour être de grande compréhension.

Au soir du mariage lorsque les jeunes époux se retrouvèrent dans leur chambre, Cécile dit à son mari :- Je vais te conter un secret qu'il faut jurer de ne divulguer à personne. Je suis accompagnée d¹un ange qui veille sur moi. Si tu me touches dans le cadre du mariage, il se mettra en colère et tu souffriras. Si tu respectes ma décision, il t'aimera comme il m'aime. Valérien répliqua :- Montre moi cet ange. Elle lui dit :- Si tu crois en Dieu, et que tu deviens baptisé, tu le verras .Valérien accepta Cécile comme épouse et promit de respecter son vœu sans revendiquer les droits issus du mariage. Il restait très impressionné par la piété et l'état de grâce de sa femme. Avec l'aide du pape Saint Urbain, Cécile réussit à convertir son mari au christianisme et à le faire baptiser. En retournant vers son épouse, il la trouva en prière avec un ange aux ailes de feu à côté d'elle. L'ange couronna Cécile de roses et Valérien de lilas et leur dit alors :- Recevez ces couronnes, elles sont un signe du Ciel. Jamais elles ne sécheront ni ne perdront leurs parfums. Quant à toi Valérien, demande-moi ce que tu veux. Il souhaita que son frère Tiburcius, qui lui était très cher, l'accompagne dans sa foi. Son vœu fut accepté. Lorsque Tiburcius entra dans la maison, le parfum des fleurs invisibles à ses yeux le saisirent et il se laissa convaincre par Cécile et Valérien de renoncer à ses faux dieux. Il se convertit et fut baptisé par Saint Urbain.

Les deux jeunes époux vécurent dans la chasteté et se dévouèrent aux bonnes oeuvres. Cécile chantait les louanges de Dieu avec assiduité et y joignait souvent un instrument de musique. Mais les persécutions cruelles des chrétiens, perpétrées par l'empereur Marc-Aurèle auront raison d'eux. A cause de leur ardeur à ensevelir les corps des martyrs chrétiens dans les catacombes à l'extérieur de la ville, ils furent arrêtés. Le préfet Almachius les incita à renoncer à leur foi ce qu'ils refusèrent. Alors afin qu'ils ne puissent pas prendre de dispositions pour faire don de leur bien, ils furent condamnés à être décapités après flagellation. Maximus, l'officier chargé de rendre la sentence, après avoir vu une apparition de martyrs, se convertit soudainement à la religion chrétienne et subit le même sort. Les trois hommes furent exécutés aux alentours de Rome.

Bravant le danger, Cécile les ensevelit dans les catacombes de Saint Praetextatus sur la Via Appia et décida d'utiliser à l'avenir sa maison pour prêcher la foi. Avec une éloquence sans pareille, Cécile convertit de plus en plus de gens. Un jour, lorsque le pape Urbain lui rendit visite à domicile, il baptisa plus de 400 personnes. Peu de temps après Valérien, elle fut arrêtée et amenée devant le préfet pour avoir enterré les corps de son mari et de Tiburcius. Elle n'eut pas d'autres choix que la vénération des dieux païens ou la mort. Après une glorieuse profession de foi, elle fut condamnée à mort. Mais exécuter une fille d'une telle noblesse au service des pauvres n'était pas chose aisée même au temps des empereurs cruels. Rejetant une exécution publique elle fut condamnée à être enfermée dans la salle de bain (sudatorium) de sa propre maison à Trastevere et à suffoquer par la vapeur. Le foyer fur chargé à sept reprises de sa charge normale. La chaleur et la vapeur n'eurent pas raison d'elle. Lorsqu'elle tomba inconsciente, au bout d¹un jour et une nuit le préfet en colère ordonna de la décapiter.

A la vue de la sainte, le soldat envoyé perdit courage et tremblant frappa à trois reprises, mais en vain. La loi romaine interdisant le quatrième coup, elle fut abandonnée gisant dans son sang. Aussitôt les chrétiens se ruèrent dans la maison et essuyèrent les blessures avec les habits de lin, sans la bouger du sol. Cécile survécut trois jours pendant lesquels elle n'avait de cesse à prêcher sa foi et d'encourager les pauvres. Lorsque Saint Urbain arriva, elle fit don de sa maison pour y construire une église et légua ses biens aux pauvres. Alors tournant sa face contre terre, Cécile mourut le 22 novembre de l'an 230.

Elle fut inhumée dans la position exacte où elle expira, avec les doigts étendus, dans les catacombes de Saint Callixte à côté de la crypte des papes avec, à ses pieds, les vêtements ayant essuyé ses plaies. Les catacombes de Saint Callixte se trouvent parmi les plus grandes de Rome. Cet ensemble cimetiéral construit au milieu du second siècle occupant 15 hectares de terrain se compose de 20 km de galeries à plusieurs niveaux à 20 mètres sous terre. En 817, le pape Pascal 1er entrepris de déplacer des milliers de dépouilles hors des catacombes tombant en ruine, vers des lieux plus sûrs et à l'abri des envahisseurs. Mais les reliques de Cécile restaient introuvables. Un matin de l'an 822, tandis qu'il célébrait à Rome, Cécile apparut au Pape Pascal 1er lui révélant l'emplacement de la sépulture. Celui-ci fut découvert le même jour dans les catacombes de Saint Callixte. Dans le cercueil de cyprès se trouvait Cécile habillée d'une robe de tissu or et des vêtements de lin imbibés de sang à ses pieds. On mit à jour également la tombe de Valérien, Tiburcius et Maximus. Le pape fit transférer Cécile sous l'autel principal de l'église de Trastevere qui sera appelée plus tard : Titulus Sanctae Caeciliae : " Eglise fondée par une femme appelée Cécile ". Replacée dans la position découverte, le pontife déposa le cercueil dans un sarcophage de marbre. Valérien et ses amis furent placés à un autre endroit de la chapelle.

Sous le règne du pape Clément VIII en 1599, lors des travaux de rénovation de l'église Sainte Cécile et de la construction de son grand autel, le cardinal Paul Emilius Sfondrati ouvrit la tombe et trouva le sarcophage de marbre blanc contenant le corps Cécile intact. Après plus de 800 ans, elle était miraculeusement et admirablement bien conservée. Couchée sur le côté droit face contre terre, comme dans un profond sommeil, sa nuque portant encore les traces des coups. Le vert et or de sa robe luxueuse n'avaient pas été altérés par le temps. Il n'existe aucun autre fait semblable dans l'histoire de l'Eglise : la préservation d'un corps dans la position du décès et immortalisé par le marbre. A l'ouverture de sa tombe, des artistes furent autorisés à peindre des tableaux et des images. Des milliers de gens eurent le privilège de la voir dans son cercueil et durant 4 à 5 semaines, elle fut exposée à la vénération. Puis le corps se décomposa rapidement au contact de l'air.

Actuellement Cécile et Valérien sont à nouveau réunis pour l'éternité. Leurs reliques ainsi que celle de Saint Urbain se trouvent dans une voûte somptueuse sous le grand autel de l'église Sainte Cécile de Trastevere qui lui a été dédiée par Sfondrati. La cérémonie de fermeture de la tombe avec les reliques dans un cercueil d'argent eut lieu en présence du pape lui-même et de 42 cardinaux.

Sous cet autel se trouve une magnifique statue de marbre sculptée en 1601 par Stefano Maderno et représentant fidèlement la martyre baignant dans son sang comme elle tomba après les coups et telle que on la trouva lors de l'ouverture de sa tombe en 1599. Dans cette oeuvre, Maderno, tombé amoureux d'elle, a pu exprimer toute la grâce de Cécile travaillant le marbre dans une " représentation lumineuse et chaude ". Une réplique de cette statue occupe la place originale de la Sainte dans les catacombes de Callixte où la crypte de Sainte Cécile est entièrement décorée de fresques et de mosaïques (début du IX siècle) . Sur le mur, près de la réplique de la statue, se trouve une image antique de Sainte Cécile dans une attitude de prière.

Jusqu'au moyen-âge, le patron des musiciens était le pape Saint Grégory, mais quand l'académie de musique de Rome fut créée en 1584, elle fut placée sous la protection de Sainte Cécile. Ainsi s'établit sa vénération devenue universelle, comme patronne des musiciens. L'association de Sainte Cécile avec la musique date de la fin du V siècle et est due aux pèlerins venus voir ses reliques. Elle devient alors le sujet de bon nombre de représentations (peinture, fresques, mosaïques) et est à la source de prières, de chants qui ont contribué à sa popularité. Dryden a écrit " Une chanson pour la fête de Sainte Cécile " et le poète Alexander Pope composa " Ode à la musique pour la fête de Sainte Cécile ".

Depuis le XVème siècle, l'emblème de Sainte Cécile est devenu l'orgue. Sur des représentations imagées, elle y est figurée avec un orgue, une harpe ou un autre instrument de musique. Auparavant elle était couronnée de roses, portant une palme ou occupée à convertir son mari Saint Valérien, etc... Les plus anciennes images de Cécile sans instruments de musique ont été trouvées au VIème siècle sur des fresques romaines dans les catacombes de Saint Callixte. Après qu'elle fut peinte par Raphaël en organiste, son image est devenue un sujet favori pour les vitraux. Sainte Cécile patronne de la musique, des musiciens, des compositeurs des luthiers des chanteurs et des poètes, est fêtée le 22 novembre.

SOURCE : http://spiritualitechretienne.blog4ever.com/blog/lirarticle-83937-859918.html

Santa Cecilia

Cécile, il leur sembla qu’elle dormait

Anne Bernet - published on 21/11/21

Découvrez l'histoire de la redécouverte au XVIe siècle du corps de sainte Cécile, demeurée intacte après son martyre. L’Église honore sa mémoire le 22 novembre.

Rome avait beaucoup souffert au cours des siècles : catastrophes naturelles, guerres, invasions, pillages… Nombre de monuments parmi les plus anciens, les plus beaux, les plus célèbres s’écroulaient, par la faute du temps et par celle des hommes. Le sac de la Ville par les troupes de Charles Quint, en 1527, avait ajouté au désastre. Le triste état de maints sanctuaires romains était le reflet de celui de l’Église. Aussi, dès que, au milieu des années 1560, la papauté put mettre en œuvre les réformes voulues par le concile de Trente, les cardinaux de la nouvelle génération, décidés à en finir avec les errements passés, le népotisme, la simonie, les mauvaises mœurs, eurent à cœur de rendre aux sanctuaires dont ils portaient le titre leur splendeur d’origine.

Une ancienne église clandestine

À Mgr Paolo Emilio Sfondrate, jadis disciple de Saint Philippe Néri, et neveu du pape Grégoire XIV, échut le titre de Santa Cecilia del Trastevere. L’église est l’une des plus anciennes de Rome, l’un des tituli primitifs, ces maisons privées qui, avant l’édit de Milan en 313, permettaient aux fidèles, toujours sous la menace de la persécution, de se réunir clandestinement pour célébrer leur culte. La Tradition affirme que cette demeure est celle où sainte Cécile, sa jeune propriétaire, avait, après son veuvage prématuré, subi à son tour le martyre et qu’elle avait, au prix d’un artifice juridique, réussi à soustraire aux confiscations et spoliations qui frappaient les chrétiens, la léguant à l’Église.

Bâtie au-dessus de la maison des Caecilii, vénérable par son ancienneté et sa beauté, la basilique Sainte-Cécile l’est plus encore par le tombeau de la martyre que l’on y vénère en même temps que son époux Valérien, son beau-frère Tiburce, tous deux convertis par son exemple, et le sous-officier Maxime, touché par la grâce tandis qu’il conduisait les deux frères au supplice. Il n’en avait pas toujours été ainsi. À l’origine, c’est-à-dire entre 177 et 179, époque du martyre de Cécile, la sainte et ses proches ont été enterrés dans les catacombes de la Via Appia, non loin du tombeau de sa lointaine aïeule, Caecilia Metella. Preuve de l’importance du culte qui lui était rendu, et du respect porté par l’Église à celle dont le nom figurait au canon de la messe romaine, deux souverains pontifes, Urbain et Lucius, qui ont respectivement régné de 222 à 230 et de 253 à 254, ont choisi d’être enterrés dans la même crypte que Cécile.

Deux sarcophages de marbre blanc

Cependant, en 817, le pape Pascal Ier, inquiet de l’état des catacombes, peu ou prou abandonnées depuis les invasions lombardes au VIe siècle, et redoutant leur profanation et le vol des corps saints, décide de ramener un maximum de reliques intra muros, à l’abri. Ainsi la dépouille de Cécile, et celles de ses compagnons, sont-elles ramenées en lieu sûr, dans la basilique transtibérine. On leur élève deux tombeaux de marbre blanc. Ces tombeaux se trouvent dans une crypte, survivance de la maison romaine, juste sous le maître autel. Au fil des siècles, ils sont devenus inaccessibles. Cependant, en cette année 1599, Mgr Sfondrate estime que les travaux de la basilique ne peuvent plus attendre et qu’il faut y procéder d’urgence si l’on veut vraiment la sauver. Il insiste pour que l’on recherche les deux tombes dont parlent les chroniques anciennes. Enfin, le 20 octobre, les ouvriers découvrent, à l’emplacement supposé, deux sarcophages de marbre blanc qui correspondent aux descriptions anciennes, et l’on fait appeler le cardinal. Il accourt, et demande d’ouvrir les deux sépulcres.

Dans le premier, celui où Pascal Ier a fait réunir les restes des trois hommes, comme on peut s’y attendre après quatorze cents ans, ne restent que quelques ossements et deux crânes, le troisième, celui de saint Valérien, ayant été prélevé en 817 et inhumé ailleurs. C’est avec presque de l’angoisse que le cardinal donne l’ordre d’ouvrir le tombeau de Cécile. Il craint, et il espère. En 817, à en croire les témoignages d’époque, le corps de la sainte avait été retrouvé intact, préservé de toute corruption de la chair. Se pourrait-il que ce miracle ait perduré ? Le couvercle est soulevé, et là…

Une jeune fille est étendue

Sous le somptueux drap de soie brodé dont, jadis, le pape la fit recouvrir, une jeune fille est étendue, couchée sur le côté, le visage à demi tourné vers le fond du cercueil, telle une dormeuse paisible. Aucune trace de décomposition n’altère le cadavre, pas plus que la robe blanche brodée d’or, le vêtement d’une patricienne, dont elle est revêtue, celui qu’elle portait à l’heure de son supplice, comme l’attestent les larges taches de sang qui le maculent.

À ses pieds, des linges pareillement imbibés de sang ont été soigneusement déposés, selon l’usage des fidèles qui épongeaient ainsi les plaies encore fraîches des martyrs. Sur le cou de la jeune fille, bien distinctes, se voient les traces vermeilles des trois coups qu’un bourreau à la main peu assurée porta à la suppliciée puisque celle-ci avait survécu à la peine prévue par un juge peu désireux de révéler la conversion au Christ de l’héritière de deux très grandes familles de l’aristocratie : la mort par suffocation dans le bain chaud des thermes de sa maison, façon ordinaire de châtier en toute discrétion les patriciennes coupables… Mais la vapeur brûlante n’a pas tué Cécile, rafraîchie, disait sa poétique passion, par la présence et le chant des anges qui l’encourageaient à endurer ses souffrances. Alors, conformément à la loi, ordre a été donnée de l’achever par le glaive. Seulement, les trois coups permis, mal assenés, ne l’ont pas tuée et le bourreau, n’ayant plus le droit de frapper, l’a abandonnée ainsi sur le dallage de la salle de bains, agonisante…

Les trois doigts tendus

Les trois plaies sont là, écarlates, et, Mgr Sfondrate, bouleversé, constate que le passionnaire disait vrai sur un autre détail : l’index gauche de Cécile est tendu, comme trois doigts de sa main droite ; le cardinal se souvient de l’explication de ce geste. La gorge tranchée, incapable de parler, mourante, Cécile a ainsi confessé une dernière fois le dogme trinitaire, Dieu Un en trois Personnes… Un voile entoure la tête de la martyre et son visage, tourné vers le fond du cercueil, se distingue mal. Sans doute a-t-il fallu l’ensevelir ainsi parce que sa tête, presque détachée du tronc, ne permettait pas de la coucher autrement. Pour contempler ses traits, et tous l’aimeraient, il faudrait soulever pieusement le corps, le retourner, et donc, porter la main sur la vierge martyre. Vierge car, bien que mariée, Cécile avait, par ses prières, et l’apparition d’un ange dans la chambre nuptiale le soir de ses noces, obtenu de Valérien, encore païen pourtant, qu’il respecte son vœu de n’avoir d’autre Époux que le Christ. Ni le cardinal Sfondrate, ni aucun des prélats et des prêtres présents, pas même le pape Clément VII accouru, n’ose toucher la chaste martyre et Cécile sera recouchée dans sa tombe, telle qu’ils l’y ont trouvée.

Cependant, l’on fait appeler le sculpteur Maderno, l’un des plus grands artistes de l’époque, afin qu’il réalise des esquisses du corps de la sainte témoignant du miracle de son incorruptibilité. C’est d’après ses croquis que Maderno réalise la magnifique statue que l’on peut admirer à Santa-Cecilia. Faut-il regretter qu’en 1902, lors de la campagne de fouilles archéologiques menée dans la basilique, l’on n’ait pas jugé utile de rouvrir la tombe et d’opérer des vérifications plus scientifiques ? Sans doute pas…

SOURCE : https://fr.aleteia.org/2021/11/21/cecile-il-leur-sembla-quelle-dormait/?utm_campaign=EM-FR-Newsletter-Daily-&utm_content=Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sendinblue&utm_term=20211122

Santa Cecilia

Main altar in Basilica of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, Rome

Altare maggiore nella Basilica di Santa Cecilia in Trastevere (Roma)

Santa Cecilia

Le tombeau de Sainte-Cécile à Rome, Basilica di Santa Cecilia in Trastevere

L'inscription en latin devant le tombeau mentionne : "Ci-gît la dépouille de la très sainte vierge Cécile, que j'ai vu de mes yeux reposer intacte dans sa tombe. J'ai représenté pour vous dans ce marbre la sainte dans l'attitude exacte telle qu'elle m'est apparue"

Santa Cecilia

Stefano Maderno, "Saint Cecilia," 1599, church of St. Cecilia, Trastevere, Rome

In the sculpture, St. Cecilia extends three fingers with her right hand and one with her left, testifying to the Trinity. The sculptor attested that this was how the saint's body looked when her tomb was opened in 1599.

Photographed at the church of St. Cecilia, Trastevere, by Richard Stracke.

Retrouvé intact, le corps de sainte Cécile est inscrit dans le marbre

Caroline Becker | 21 novembre 2018

Paul Hermans I CC BY-SA 3.0

Sous l’autel de l’église Sainte-Cécile de Trastevere (Rome), une délicate sculpture de la jeune martyre Cécile constitue le chef-d’œuvre de Stefano Maderno.

Célébrée le 22 novembre par l’Église catholique, sainte Cécile a connu un destin tragique. Exécutée durant les premiers siècles du christianisme en raison de son refus d’honorer les dieux païens et de rester fidèle au Christ, elle subit d’atroces supplices avant de finir égorgée.

À cheval entre l’art maniériste et baroque, les sculptures de Maderno, inspirées des canons antiques, connurent un succès retentissant qui fut malheureusement de courte durée. Éclipsé par le génie éclatant et sans égal de Bernin qui ouvrait la porte du baroque, Maderno décide de renoncer à son métier de sculpteur et accepte une situation de douanier. Malgré cette infortune, il laisse, dans de nombreuses églises de Rome, quelques témoignages de son talent, comme les statues de saint François-Xavier et saint Charles Borromée à San Lorenzo in Damasó.

Découvez les pires supplices des saints martyrs en cliquant sur le diaporama :

SOURCE : https://fr.aleteia.org/2018/11/21/retrouve-intact-le-corps-de-sainte-cecile-est-inscrit-dans-le-marbre/?utm_campaign=NL_fr&utm_source=weekly_newsletter&utm_medium=mail&utm_content=NL_fr

Santa Cecilia

Master(s) of Zweder van Culemborg (ca. 1415-1440), Book of hours by the Master of Zweder van Culemborg - KB 79 K 2 - folios 132v (left) and 133r (right), circa 1430, KB National Library of the Netherlands

Sainte Cécile de Rome

Vierge et Martyre

+ en 230

Fête le 22 novembre

Nous savons peu de chose sur cette grande figure de l'hagiographie féminine. L'histoire nous assure qu'elle appartenait à une grande famille romaine : les "Cecilii", qu'elle était chrétienne, qu'elle aidait les premiers papes de ses deniers et que, lorsque son époux se convertit, ils donnèrent à l'Eglise un terrain devenu cimetière : les catacombes de Saint Calixte où elle eût le privilège d'être enterrée au milieu des papes. Au 9ème siècle, ses reliques furent transférées dans une église romaine proche du Tibre : Sainte Cécile au Transtévère. Hors de là, ce ne sont qu'embellissements d'une poétique admiration. La Cécile légendaire, promue vierge et martyre, a suppléé la Cécile historique, dame romaine opulente et donatrice secourable qui "chantait dans son cœur la gloire de Dieu." Ce qui, en passant est une belle référence pour tous ceux qui, chanteurs et chanteuses, veulent se mettre sous son patronage.

Santa Cecilia

Dutch prayerbook, circa 1480, Maastricht, BM P 1861-1109-638. Pagina van een geïllustreerd Middelnederlands getijdenboek, waarvan de handgeschreven tekst eind 15e eeuw is ontstaan in het Bogaardenklooster in Maastricht, mogelijk van de hand van Jan van Emmerik. Daar was het gebedenboek wellicht ook in gebruik. De gravures zijn elders ontstaan en aan het handschrift toegevoegd.

Litanies de Sainte Cécile

Seigneur, ayez pitié de nous

Christ, ayez pitié de nous

Seigneur, ayez pitié de nous

Christ, écoutez-nous

Christ, exaucez-nous

Père Céleste, qui êtes Dieu, ayez pitié de nous

Fils, Rédempteur du monde, qui êtes Dieu, ayez pitié de nous

Esprit Saint, qui êtes Dieu, ayez pitié de nous

Trinité Sainte, qui êtes un seul Dieu, ayez pitié de nous

Sainte Marie, Mère de Dieu, priez pour nous

Sainte Cécile, priez pour nous

Sainte Cécile, fille de la noblesse Romaine, priez pour nous

Sainte Cécile, exemple de pureté pour les jeunes filles,

Sainte Cécile, favorisée de grâces Célestes,

Sainte Cécile, privilégiée par la présence d'un Ange pour veiller sur votre virginité,

Sainte Cécile, épouse de Saint Valérien,

Sainte Cécile, qui avez été le lien entre deux frères, pour les réunir par votre prière dans un même bonheur,

Sainte Cécile, qui avez encouragé dans leur martyre Saint Valérien et Saint Tiburce,

Sainte Cécile, dont les paroles vivifiantes encouragèrent votre époux à demeurer vierge avec vous,

Sainte Cécile, qui dans votre ardeur, avez méprisé les richesses de la terre pour posséder les trésors du Ciel,

Sainte Cécile, qui avez désiré souffrir tous les tourments pour professer le Nom du Christ,

Sainte Cécile, qui avez converti par votre zèle et votre exemple plusieurs centaines de païens,

Sainte Cécile, dont la vaillance et la beauté émurent à tel point le bourreau que sa main trembla trois fois,

Sainte Cécile, qui avez survécu trois jours lors de votre martyre,

Sainte Cécile, qui avez donné votre vie après avoir distribué tous vos biens aux pauvres,

Sainte Cécile, qui avez désiré que votre maison soit transformée en sanctuaire Chrétien,

Sainte Cécile, étoile des catacombes,

Sainte Cécile, dont l'heureuse dépouille fut si longtemps cachée à tous les regards sous l'ombre des cryptes,

Sainte Cécile, patronne des musiciens pour avoir chanté la Gloire et les louanges de Dieu en votre cœur,

Agneau de Dieu, qui effacez les péchés du monde, pardonnez-nous, Seigneur.

Agneau de Dieu, qui effacez les péchés du monde, exaucez-nous, Seigneur.

Agneau de Dieu, qui effacez les péchés du monde, ayez pitié de nous, Seigneur.

Priez pour nous, Sainte Cécile,

afin que nous devenions dignes des promesses du Seigneur.

Prions

O Dieu qui nous réjouissez par la solennité annuelle de la Bienheureuse Cécile, Votre Vierge et Martyre; daignez nous faire la grâce d'imiter par une vie sainte les exemples de celle à qui nous rendons aujourd'hui nos hommages. Par Jésus, le Christ, notre Seigneur.

« O sainte bien-aimée, je contemple ravie, Le sillon lumineux qui demeure après toi. Je crois entendre encor ta douce mélodie. Oui, ton céleste chant arrive jusqu’à moi. »

(Sainte Thérèse de Lisieux - Poésie en l’honneur de sainte Cécile)

SOURCE : http://imagessaintes.canalblog.com/archives/2008/07/04/9814449.html

Santa Cecilia

Master of the Brunswick Diptych (fl. between 1480 and 1510), Saint Cecilia / Sts. Valerian and Cecilia, from the verso of a triptych, circa 1490, oil and tempera on panel, 62,5 x 23,5, Rijksmuseum

22 novembre

Sainte Cécile

Méditation

Au jour de la fête de sainte Cécile 1, la patronne des musiciens, il est bien naturel que je pense tout particulièrement et que je vous invite à prier pour les organistes de notre paroisse, pour ceux qui dirigent les chants de nos assemblées et pour la chorale qui embellit nos fêtes liturgiques. Je veux ici, en votre nom et au mien, leur exprimer notre gratitude et, ce faisant, les assurer qu’ils peuvent compter sur notre attachement et sur notre prière.

Dans l’Eglise, à la fois maison céleste et terrestre de Dieu, les âmes sont agglutinées ensemble par le ciment d'un même amour qui les fait vivre d'une même et divine vie. L'Eglise est l'Epouse aimante de l'Epoux divin qui est venu sur cette terre pour purifier en son sang et s'unir pour l'éternité les âmes embellies par sa grâce. C'est pourquoi le colloque est perpétuel entre Jésus et l'Eglise.

La prière liturgique qui l’expression de cet Amour, s'élève à tout instant du cœur et des lèvres des fidèles qui apprécient le bonheur de s'y associer : « Venez, chantons le Seigneur ! Poussons des cris de joie vers le rocher de notre salut. Allons à sa rencontre avec des louanges. Faisons retentir des hymnes en son honneur. Car c'est un grand Dieu que notre Dieu ... Venez, prosternons-nous et adorons ; fléchissons le genou devant le Seigneur, notre Créateur. Car il est notre Dieu ; et nous sommes le peuple que sa main conduit. » Même en présence des dépouilles mortelles de ses enfants, l'Eglise entonne cet « Invitatoire », cet appel à la joie, parce que la mort ne saurait détruire cet amour éternel. Or l'amour chante, il exprime ce bonheur intime, cette joie qui est, disait Chesterton « le secret gigantesque du chrétien », à qui la prière intime ne suffit pas et qui a besoin de s'extérioriser. « Qui chante, deux fois prie », enseignait saint Augustin.

Nous avons reçu la joie en possédant l'amour. L'état de grâce est l'état de la joie, l’état de l'amour répandu dans nos cœurs par le Saint-Esprit. Comme elle est rayonnante, Marie, pleine de grâce, participant plus que tous les autres à la gloire infinie ! « Magnificat... Et exsultavit spiritus meus... » Comme il exulte, l'humble et pauvre François d'Assise, de la richesse et de la joie de Dieu ! « Il n'était indigent de rien puisqu'il possédait son Dieu », dit Léon Bloy. Comme elle chante, le nouveau docteur de l’Eglise, sainte Thérèse de l'Enfant-Jésus et de la Sainte-Face : « C'est l'exil qui est triste et non la vie, dit-elle. Il faut réserver ce beau nom de vie à ce qui ne doit jamais mourir ; et puisque nous en jouissons dès ce monde, la vie n'est pas triste, mais gaie, très gaie ! »

Le saint apôtre Paul écrit : « Ne vous enivrez pas de vin, c'est la source de la débauche ; mais remplissez-vous de l'Esprit-Saint. Entretenez-vous les uns et les autres de psaumes, d'hymnes et de cantiques spirituels, chantant et psalmodiant du fond du cœur en l'honneur du Seigneur. Rendez continuellement grâces pour toutes choses à Dieu le Père, au nom de notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ.2 » La joie spirituelle, la sobre ivresse dont parlent les Pères est donc le fruit du Saint-Esprit. Pour louer Dieu comme il convient et pour remédier aux risques d'oubli ou de négligence de ce devoir essentiel, l'Eglise a inséré les psaumes en sa Liturgie.

Longtemps, c’est en dialoguant le psaume « Judica me 3 » que nous nous approchions de l'autel. L'Introït, souvent encore, rappelle le chant de psaumes entiers qui formait autrefois l'essentiel des assemblées chrétiennes. Il faut comprendre de la même façon le chant du Graduel et l’antienne de l'Offertoire et celle de la Communion. Ainsi, les pièces du propre de la fête de sainte Cécile expriment aussi bien l'allégresse de l'alliance que la fierté du témoignage et du combat pour la foi. L’Introït « Loquebas », dit : « Je parle de tes témoignages devant les rois, et je n'en rougis pas. Je fais mes délices de tes ordonnances, que j'aime.4 » Le Graduel : « Ecoute, ô ma fille, et vois, et prête l'oreille. Oublie ton peuple et la maison de ton père, car le roi est épris de ta beauté.5 » L’Offertoire : « On présente au Roi des vierges. Elles sont présentées dans la joie et l'allégresse, elles sont introduites dans le palais du Roi.6 » La Communion : « Qu'ils soient confondus, les orgueilleux, parce qu'ils m'oppriment injustement, moi qui médite ta loi.7 »

Un seul texte, pris chez sain Augustin suffirait à proclamer la grandeur des Psaumes : « Pour que Dieu fût loué dignement, Dieu se loua lui même. » Et Fénelon d’ajouter : « Dieu y est si grand que tout disparaît devant lui ; il y est si puissant que la simple cessation de son regard anéantit toute la nature. Mais ce qu'il y a de plus doux et de plus aimable est de chanter avec David ses éternelles miséricordes... C'est le vrai amour qui les a composés dans le cœur du Psalmiste, c'est le même amour qui les compose à nouveau dans le cœur de ceux qui les chantent. C'est le chant des Psaumes qui console l'Eglise ici-bas... Heureux ceux qui font sentir aux chrétiens cette consolations. »

Au ciel, les anges chantent la gloire de Dieu : « et toutes les créatures disaient : A Celui qui est assis sur le trône et à l'Agneau, louange, honneur, gloire et puissance dans les siècles des siècles.8 » Jésus est l'auteur en même temps que le terme de l'éternelle Louange. Or les saints sont, dès ce monde, sont accordés en lui à ce concert sans fin. Ainsi sainte Cécile portait l’Evangile nuit et jour contre son cœur, passant sa vie, comme au ciel, dans une prière incessante.

Le Mystère de l'autel n’est pas seulement sur la terre la figure et l'avant-goût du ciel, mais déjà le Ciel, comme la liturgie le souligne au début de la préface du canon de la messe : « Oui, il est vraiment digne... de vous rendre grâces en tout temps et en tout lieu. Dieu saint, Père tout-puissant et éternel, par le Christ notre Seigneur. Par lui les anges louent votre majesté ... C'est pourquoi, avec eux et avec toute l'armée des cieux, nous chantons l'hymne de votre gloire, redisant sans fin : Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus ... » La messe est la participation de la terre à la liturgie céleste. L'action du Christ-Prêtre en sa Passion et sa Résurrection constitue la liturgie du ciel, et l'Eucharistie la rend présente sous les voiles sacramentels. Pour saint Grégoire de Nazianze, les baptisés, déjà unis aux anges, participent à la liturgie du ciel. A la procession d'entrée, « le chant des psaumes est le prélude des hymnes du ciel. Les cierges que vous tenez à la main représentent le cortège lumineux avec lequel nous irons au-devant de l'Epoux, âmes lumineuses et vierges, portant les cierges lumineux de la foi. » Par la messe, la louange de Dieu devient parfaite et le monde atteint la fin pour laquelle il a été créé.

Bénissez Dieu, mes très chers Frères, qui vous associe à l’œuvre si grande et si nécessaire de la louange et de la gloire divines ! N’oubliez jamais que, si l'amour de Dieu doit vous inspirer une filiale confiance, sa puissance infinie, autant que les exigences de sa parfaite justice, doivent vous maintenir en cette humilité respectueuse dont sont pénétrés tous ceux qui le servent, fussent les brûlants Séraphins. Le fruit de la communion à Jésus-Eucharistie sera la force de vous immoler au devoir quotidien et à l'apostolat.

1 Sainte Cécile, selon sa Passion, a vécu à Rome au premier ou au deuxième siècle. Jeune fille de la plus haute noblesse elle est contrainte par sa famille d'épouser le noble romain Valerius alors qu'elle a fait vœu de virginité. Toutefois, dans la chambre nuptiale, elle convertit le jeune homme au christianisme après l'apparition d'un ange, et elle le convainc à recevoir le baptême avec son frère Tiburce. Puis Cécile qui a refusé de sacrifier aux dieux païens, est condamnée à mourir étouffée dans une chaudière. Mais un miracle se produit : elle est rafraîchie par une nuée venue du ciel. Elle est alors promise à la décapitation ; le bourreau, malgré trois coups violents, ne parvient pas à détacher la tête de son corps ; elle agonise ainsi mutilée pendant trois Jours. L'iconographie représente principalement le mariage de Cécile et la conversion de Valerius (avec l'apparition de l'ange) et le martyre de la sainte dans la chaudière. A partir de la fin du XV° siècle, quand elle est figurée seule, Cécile reçoit de plus en plus souvent pour attribut un instrument de musique : orgue portatif (Raphaël, 1516), harpe, luth et même violon. Cette Cécile « musicienne » trouve son origine dans un contresens fait à la fin du Moyen Age sur une phrase du récit de sa Passion : on a cru qu'elle se rendait au supplice en jouant de l'orgue, alors qu'au contraire elle cherchait à ne pas entendre la musique qui accompagnait son martyre. Quoi qu'il en fût, elle est à l'époque moderne la patronne de la musique sacrée, des musiciens, des chanteurs et des fabricants d'instruments.

2 Epître de saint Paul aux Ephésiens, VI 18-20.

3 Psaume XLII.

4 Psaume CXVIII.

5 Psaume XLIV.

6 Psaume XLIV.

7 Psaume CXVIII.

8 Apocalypse, V 13.

Santa Cecilia

Michiel Coxie (1499–), Saint Cecilia, 1569, 136 x 104, Museo del Prado

Prière

La pureté, de l'Ange est le brillant partage,

Son immense bonheur ne doit jamais finir ;

Mais sur le Séraphin vous avez l'avantage :

Vous pouvez être purs et vous pouvez souffrir !

Cécile, prête-moi ta douce mélodie :

Je voudrais convertir à Jésus tant de cœurs !

Je voudrais comme toi, sacrifier ma vie,

Je voudrais lui donner tout mon sang et mes pleurs.

Obtiens-moi de goûter, sur la rive étrangère.

Le parfait abandon, ce doux fruit de l'amour !

O Sainte de mon cœur! bientôt, loin de la terre,

Obtiens-moi de voler près de toi, sans retour.

Sainte Thérèse de l'Enfant-Jésus et la Sainte-Face

SOURCE : http://missel.free.fr/Sanctoral/11/22.php

Santa Cecilia

Amico Aspertini (1475–1552), Legend of Sts Cecilia and Valerian, Scene 5: The martyrdom of Valerian and his brother Tiburtius, circa 1505, oratory of Saints Cecilia and Valeriano, Bologna

Santa Cecilia

Amico Aspertini (1475–1552), Legend of Sts Cecilia and Valerian, Scene 5: The martyrdom of Valerian and his brother Tiburtius, circa 1505, oratory of Saints Cecilia and Valeriano, Bologna

SAINTE CÉCILE *

Cécile vient de lys du ciel, chemin des aveugles, laborieuse pour le ciel (lia). Il peut encore signifier manquant de cécité ; il viendrait encore de caelo, et leos, ciel et peuple. Elle fut un lys céleste par la pudeur de virginité; ou bien elle est appelée lys parce qu'elle, posséda la blancheur de pureté, la verdeur de conscience et l’odeur de bonne réputation. Elle fut la voie des aveugles, par les exemples qu'elle offrit; le ciel, par sa contemplation assidue, et lia, laborieuse par ses bonnes oeuvres continuelles. Cécile veut encore dire ciel, parce que, selon Isidore, les philosophes ont dit que le ciel est tournant, rond et brûlant. Dé même, Cécile fut tournante par assiduité au travail, ronde par persévérance, brûlante par charité ardente. Elle manqua de cécité par l’éclat de sa sagesse ; elle fut le ciel du peuple, parce que dans elle comme dans un ciel spirituel, le peuple regarde le soleil, la lune et les étoiles, c'est-à-dire regarde pour les imiter et la perspicacité de sa sagesse, et la magnanimité de sa foi, et la variété de ses vertus.

Cécile, vierge très illustre, issue d'une famille noble parmi les Romains, et nourrie dès le berceau dans la foi chrétienne, portait constamment l’évangile du Christ caché sur sa poitrine. Ses entretiens avec Dieu et sa prière ne cessaient ni le jour ni la nuit, et elle sollicitait le Seigneur de lui conserver sa virginité. Elle avait été fiancée à un jeune homme appelé Valérien, et au moment où ses noces devaient être célébrées, elle portait, sur sa chair, un cilice que recouvraient des vêtements brodés d'or; et pendant que le choeur des musiciens chantait, Cécile chantait aussi dans son coeur, à celui qui était son unique soutien, en disant : « Que mon coeur, Seigneur, et que mon corps demeurent toujours purs, afin que je n'éprouve; point de confusion. » Elle passa, dans la prière et le jeûne, deux ou trois jours, en recommandant au Seigneur ses appréhensions. Enfin, arriva la nuit où elle se retira avec son époux dans le secret de l’appartement nuptial. Elle adresse alors ces paroles à Valérien : « O jeune et tendre ami, j'ai un secret à le confier, si tu veux à l’instant me jurer que tu le darderas très rigoureusement. » Valérien jure qu'aucune contrainte ne le forcera à le dévoiler, qu'aucun motif ne le lui fera trahir. Alors Cécile lui dit : « J'ai pour amant un ange de Dieu qui veille sur mon corps: avec une extrême sollicitude. S'il s'aperçoit le moins du monde que tu me touches, étant poussé par un amour qui me souille, aussitôt il te frappera, et tu perdrais la fleur de ta charmante jeunesse ; mais s'il voit que tu m’aimes d'un amour sincère, il t'aimera comme il m’aime, et il te montrera sa gloire. » Alors Valérien, maîtrisé par la grâce de Dieu, répondit

« Si tu veux que je te croie, fais-moi voir cet ange, et si je m’assure que c'est vraiment un ange de Dieu, je ferai ce à quoi tu m’exhortes ; mais si tu aimes un autre homme, je vous frapperai l’un et l’autre de mon glaive. » Cécile lui dit : « Si tu veux croire au, vrai Dieu, et que tu promettes de te faire baptiser, tu pourras le voir. Alors, va; sors de la ville par la voie qu'on appelle Appienne, jusqu'à la troisième colonne milliaire, et tu diras aux pauvres que tu trouveras là : « Cécile m’envoie vers vous, afin que vous me fassiez voir le saint vieillard Urbain; j'ai un message secret à lui transmettre. » Quand tu seras devant lui, rapporte toutes mes paroles, et après qu'il t'aura purifié, tu reviendras, et tu verras l’ange lui-même. » Alors Valérien se mit en chemin, et, d'après les renseignements qu'il avait reçus, il trouva le saint évêque Urbain caché au milieu des tombeaux des martyrs. Il lui raconta tout ce que Cécile lui avait dit. Urbain, étendant alors les mains vers le ciel, s'écrie, les yeux pleins de larmes : « Seigneur J.-C., l’auteur des chastes résolutions, recevez les fruits des semences que vous avez jetées dans le sein de Cécile; Seigneur J.-C., le bon pasteur, Cécile, votre servante, vous a servi comme une éloquente abeille ; car cet époux, qu'elle a reçu comme un lion féroce, elle vous l’a dressé comme on fait de l’agneau le plus doux. » Et voici que tout à coup apparut un vieillard couvert de vêtements blancs comme la neige, et tenant à la main un livre écrit, en lettres d'or. En le voyant, Valérien, saisi de terreur, tombe comme mort. Relevé par le vieillard, il lit es mots : « Un Dieu, une foi, un baptême; un seul Dieu, père de toutes choses, qui est au-dessus de nous tous, et au-dessus de tout et en nous tous. » Quand Valérien, eut achevé de lire, le vieillard lui dit : « Crois-tu qu'il en soit ainsi, ou doutes-tu encore? » Valérien s'écria-: « Sous le ciel, aucune vérité n'est plus croyable » Aussitôt, le vieillard disparut, et Valérien reçut le baptême dés mains d'Urbain. En rentrant, il trouva, dans la chambre, Cécile qui s'entretenait avec l’ange. Or, cet ange tenait à 1a main deux couronnes tressées avec des roses et des lys; il en donna une à Cécile et l’autre a Valérien, en disant : « Gardez ces couronnes d'un coeur sans tache et d'un corps pur; car c'est du paradis de Dieu que je vous les ai apportées. Jamais elles ne se faneront, ni ne perdront leur parfum ; elles ne seront visibles: qu'à ceux qui aimeront la chasteté. Quant à toi, Valérien, pour avoir suivi un conseil profitable, demande ce que tu voudras, et tu l’obtiendras. » Valérien lui, répondit : « Rien ne m’est plus doux en cette vie que l’affection de mon unique frère. Je demande donc qu'il connaisse la vérité avec moi. » L'ange lui dit : « Ta demande plaît au Seigneur, et tous deux vous arriverez auprès de lui avec la palme du martyre. »

Après quoi, entra Tiburce, frère de Valérien, qui, ayant senti une odeur de roses extraordinaire : « Je m’étonne, dit-il, que, dans cette saison, on respire cette odeur de roses et de lys. Quand je tiendrais ces fleurs dans mes mains, elles ne répandraient pas un parfum d'une plus grande suavité. Je vous avoue que je suis tellement ranimé que je crois être tout à fait changé. » Valérien lui dit: « Nous avons des couronnes que tés yeux ne peuvent voir; elles réunissent l’éclat de la pourpré à la blancheur de la neige: et de même qu'à ma demande tu en as ressenti l’odeur, de même aussi, si tu crois, tu pourras les voir. » Tiburce répondit : « Est-ce que je rêve en t'écoutant, Valérien, ou dis-tu vrai ? », Valérien lui dit : « Jusqu'ici, nous n'avons vécu qu'en songe, au lieu que maintenant, nous sommes dans la vérité. » Tiburce reprit: « D'où sais-tu cela? » Valérien répondit : « L'ange du Seigneur m’a instruit, et tu pourras le voir toi-même quand tu seras purifié et que tu auras renoncé à toutes les idoles. » Ce miracle des couronnes de roses est attesté par saint Ambroise qui dit dans la Préface

« Sainte Cécile fut tellement remplie du don céleste, qu'elle reçut la palmé du martyre : elle maudit le monde et les joies du mariage. A elle revient l’honneur de la confession glorieuse de Valérien, son époux, et de Tiburce que vous avez couronnés, Seigneur ; de fleurs odoriférantes par la main d'un ange. Une vierge conduisit ces hommes à la gloire. Le monde connut combien a de valeur le sacrifice de la chasteté. » Alors Cécile prouva à Tiburce avec tant d'évidence que toutes les idoles sont insensibles et muettes, que celui-ci répondit : « Qui ne croit pas ces choses est une brute.» Cécile embrassant alors la poitrine de son beau-frère, dit : « C'est aujourd'hui que je te reconnais pour mon frère. De même que l’amour de Dieu a fait de ton frère mon époux, de même le mépris que tu professes pour les idoles fait de toi mon frère. Va donc avec ton frère recevoir la purification ; tu verras alors les visages angéliques. » Tiburce dit à son frère : « Je te conjure, frère, de me dire à qui tu vas me conduire. » « C'est à l’évêque Urbain, répondit Valérien. » « N'est-ce pas, dit Tiburce, cet Urbain qui a été condamné si souvent et qui demeure encore dans des souterrains? S'il est découvert, il sera livré aux flammes, et, nous serons enveloppés dans les mêmes supplices que lui. Ainsi pour avoir cherché une divinité qui se cache dans les cieux, nous rencontrerons sur la terre des châtiments qui nous consumeront. » Cécile lui dit: « Si cette vie était. la seule, ce serait avec raison que nous craindrions de la perdre : mais il y en a une autre qui n'est jamais perdue, et que le Fils de Dieu nous a fait connaître. Toutes les choses qui ont été faites, c'est le Fils engendré du Père qui les a produites. Tout ce qui est créé, c'est l’Esprit qui procède du Père qui l’a animé. Or, c'est ce Fils de Dieu qui, en venant dans le monde, nous a démontré par ses paroles et par ses miracles qu'il y a une autre vie. » Tiburce lui répondit: «Tu viens de dire, bien certainement, qu'il y a un seul Dieu, et comment dis-tu maintenant qu'il y en a trois? » Cécile répliqua : « De même que dans la sagesse d'un homme il se trouve trois facultés : le génie, la mémoire et l’intelligence, de même dans l’unique essence de la divinité, il peut se trouver trois personnes. » Alors elle lui parla de la venue du Fils de Dieu, de sa passion dont elle lui exposa les convenances : « Si le Fils de Dieu fut chargé de chaînes, c'était pour affranchir le genre humain des liens du péché. Celui qui est béni fut maudit, afin que l’homme maudit fût béni. Il souffrit d'être moqué afin que l’homme fût délivré de l’illusion du démon; il reçut sur sa tête une couronne d'épines pour nous soustraire à la peine capitale; il accepta le fiel amer pour guérir dans l’homme le goût primitivement sain; ; -il fut dépouillé pour couvrir la nudité de nos premiers parents ; il fut suspendu sur le bois pour enlever la prévarication du bois. » Alors Tiburce dit à son frère « Prends pitié de moi ; conduis-moi à l’homme de Dieu afin que j'en reçoive la purification. » Valérien conduisit donc Tiburce qui fut purifié; dès ce moment, il voyait souvent les anges, et tout ce qu'il demandait, il l’obtenait aussitôt.

Valérien et Tiburce distribuaient d'abondantes aumônes : ils donnaient la sépulture aux corps des saints que le préfet Almachius faisait tuer. Almachius les fit mander devant lui et les interrogea sur les motifs qui les portait à ensevelir ceux qui étaient condamnés comme criminels. « Plût au ciel, répondit Tiburce, que nous fussions les serviteurs de ceux que tu appelles des condamnés ! Ils ont méprisé ce qui paraît être quelque chose et n'est rien: ils ont trouvé ce qui paraît ne pas être, mais qui existe réellement. » Le préfet lui demanda: «Quelle est donc cette chose? » «Ce qui paraît exister et n'existe pas, répondit Tiburce, c'est tout ce qui est dans ce monde, qui conduit l’homme à ce qui n'existe pas : quant à ce qui ne paraît pas exister et qui existe, c'est la vie ales justes et le châtiment des coupables. » Le préfet reprit: « Je crois que tu ne parles pas avec ton esprit. » Alors il ordonne de faire avancer Valérien, et lui dit.: « Comme la tête de, ton frère n'est pas saine, toi, au moins, tu sauras me donner une réponse sensée. Il est certain que vous êtes dans une grande erreur, puisque vous dédaignez les plaisirs et que vous n'avez d'attrait que pour tout ce qui est opposé aux délices. » Valérien dit alors qu'il avait vu, au temps de l’hiver; des hommes oisifs et railleurs se moquer des ouvriers occupés à la culture dés champs: mais au temps de l’été, quand fut arrivé le moment de récolter les fruits glorieux de leurs travaux, ceux qui étaient regardés comme des insensés furent dans la joie, tandis que commencèrent à pleurer ceux qui paraissaient les plus habiles. « C'est ainsi que nous, poursuivit Valérien, nous supportons maintenant l’ignominie et le labeur; mais plus, tard, nous recevrons la gloire et la récompense éternelle. Quant' à vous, vous jouissez maintenant d'une joie qui ne dure pas, mais plus tard, aussi, vous ne trouverez qu'un deuil éternel. » Le préfet lui dit: « Ainsi nous, et nos invincibles princes, nous aurons en partage un deuil éternel, tandis que vous qui êtes les personnes les plus viles, vous posséderez une joie qui n'aura pas de fin ? » Valérien répondit : « Vous n'êtes que de pauvres hommes et non des princes, nés à notre époque, qui mourrez bientôt et qui rendrez à Dieu un compte plus rigoureux que tous. » Alors le préfet dit: « Pourquoi perdre le temps, en des discours oiseux ? Offrez des libations aux dieux, et allez-vous-en sans qu'on vous ait fait subir aucune peine. » Les saints répliquèrent : « Tous les jours nous offrons un sacrifice au vrai Dieu.» «Quel est son nom? demanda le préfet » « Tu ne pourras jamais le découvrir, quand bien même tu aurais des ailes pour voler, répondit Valérien. » « Ainsi, reprit le préfet, Jupiter, ce n'est pas le nom d'un dieu? » Valérien répondit : « C'est le nom d'un homicide et d'un corrupteur. » Almachius lui dit : « Donc, tout l’univers est dans l’erreur, et il n'y à que ton frère et toi qui connaissiez le vrai Dieu? » Valérien répondit: « Nous ne sommes pas les seuls, car il est devenu impossible de compter le nombre de ceux qui ont embrassé cette doctrine sainte. » Alors les saints furent livrés à la garde de Maxime. Celui-ci leur dit : « O noble et brillante fleur de la jeunesse romaine ! ô frères unis par un amour si tendre! Comment courez-vous à la mort ainsi qu'à un festin? » Valérien lui dit que s'il promettait de croire, il verrait lui-même leur gloire après leur mort : « Que je sois consumé par la foudre, dit Maxime, si je ne confesse pas ce Dieu unique que vous adorez ; quand ce que vous dites arrivera !. » Alors Maxime, toute sa famille et tous les bourreaux crurent et reçurent le baptême d'Urbain qui vint les trouver en secret.

Quand donc l’aurore annonça la fin de la nuit, Cécile s'écria en disant : « Allons, soldats du Christ, rejetez les oeuvres des. ténèbres, et revêtez-vous des armes de la lumière. » Les saints sont alors conduits au quatrième mille hors de la ville, à la statue de Jupiter; et comme ils ne voulaient pas sacrifier, ils sont décapités l’un et l’autre. Maxime affirma avec serment, qu'au moment de leur martyre, il avait vu des anges resplendissants, et leurs âmes comme des vierges qui sortent de la chambre nuptiale. Les anges les portaient au ciel dans leur giron. Quand Almachius apprit que Maxime s'était fait chrétien, il le fit assommer avec des fouets armés de balles de plomb, jusqu'à ce qu'il eût rendu l’esprit. Cécile ensevelit son corps à côté de Valérien et de Tiburce. Cependant Almachius fit rechercher les biens de ces deux derniers; et ordonna que Cécile comparût devant lui comme la femme de Valérien, et sacrifiât aux idoles, sinon qu'il serait lancé contré elle une sentence de mort. Comme les appariteurs la poussaient a obéir et qu'ils pleuraient beaucoup de ce qu'une jeune femme si belle et si noble se livrât de plein gré à la mort, elle leur dit : « O bons jeunes gens, ceci n'est point perdre sa jeunesse, mais la changer; c'est donner de la boue pour recevoir de l’or; échanger une vile habitation et en prendre une précieuse : donner un petit coin pour recevoir une place brillamment ornée. Si quelqu'un voulait donner de l’or pour du cuivre, n'y courriez-vous pas en toute hâte? Or, Dieu rend cent pour un qu'on lui a donné. Croyez-vous ce que je viens de vous dire? » « Nous croyons, répondirent-ils, que le Christ qui possède une telle servante, est le vrai Dieu. » On appela l’évêque Urbain et plus de quatre cents personnes furent baptisées. Alors Almachius se fit amener sainte Cécile. « Quelle est ta condition? » lui dit-il. Cécile « Je suis libre et noble. » — Almachius : « C'est au sujet de la religion que je t'interroge. » — Cécile : « Ton interrogation n'était pas exacte, puisqu'elle exigeait deux réponses. » — Almachius : « D'où te vient tant de présomption en me répondant? » - Cécile : « D'une conscience pure et d'une conviction sincère. » — Almachins : « Ignores-tu quel est mon pouvoir ? » Cécile : « Ta puissance est semblable à une outre remplie de vent, qu'une aiguille la perce, tout ce qu'elle avait de roideur a disparu, et toute cette roideur qu'elle paraissait avoir, s'affaisse. » — Almachius « Tu as commencé par des injures et tu poursuis sur le même ton. » — Cécile : « On ne dit pas d'injure à moins qu’on n'allègue des paroles fausses. Démontre que j'ai dit une injure, alors j'aurai avancé une fausseté : ou bien, avoue que tu te trompes, en me calomniant; nous connaissons la sainteté du nom de Dieu, et nous ne pouvons pas le renier. Mieux vaut mourir pour être heureux que de vivre pour être misérables. » — Almachius : « Pourquoi parles-tu avec tant d'orgueil? » — Cécile : « Il n'y a pas d'orgueil; il y a fermeté. » — Almachius : « Malheureuse, ignores-tu que le pouvoir de vie et de mort m’a été confié? » — Cécile : « Je prouve, et c'est un fait authentique, que tu viens de mentir: Tu peux ôter la vie aux vivants; mais tu ne saurais la donner aux morts. Tu es un ministre de mort, mais non un ministre de vie. » — Almachius : « Laisse là ton audace, et sacrifie aux dieux. » — Cécile : « Je ne sais où tu as perdu l’usage de tes yeux : car les dieux dont tu parles, nous ne voyons en eux que des pierres. Palpe-les plutôt, et au toucher apprends ce que tu ne peux voir avec ta vue. »

Alors Almachius la fit reconduire chez elle, et il ordonna qu'elle serait brûlée pendant une nuit et un jour dans un bain de vapeur bouillante. Elle y resta comme dans un endroit frais; sans même éprouver la moindre sueur. Quand Almachius le sut, il ordonna qu'elle eût la tête tranchée dans le bain. Le bourreau la frappa par trois fois au cou, sans pouvoir lui couper latête. Et parce qu'une loi défendait de frapper quatre fois la victime; je bourreau ensanglanté laissa Cécile à demi morte.

Durant les trois jours qu'elle survécut, elle donna tout ce qu'elle possédait aux pauvres, et recommanda à l’évêque Urbain tous ceux qu'elle avait convertis : « J'ai demandé, lui dit-elle, ce délai de trois jours afin de recommander ceux-ci à votre béatitude, et pour que vous consacriez cette maison qui m’appartient afin d'en faire une église. » Or, saint Urbain ensevelit son corps avec ceux des évêques, et consacra sa maison qui devint une église, comme elle l’avait demandé.

Elle souffrit vers l’an du Seigneur 223, du temps de l’empereur Alexandre. On lit cependant ailleurs qu'elle souffrit du temps de Marc-Aurèle, qui régna vers l’an du Seigneur

* Légende compilée d'après ses actes regardés comme authentiques, et qui ont servi au Bréviaire.

La Légende dorée de Jacques de Voragine nouvellement traduite en français avec introduction, notices, notes et recherches sur les sources par l'abbé J.-B. M. Roze, chanoine honoraire de la Cathédrale d'Amiens, Édouard Rouveyre, éditeur, 76, rue de Seine, 76, Paris mdccccii

SOURCE : http://www.abbaye-saint-benoit.ch/voragine/tome03/170.htm

Santa Cecilia

Federico Barocci (1535–1612), Santa Cecilia fra i Santi Giovanni, Maria Maddalena Paolo e Caterina d'Alessandria / Saint Cecilia, John the Apostle, Mary Magdalene, Paul the Apostle, Catherine of Alexandria, circa 1550, 200 x 145, Cathedral of Urbino

Sainte Cécile

Tous les livres liturgiques anciens en donnent la fête au 22 novembre, qui pourrait être l’anniversaire de la dédicace de sa basilique.

Semidouble dans le calendrier de saint Pie V, double en 1670 par Clément X.

A MATINES. avant 1960

Au premier nocturne.

Ant. 1 La vierge Cécile * triomphait d’Almachius et invitait Tiburce et Valérien à conquérir des couronnes.

Ant. 2 Les mains étendues, * elle priait le Seigneur de la délivrer de ses ennemis.

Ant. 3 Par le cilice, * Cécile domptait sa chair, et implorait Dieu avec des gémissements.

Lectures du commun des Vierges, I Cor. 7, 25-35 ; 8, 36-40.

Premier répons.

R/. Au son des instruments de musique, la vierge Cécile adressait en son cœur un chant au seul Seigneur [1], disant : * Que mon cœur et mon corps soient purs, Seigneur, pour que je ne sois pas confondue. V/. Elle recommandait au Seigneur, par des prières et des jeûnes se prolongeant deux et trois jours, le trésor qu’elle craignait de perdre. * Que.

Deuxième répons.

R/. O bienheureuse Cécile, qui avez converti deux frères, triomphé du juge Almachius, * Et fait voir l’Évêque Urbain sous l’aspect d’un Ange. V/. Comme une abeille raisonnable et industrieuse, vous avez servi le Seigneur. * Et.

Troisième répons.

R/. Cette Vierge glorieuse portait toujours l’Évangile du Christ sur son cœur, et ne cessait ni jour ni nuit, * De s’entretenir avec Dieu et de prier. V/. Les mains étendues, elle priait le Seigneur, et son cœur brûlait d’un feu céleste. * De. Gloire au Père. * De.

Au deuxième nocturne.

Ant. 4 Seigneur Jésus-Christ, * qui êtes l’auteur des chastes pensées, recevez les fruits de la divine semence, que vous avez répandue dans le cœur de Cécile.

Ant. 5 La bienheureuse Cécile* dit à Tiburce : Aujourd’hui je vous reconnais pour mon allié, parce que l’amour de Dieu vous a fait mépriser les idoles.

Ant. 6 Faites, Seigneur,* que mon cœur et mon corps soient sans tache, afin que je ne sois pas confondue.

Quatrième leçon. La vierge Cécile, née à Rome de parents illustres, et élevée dès son enfance dans les principes de la foi chrétienne, consacra à Dieu sa virginité. Mais dans la suite, ayant été contrainte d’épouser Valérien, elle lui tint ce discours, le soir de ses noces : « Valérien, je suis placée sous la garde d’un Ange qui protège ma virginité : c’est pourquoi ne teniez rien à mon égard, de peur d’attirer sur vous la colère de Dieu. » Vivement ému de ces paroles, Valérien n’osa point s’approcher d’elle, il ajouta même qu’il croirait en Jésus-Christ, s’il voyait cet Ange. Cécile lui ayant répondu que cela n’était pas possible à moins qu’il n’eût reçu le baptême, il déclara, dans son ardent désir de voir l’Ange, qu’il voulait être baptisé. C’est pourquoi, d’après le conseil de la jeune vierge, il se rendit auprès du Pape Urbain qui, à cause de la persécution, se tenait caché parmi les tombeaux des Martyrs, sur la voie Appia, et il reçut le baptême de ses mains.

R/. Cécile avait dompté sa chair par le cilice, et imploré Dieu avec des gémissements : * Elle invitait Tiburce et Valérien à conquérir des couronnes. V/. Voici une Vierge sage, et du nombre des prudentes. * Elle.

Cinquième leçon. De retour auprès de Cécile, Valérien la trouva en prière, ayant à ses côtés un Ange resplendissant d’une clarté toute divine. Cette vue le frappa d’étonnement ; mais dès qu’il fut revenu de sa frayeur, il manda auprès de lui son frère Tiburce qui, ayant été instruit par Cécile dans la foi de Jésus-Christ et baptisé par le même Pape Urbain, mérita aussi de voir cet Ange que son frère avait vu. Peu de temps après, tous les deux souffrirent courageusement le martyre, sous le préfet Almachius. Celui-ci n’ayant pas tardé à donner l’ordre de s’emparer de Cécile, lui demanda tout d’abord où se trouvaient les richesses de Tiburce et de Valérien.

R/. Valérien trouva Cécile en prière dans sa chambre, et un Ange du Seigneur debout auprès d’elle : * En le voyant, il fut saisi d’une grande crainte. V/. L’Ange du Seigneur descendit du ciel, et la maison fut remplie de lumière. * En.

Sixième leçon. La vierge lui ayant répondu que toutes ses richesses avaient été distribuées aux pauvres, le préfet entra dans une si grande fureur, qu’il ordonna de la ramener chez elle, pour être brûlée dans la salle des bains. Elle y passa un jour et une nuit, sans ressentir aucunement les atteintes de la flamme. On envoya donc le bourreau qui, l’ayant frappée de trois coups de hache, et n’ayant pu lui trancher la tête, la laissa à moitié morte. Trois jours après, le dixième jour des calendes de décembre, sous l’empire d’Alexandre, son âme s’envola dans le ciel, parée de la double couronne du martyre et de la virginité. Le Pape Urbain inhuma lui-même son corps dans le cimetière de Calixte. On a fait de sa demeure une église consacrée sous son vocable. Son corps et ceux des Papes Urbain et Lucius, de Tiburce, de Valérien et de Maxime ont été transférés dans la Ville, par le souverain Pontife Pascal Ier, et déposés dans cette même église de sainte Cécile.

R/. Seigneur Jésus-Christ, bon pasteur, auteur des chastes pensées, recevez le fruit de la divine semence que vous avez répandue dans le cœur de Cécile : * Cécile, votre servante, vous sert comme une abeille raisonnable et industrieuse. V/. Car elle vous a envoyé, doux comme un agneau, l’époux qui était venu à elle, fier comme un lion. * Cécile. Gloire au Père. * Cécile.

Au troisième nocturne.

Ant. 7 Nous croyons que le Christ * Fils de Dieu, qui s’est choisi une telle servante, est le vrai Dieu.

Ant. 8 Nous qui connaissons * son saint nom, nous ne pouvons le renier en aucune manière.

Ant. 9 Valérien * s’en alla et reconnut saint Urbain, au signe qu’on lui avait donné.

Lecture du saint Évangile selon saint Matthieu.

En ce temps-là : En ce temps-là : Jésus dit à ses disciples cette parabole : Le royaume des cieux sera semblable à dix vierges qui, ayant pris leurs lampes, allèrent au-devant de l’époux et de l’épouse. Et le reste.

Homélie de saint Jean Chrysostome.

Septième leçon. Pourquoi, dans cette parabole, le Sauveur met-il en scène des vierges, et non pas indifféremment des personnes quelconques ? Il avait développé de grandes vérités au sujet de la virginité, en disant qu’il en est qui se rendent chastes à cause du royaume des cieux, et avait ajouté : « Que celui qui peut comprendre, comprenne. » II n’ignorait pas que la virginité obtient partout une grande estime ; cette vertu est en effet sublime de sa nature : ce qui le prouve, c’est que, dans l’Ancien Testament, elle n’était pas observée, même par les plus saints personnages, et qu’il ne nous en est pas fait une loi dans le Nouveau ; car Jésus-Christ ne l’a point prescrite, il a laissé les fidèles entièrement libres à cet égard. Aussi saint Paul disait-il : « Quant aux vierges, je n’ai pas reçu de commandement du Seigneur. » Il est vrai, je loue celui qui embrasse cet état ; mais je ne force en rien celui qui n’en veut pas, et je n’en fais pas une chose de précepte.

R/. La bienheureuse Cécile dit à Tiburce : Aujourd’hui je vous reconnais pour mon allié, parce que l’amour de Dieu vous a fait * Mépriser les idoles, V/. Car, de même que l’amour de Dieu a fait de votre frère mon époux, ainsi il vous a rendu mon allié. * Mépriser.

Huitième leçon. La virginité étant donc, et une grande chose et une chose généralement fort estimée, on aurait pu penser que cette seule vertu remplaçait toutes les autres, et, dès lors, négliger celles-ci ; c’est afin de prévenir une telle illusion que le Sauveur propose cette parabole, bien propre à nous persuader que la virginité, quand même elle serait accompagnée des autres vertus, est rejetée comme l’impureté, si les œuvres de miséricorde lui font défaut. Le Christ met sur le même rang que l’impudique, l’homme inhumain et dénué de miséricorde. L’un et l’autre sont subjugués par la passion ; mais celle qui entraine le premier est plus impérieuse que celle qui domine le second. Aussi, plus l’ennemi qui attaque ces vierges est faible, plus elles sont coupables de se laisser vaincre. C’est précisément pour cela que l’Évangile les appelle folles ; car, étant sorties victorieuses du plus rude combat, elles ont tout perdu quand le triomphe leur était plus facile.

R/. Cécile m’a envoyé vers vous, afin que vous me montriez le saint Évêque : * Car j’ai des secrets à lui communiquer. V/. Alors Valérien poursuivit sa route, et reconnut saint Urbain au signe qu’on lui avait donné. * Car. Gloire au Père. * Car.

Neuvième leçon. Les lampes désignent ici le don même de la virginité, la pureté de la vie ; et l’huile symbolise la bienfaisance, l’aumône, le secours prodigué aux indigents. « Or, l’époux tardant à venir, elles s’assoupirent toutes, et s’endormirent. » Le Sauveur fait entendre qu’il dut s’écouler un temps considérable, pour ôter à ses disciples l’idée que son règne arriverait bientôt. Ils en nourrissaient l’espoir, aussi Jésus en revient-il souvent à leur enlever cette illusion. En outre, il présente la mort comme un sommeil : « Elles s’endormirent, » dit-il. « Mais au milieu de la nuit, un cri s’éleva. » Ou bien ceci est ajouté à la parabole, ou bien il veut montrer que la résurrection générale aura lieu pendant la nuit. Le cri, saint Paul en fait aussi mention quand il dit : « Sur l’ordre donné, à la voix de l’Archange et au son de la trompette, il descendra du ciel »

[1] Ce passage des Actes de Ste Cécile, le seul sur lequel soit fondé le culte spécial que lui rendent les musiciens, signifie que, pendant la cérémonie de ses noces, qui était accompagnée du son des instruments, selon l’usage de toute l’antiquité, la vierge chrétienne demandait à Dieu, en se servant des paroles du Psalmiste, de préserver son cœur et ses sens des atteintes de l’amour profane.

Santa Cecilia

Raphael (1483–1520), Estasi di santa Cecilia, circa 1524, oil on panel and on transferred on canvas, 220 x 136, Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna

Rafaël Santi (1483-1520), Heilige Cecilia in extase met Paulus, Johannes (evangelist), Augustinus en Maria Magdalena, Bologna Pinacoteca Nazionale

Dom Guéranger, l’Année Liturgique

Cécile unit dans ses veines au sang des rois celui des héros qui firent la Ville éternelle. Au moment où retentit dans le monde la trompette évangélique, plus d’une famille de l’ancien patriciat ne se survivait plus dans une descendance directe. Mais les adoptions et les alliances qui, sous la République, avaient serré les liens des grandes familles en les rattachant toutes aux plus illustres d’entre elles, formaient de la gloire de chacune un fonds commun qui, jusque dans les siècles de la décadence républicaine, se transmettait intact et constituait l’apanage des survivants de l’aristocratie.

Or il est aujourd’hui démontré, par l’irréfragable témoignage des monuments, que le christianisme dès l’abord s’assimila cette gloire, en faisant siens ses héritiers ; que les premières assises de la Rome des Pontifes, merveilleux dessein de la Providence ! furent ces derniers représentants de la République, conservés tout exprès pour donner aux deux phases de l’histoire romaine l’unité puissante qui est le cachet des œuvres divines. Rapprochés autrefois par un même patriotisme, les Cornelii, les Aemilii, comme eux héritiers des Fabii, les Cœcilii, les Valerii,les Sergii, les Furii, les Claudii, Pomponii, Plautii, Acilii, premiers-nés de l’Église des gentils, virent se resserrer encore au sein du christianisme les liens formés sous la République, et constituèrent, dès le premier et le second siècle de la prédication évangélique, l’indissoluble et noble réseau de la nouvelle société romaine. Puis sur ce tronc vigoureux toujours de la vieille aristocratie vinrent se greffer dans les mêmes siècles, et sous l’influence de la religion que Pierre et Paul avaient prêchée, les membres les plus méritants des nouvelles familles impériales ou consulaires, dignes par leurs vertus vraiment romaines au sein de la dépravation générale, d’être appelés à renforcer les rangs trop éclaircis des fondateurs 4e Rome, et à combler sans brusque transition les vides faits par le temps dans les familles du vrai patriciat. Ainsi Rome poursuivait elle ses destinées ; ainsi l’édification de la Ville éternelle allait s’achevant par ces mêmes hommes qui l’avaient autrefois, dans leur sang et leur génie, constituée forte et puissante sur les sept collines.

Représentante légitime de cette aristocratie sans pareille au monde, Cécile, la plus belle des fleurs de la vieille tige, en fut aussi comme la dernière. Le deuxième siècle de l’ère chrétienne était sur son déclin ; le troisième qui, des mains de l’africain Septime Sévère, allait voir l’empire passer successivement aux Orientaux et aux barbares des rives du Danube, devait être, on le conçoit, peu favorable à la conservation des vieux restes de la noblesse d’antan ; et l’on peut dire que c’en est fait alors de la vraie société romaine, parce qu’alors, sauf de rares et individuelles exceptions, il ne reste plus de romain que le nom, vaine parure d’affranchis et d’hommes nouveaux qui, sous des princes dignes d’eux, exploitent le monde au gré de leurs vices.

Cécile est donc bien apparue à son heure, personnifiant avec une incomparable dignité la société qui va disparaître, son œuvre accomplie. Dans sa force et dans sa beauté, royalement ornée de la pourpre du martyre, c’est l’antique Rome s’élevant aux cieux glorieuse et fière, en face des césars parvenus dont la médiocrité jalouse achève par son immolation, sans en avoir conscience, l’exécution du plan divin. Ce sang des rois et des héros qui s’épanche à flots de sa triple blessure, est la libation du vieux patriciat au Christ vainqueur, à la Trinité dominatrice des nations ; c’est la consécration suprême qui nous révèle dans son étendue la vocation sublime des fortes races appelées à fonder Rome éternelle.

Mais qu’on ne croie pas que la fête de ce jour limite son objet à exciter en nous une admiration théorique et stérile [2]. L’Église reconnaît et honore dans sainte Cécile trois caractères dont la réunion la distingue souverainement au sein de cette admirable famille des Bienheureux qui resplendit au ciel, et en fait descendre les grâces et les exemples. Ces trois caractères sont : la virginité, le zèle apostolique, le courage surhumain qui lui a fait braver la mort et les supplices ; triple enseignement que nous apporte cette seule histoire chrétienne.

Dans ce siècle aveuglément asservi au culte du sensualisme, n’est-il pas temps de protester par les fortes leçons de notre foi contre un entraînement auquel échappent à peine les enfants de la promesse ? Depuis la chute de l’empire romain, vit-on jamais les mœurs, et avec elles la famille et la société, aussi gravement menacées ? La littérature, les arts, le luxe n’ont d’autre but, depuis longues années, que de proposer la jouissance physique comme l’unique terme de la destinée de l’homme ; et la société compte déjà un nombre immense de ses membres qui ne vivent plus que par les sens. Mais aussi malheur au jour où, pour être sauvée, elle croirait pouvoir compter sur leur énergie ! L’empire romain essaya aussi, et à plusieurs reprises, de soulever le fardeau de l’invasion ; il retomba sur lui-même et ne se releva plus.

Oui ; la famille elle-même, la famille surtout est menacée. Contre la reconnaissance légale, disons mieux, l’encouragement du divorce, il est temps qu’elle songe à sa défense. Elle n’y arrivera que par un seul moyen : en se réformant elle-même, en se régénérant d’après la loi de Dieu, en redevenant sérieuse et chrétienne. Que le mariage soit en honneur, avec toutes les chastes conséquences qu’il entraîne ; qu’il cesse d’être un jeu, ou une spéculation ; que la paternité et la maternité ne soient plus un calcul, mais un devoir sévère ; bientôt, par la famille, la cité et la nation auront repris leur dignité et leur vigueur.

Mais le mariage ne remontera à cette élévation qu’autant que les hommes apprécieront l’élément supérieur sans lequel la nature humaine n’est tout entière qu’une ignoble ruine ; cet élément céleste est la continence. Sans doute, tous ne sont pas appelés à l’embrasser dans sa notion absolue ; mais tous lui doivent hommage, sous peine d’être livrés au sens réprouvé, comme parle l’Apôtre [3].

C’est la continence qui révèle à l’homme le secret de sa dignité, qui trempe son âme pour tous les genres de dévouement, qui assainit son cœur, et relève son être tout entier. Elle est le point culminant delà beauté morale dans l’individu, et en même temps le grand ressort de la société humaine. Pour en avoir éteint le sentiment, l’ancien monde s’en allait en dissolution ; lorsque le fils de la Vierge parut sur la terre, il renouvela et sanctionna ce principe sauveur, et les destinées de la race humaine prirent un nouvel essor.

Les enfants de l’Église, s’ils méritent ce nom, goûtent cette doctrine, et elle n’a rien qui les étonne. Les oracles du Sauveur et de ses Apôtres leur ont tout révélé, et les annales de la foi qu’ils professent leur montrent en action, à chaque page, cette vertu féconde à laquelle tous les degrés de la vie chrétienne doivent participer, chacun dans sa mesure. Sainte Cécile n’offre à leur admiration qu’un exemple de plus. Mais la leçon est éclatante, et tous les siècles chrétiens l’ont célébrée. Que de vertus Cécile a inspirées, que de courages elle a soutenus, que de faiblesses son souvenir a prévenues ou réparées ! Car telle est la puissance de moralisation que le Seigneur a placée dans ses saints, qu’ils n’influent pas seulement par l’imitation directe de leurs héroïques vertus, mais aussi par les inductions que chaque fidèle est à même d’en tirer pour sa situation particulière.

Le second caractère que présente à étudier la vie de sainte Cécile est cette ardeur de zèle dont elle est demeurée l’un des plus admirables modèles, et nous ne doutons pas que sous ce rapport encore la leçon ne soit de nature à produire d’utiles impressions. L’insensibilité au mal dont nous n’avons pas à répondre personnellement, dont les résultats ne sont pas en voie de nous atteindre, est un des traits de l’époque ; on convient que tout s’en va, on assiste à la décomposition universelle, et l’on ne songe pas à tendre la main à son voisin pour l’arracher au naufrage. Où en serions-nous aujourd’hui, si le cœur des premiers chrétiens eût été aussi glacé que le nôtre ; s’il n’eût été pris de cette immense pitié, de cet inépuisable amour qui leur défendit de désespérer du monde, au sein duquel Dieu les avait déposés pour être le sel de la terre [4] ? Chacun alors se sentait comptable sans mesure du don qu’il avait reçu. Fût-il libre ou esclave, connu ou inconnu, tout homme était l’objet d’un dévouement sans bornes pour ces cœurs que la charité du Christ remplissait. Qu’on lise les Actes des Apôtres et leurs Épîtres, on apprendra sur quelle immense échelle fonctionnait l’apostolat dans ces premiers jours ; et l’ardeur de ce zèle fut longtemps sans se refroidir. Aussi les païens disaient : « Voyez comme ils s’aiment ! » Et comment ne se fussent-ils pas aimés ? Dans l’ordre de la foi, ils étaient fils les uns des autres.

Quelle tendresse maternelle Cécile ressentait pour les âmes de ses frères, par cela seul qu’elle était chrétienne ! A la suite de son nom, nous pourrions en enregistrer mille autres qui attestent que la conquête du monde par le christianisme et sa délivrance du joug des dépravations païennes, ne sont dues qu’à ces actes de dévouement opérés sur mille points à la fois, et produisant enfin le renouvellement universel. Imitons du moins en quelque chose ces exemples auxquels nous devons tout. Perdons moins de temps et d’éloquence à gémir sur des maux trop réels. Que chacun se mette à l’œuvre, et qu’il gagne un de ses frères-bientôt le nombre des fidèles aura dépassé celui des incroyants. Sans doute, ce zèle n’est pas éteint, il opère dans plusieurs, et ses fruits réjouissent et consolent l’Église ; mais pourquoi faut-il qu’il sommeille si profondément dans un si grand nombre de cœurs que Dieu lui avait préparés !

La cause en est, hélas ! à la froideur générale, produit de la mollesse des mœurs, et qui donnerait à elle seule le type de l’époque, s’il ne fallait encore y joindre un autre sentiment qui procède de la même source, et suffirait, s’il était de longue durée, à rendre incurable l’abaissement d’une nation. Ce sentiment est la peur, et l’on peut dire qu’il s’étend aujourd’hui aussi loin qu’il est possible. Peur de perdre ses biens ou ses places ; peur de perdre son luxe ou ses aises ; peur enfin de perdre la vie. Il n’est pas besoin de dire que rien n’est plus énervant, et partant plus dangereux pour ce monde, que cette humiliante préoccupation ; mais avant tout, il faut convenir qu’elle n’a rien de chrétien. Aurions-nous oublié que nous ne sommes que voyageurs sur cette terre, et l’espérance des biens futurs serait-elle donc éteinte dans nos cœurs ? Cécile nous apprendra comment on se défait du sentiment de la peur. Au temps où elle vécut, la vie était moins sûre qu’aujourd’hui. Alors on pouvait bien avoir quelque raison de craindre ; cependant on était ferme, et les puissants tremblèrent souvent à la voix de leur victime.

Dieu sait ce qu’il nous réserve ; mais si bientôt la peur ne faisait place à un sentiment plus digne de l’homme et du chrétien, la crise politique ne tarderait pas à dévorer toutes les existences particulières. Quoi qu’il arrive, l’heure est venue de rapprendre notre histoire. La leçon ne sera pas perdue, si nous arrivons à comprendre ceci : avec la peur, les premiers chrétiens nous eussent trahis, car la Parole de vie ne fût pas arrivée jusqu’à nous ; avec la peur, nous trahirions les générations à venir qui attendent de nous la transmission du dépôt que nous avons reçu de nos pères (1).

La Passio sanctœ Cœciliæ est indiquée par les plus anciens textes [5] au 16 septembre, et elle eut lieu sous Marc-Aurèle et Commode empereurs [6]. La grande fête du 22 novembre, précédée de sa Vigile, était l’une des plus solennelles du Cycle romain ; elle rappelait aux habitants des sept collines la dédicace de l’église élevée sur l’emplacement du palais consacré par le sang de la descendante des Metelli, et légué par Cécile mourante à l’évêque Urbain, représentant du Souverain Pontife Éleuthère. Urbain, confondu plus tard avec le Pape du même nom qui gouverna l’Église de Dieu au temps d’Alexandre Sévère, amena les légendaires à retarder d’un demi-siècle le martyre de la Sainte, comme on le voit encore aujourd’hui dans les leçons historiques du jour.

Selon toute vraisemblance, ce fut en l’année 178 que Cécile rejoignit Valérien au ciel d’où l’Ange du Seigneur était descendu peu de mois auparavant, dans la nuit des noces, apportant aux deux époux les couronnes où s’entrelaçaient les lis et les roses. Ensevelie par Urbain telle que l’avait laissée la mort, elle vit au commencement du siècle suivant la crypte de famille qui l’abritait donnée par les siens à l’Église romaine, et disposée pour la sépulture des Pontifes de cette Église maîtresse et mère. Paschal Ier la retrouvait près de ces tombes augustes au IX° siècle, et la ramenait triomphalement, le VIII mai 822, à sa maison du Transtévère qu’elle ne devait plus quitter désormais.

Le 20 octobre 1599, des travaux nécessités par la restauration de la basilique faisaient de nouveau reparaître Cécile aux yeux émerveillés de la Ville et du monde. Elle était revêtue de sa robe brochée d’or, sur laquelle on distinguait encore les traces glorieuses de son sang virginal ; à ses pieds reposaient les linges teints de la pourpre de son martyre. Étendue sur le côté droit, les bras affaissés en avant du corps, elle semblait dormir profondément. Le cou portait encore les cicatrices des plaies dont le glaive du licteur l’avait sillonné ; la tête, par une inflexion mystérieuse et touchante, était retournée vers le fond du cercueil. Le corps se trouvait dans une complète intégrité, et la pose générale, conservée par un prodige unique, après tant de siècles, dans toute sa grâce et sa modestie, retraçait avec la plus saisissante vérité Cécile rendant le dernier soupir, étendue sur le pavé de la salle du bain. On se croyait reporté au jour où le saint évêque Urbain avait renfermé dans l’arche de cyprès le corps de Cécile, sans altérer en rien l’attitude que l’épouse du Christ avait choisie pour exhaler son âme dans le sein de son Époux. On admirait aussi la discrétion de Paschal qui n’avait point troublé le repos de la vierge, et avait su conserver à la postérité un si grand spectacle [7].

Sfondrate, l’heureux cardinal-titulaire de Sainte-Cécile qui dirigeait les travaux, retrouva en outre dans la chapelle dite du Bain l’hypocauste et les soupiraux du sudatorium où la Sainte passa un jour et une nuit au milieu des vapeurs embrasées. De nouvelles fouilles entreprises récemment, et qui se poursuivent au moment où nous écrivons ces lignes, ont mis à jour d’autres restes de la patricienne demeure, que leur style doit faire reporter aux temps reculés de la République.

Tout l’ensemble des Antiennes et des Répons du 22 novembre (Voir les Matines) est emprunté aux Actes de la Sainte, et il reste le même après treize siècles qu’au temps de saint Grégoire. Nous en détachons quelques parties de nature à compléter le récit qui précède. La vierge nous y est tout d’abord montrée chantant à Dieu dans son cœur, au milieu des profanes accords du festin nuptial : silencieuse mélodie, supérieure à tous les concerts de la terre, qui inspira l’heureuse idée de représenter Cécile avec les attributs de la Reine de l’harmonie, et de l’acclamer comme la patronne du plus séduisant des arts.

[2] Les lignes qui précèdent résument la pensée de notre illustre Père et Maître, en Sainte Cécile et la Société romaine aux deux premiers siècles (Didot, 1874) ; nous ne croyons pouvoir mieux faire que d’emprunter textuellement ce qui suit à la Préface, toujours, hélas ! si actuelle, de sa première Histoire de sainte Cécile, Vierge romaine et Martyre (Lecoffre, 1849).

[3] Rom. 1, 28.

[4] Matth. 5, 13.

[5] Martyrologe hiéronymien.

[6] Actes primitifs.

[7] Dom Guéranger. Sainte Cécile et la Société rom., p. 496 (édition Didot).

Santa Cecilia

Andrés de la Concha (1550–1612), Saint Cecilia, XVI th century, 291 x 193,5, Museo Nacional de Arte, Mexico City

Bhx Cardinal Schuster, Liber Sacramentorum

Selon le martyrologe hiéronymien, le natale et passio sanctae Caeciliae tomberait le 16 septembre. Mais, comme ce jour est déjà occupé par les fêtes des saints Corneille et Cyprien et de la vierge Euphémie de Chalcédoine, l’usage s’établit de bonne heure d’en renvoyer la solennité au 22 novembre, jour anniversaire de la dédicace du titulus Caeciliae au Transtévère. Tel est l’état liturgique révélé pour Rome par le Sacramentaire Léonien où, le 22 novembre, sous ce titre : in natali sanctae Caeciliae, nous trouvons cinq différents textes de messes. Une si grande richesse et une telle magnificence de formules témoignent de la faveur dont jouissait le culte de la martyre à Rome, où, au Ve siècle, le Pape lui-même célébrait en ce jour la messe stationnale dans la basilique du Transtévère. Cette indication locale nous est attestée par le biographe du pape Vigile dans le Liber Pontificalis, qui décrit la capture du Pontife par les soldats de Justinien, à l’occasion de l’affaire des Trois Chapitres, au moment même où Vigile, le 22 novembre 538, célébrait la synaxe stationnale dans le Titulus Caeciliae, à proximité de la rive du Tibre.

Le Pape fut donc entraîné dans une barque ; mais comme, après la Communion, il n’avait pas encore récité la dernière formule de bénédiction ou oratio super populum, les fidèles protestèrent bruyamment, demandant qu’on donnât au moins au Pontife le temps de laisser à Rome sa bénédiction. Il fallut bien y consentir, et Vigile récita, de la barque même, l’oratio super populum qui était réclamée ; après quoi, les fidèles ayant répondu amen, les rameurs commencèrent à voguer, et la barque s’éloigna rapidement du rivage.

Le titulus Caeciliae, érigé dans la maison de Valérien, où Cécile souffrit le martyre, apparaît dans les listes des titres romains en 499. Il s’élève sur une antique domus romaine, et à cet égard les actes de sainte Cécile ont trouvé, dans les fouilles exécutées sous le pavement de la basilique, une imposante confirmation topographique. La date du martyre de sainte Cécile est encore sujette à controverse, mais nous croyons qu’on peut l’assigner à la fin du IIIe siècle, du fait que le titre transtévérin fut appelé de son nom et qu’à Rome on en célébrait la dédicace le 22 novembre.

La dépouille ensanglantée de la martyre fut primitivement déposée dans le cimetière de Callixte, près de la crypte papale ; mais en 821 Paschal Ier la transporta dans la basilique du Transtévère, où, maintenant encore, on la vénère à côté de celles de Valérien, époux de Cécile, et de Tiburce, frère de Valérien, convertis par elle à la foi. En 1599 on fit la reconnaissance du corps de Cécile et on le trouva desséché mais intact e.t vêtu ; à ses pieds étaient plies les linges qui avaient servi jadis à recueillir son sang durant les dernières heures de sa terrible agonie.

La première lecture est empruntée à l’Ecclésiastique (Eccli. 51, 13-17.), et fait allusion au titulus où Cécile subit le martyre. « Seigneur, dit la martyre, vous avez glorifié mon habitation terrestre, alors que, dans l’épreuve et le danger suprême, je vous ai invoqué. J’élevai alors vers vous mon cri, et vous m’avez retirée du milieu des impies, en sorte que mon âme s’est échappée d’entre leurs mains. En leur pouvoir ne demeura, semblable à un vêtement inutile, que ma froide dépouille mortelle. »

« Dico autem vobis amicis meis ne terreamini ab his qui occidunt corpus et post haec non habent amplius quod faciant », ajoute le saint Évangile : « Je vous dis donc à vous, qui êtes Mes amis : Ne craignez point ceux qui tuent le corps, et qui, après cela, ne peuvent rien faire de plus. » (Luc 12,4)

Le graduel est tiré du psaume 44 qui traite du chaste hyménée entre le Christ-Messie et l’Église.

V/. Écoutez, ma fille, voyez et prêtez l’oreille, car le roi s’est épris de votre beauté.

V/. Avec votre gloire et votre majesté, avancez, marchez victorieusement et régnez.

On ne recommandera jamais trop aux âmes consacrées au Seigneur le recueillement et la générosité. Pour entendre l’appel de l’Époux, il est nécessaire de prêter l’oreille, faisant taire toute autre chose alentour. Mais il ne suffit pas d’entendre seulement l’inspiration divine, il faut aussi la seconder, et c’est pourquoi le Psalmiste dit : Audi, filia, et vide, et inclina aurem tuam, Écoutez, ma fille, voyez et prêtez l’oreille. C’est de ce verset même du psaume 44 que, au VIème siècle, saint Benoît, le patriarche des moines d’Occident, est parti pour dessiner, en soixante-douze chapitres, la Règle de la vie monastique : Obsculta, o fili, praecepta Magistri, et inclina aurem cordis tui, Écoutez, o fils, les préceptes du Maître voyez et prêtez l’oreille de votre cœur.

Secrète : « Nous vous en supplions, Seigneur, faites que votre bienheureuse Vierge et Martyre Cécile intercédant pour nous, cette hostie de propitiation et de louange nous rende toujours dignes de votre miséricorde. »

Nous trouvons indiquées dans cette collecte les fins principales pour lesquelles on offre le Sacrifice eucharistique. Celui-ci est avant tout une oblation placationis, c’est-à-dire ayant vraiment pour effet de satisfaire à la justice de Dieu, et laudis, c’est-à-dire un vrai et parfait sacrifice d’adoration. Il nous rend de plus en plus dignes de la divine propitiation, ce qui revient à dire qu’il possède une valeur propitiatoire et impétratoire souveraine, égale à la valeur et à la dignité de la Victime immolée.

Dans l’inscription métrique dont Paschal Ier accompagna sa mosaïque absidale du titulus Caeciliae, les vers suivants méritent d’être signalés :

AVREA • GEMMATIS • RESONANT • HAEC • DINDIMA • TEMPLI

LAETVS • AMORE • DEI • HIC • CONIVNXIT • CORPORA • SANCTA

CAECILIAE • ET • SOCIIS • RVTILAT • HIC • FLORE • IVVENTVS

QVAE • PRIDEM • IN • CRYPTIS • PAVSABANT • MEMBRA • BEATA

ROMA • RESVLTAT • OVANS • SEMPER • ORNATA • PER • AEVVM

Il resplendit d’or et de pierres précieuses, l’intérieur du temple

où (Paschal Ier) embrasé du divin amour réunit les saints corps

de Cécile et de ses compagnons, tels des fleurs d’une splendide jeunesse.

Leurs membres sacrés reposaient naguère dans l’obscurité des cryptes,

mais maintenant Rome s’en pare et elle s’en réjouit à travers les siècles.

Santa Cecilia
Reliquaire et statue de Sainte-Cécile, Cathédrale Sainte-Cécile, Albi

Relics and statue of Sainte-Cécile in Albi Cathedral.

Santa Cecilia
Reliquaire et statue de Sainte-Cécile, Cathédrale Sainte-Cécile, Albi

Relics and statue of Sainte-Cécile in Albi Cathedral.

Dom Pius Parsch, le Guide dans l’année liturgique

Sainte Cécile, “L’épouse de Dieu ”

Sainte Cécile est l’une des vierges martyres les plus honorées par la primitive Église Romaine (son nom figure au canon de la messe). Dès le IVe siècle, Rome possédait l’église Sainte Cécile au Transtevere, où reposent aujourd’hui ses restes. Elle fut martyrisée au temps de l’empereur Alexandre Sévère, en 230 environ. En 1599, on ouvrit son tombeau et l’on trouva le corps de la sainte dans un cercueil de cyprès. Le corps y était couché intact, comme si l’âme s’en était envolée à l’instant. Étienne Maderna, qui le vit plus d’une fois, en a sculpté une statue d’après nature. — Sainte Cécile est honorée depuis le Moyen Age comme patronne de la musique religieuse, ce qui provient d’une fausse interprétation d’un passage de son office (cantantibus organis). L’office très poétique du bréviaire comporte des antiennes et répons historiques dont le texte est emprunté au récit du martyre de la sainte.

Vie de la sainte d’après les antiennes et répons du bréviaire et l’antique “Passio” : Sainte Cécile mena une vie de prière et de contemplation. “La glorieuse vierge portait toujours l’Évangile du Christ sur sa poitrine et ne cessait ni jour ni nuit de s’entretenir avec Dieu et de le prier ; elle priait le Seigneur les mains levées vers lui et son cœur brûlait du feu céleste” (3e répons). Sous ses vêtements elle portait un cilice : “Elle domptait ses membres avec un cilice et implorait Dieu avec gémissements” (4e répons). Elle avait fait le vœu de virginité. Un jeune homme, nommé Valérien, espérait, avec l’assentiment de ses parents, pouvoir l’épouser. Tout était prêt pour le mariage ; “tandis que les instruments de musique jouaient, Cécile chantait dans son cœur au Seigneur : Gardez mon cœur immaculé afin que je ne sois pas confondue” (Ps. 118, 80). “Pendant les deux ou trois derniers jours elle pria en jeûnant et confia au Seigneur les craintes de son cœur” (1er répons). La nuit des noces approchant, elle confia un secret à Valérien : “Il y a un secret que je veux te dire : Un ange de Dieu m’aime, qui garde mon corps avec un grand soin” (Ant. de Magn. aux 1ères vêpres). Valérien promit qu’il croirait au Christ s’il pouvait voir cet ange. Cécile lui expliqua que c’était impossible tant qu’il ne serait pas baptisé. Valérien se déclara prêt à recevoir le baptême. Cécile l’envoya avec un signe de reconnaissance au pape Urbain qui se tenait caché dans les catacombes. Valérien rencontra les pauvres, les protégés des saints : “Cécile m’envoie à vous afin que vous me montriez le saint évêque ; j’ai à lui faire part d’un secret. Alors Valérien continua son chemin et, à l’aide du signe qu’il avait reçu, il trouva saint Urbain” (8e répons). Le pape remercia Dieu à genoux de la semence qui portait maintenant ses fruits en Cécile : “Seigneur Jésus-Christ, bon Pasteur, semeur d’un chaste dessein, recevez les fruits de la semence que vous avez semée en Cécile. Votre servante Cécile vous sert, telle une laborieuse abeille ; car, l’époux qu’elle a reçu comme un lion féroce, elle l’a conduit à vous comme un doux agneau” (6e répons). Puis il baptisa Valérien. Lorsque celui-ci fut de retour, “il trouva Cécile en prière dans sa chambre et l’ange du Seigneur debout à côté d’elle. A sa vue, Valérien fut saisi d’une grande frayeur” (5e répons). L’ange leur présenta à tous deux une couronne de roses, rouges comme le feu et blanches comme la neige, venant du paradis, en récompense de leur amour pour la chasteté, couronne qui ne doit pas connaître la souillure et qui n’est visible qu’aux amants de la chasteté. Valérien put alors exprimer un souhait en demandant à l’ange de l’exaucer : il demanda la conversion de son frère Tiburce. Lorsque Tiburce se présenta pour offrir ses vœux aux nouveaux époux, il fut frappé par un parfum inexplicable de roses et de lis. Il en apprit le motif et se fit également baptiser. “Sainte Cécile dit à Tiburce : Je te reconnais aujourd’hui pour mon beau-frère, car l’amour de Dieu t’a fait mépriser les idoles ; de même que l’amour de Dieu m’a donné ton frère pour époux, ainsi il t’a donné à moi comme beau-frère” (7e répons). Le préfet Almachius apprit alors la conversion des deux frères et les fit arrêter et amener dans l’espoir qu’ils sacrifieraient à Jupiter. Leur martyre fut encore précédé de la conversion de Maxime et de sa famille, qui furent baptisés dans la nuit. Le matin, Cécile invita les deux frères à combattre héroïquement pour le Christ : “quand l’aurore toucha à sa fin, Cécile s’écria : Courage, soldats du Christ, rejetez les vêtements des ténèbres et revêtez-vous de l’armure de lumière” (le choix de cette antienne de Benedictus est typique ; elle s’adresse aussi à nous dans la bouche des saints). Alors le préfet instrumenta contre Cécile ; ses biens furent confisques ; mais les soldats eux aussi se convertirent : “Nous croyons que le Christ est vraiment le Fils de Dieu, lui qui s’est choisi une pareille servante” (Ant.). Conduite devant le préfet, elle confessa le Christ : “Nous confessons son saint nom et nous ne le renions pas” (Ant.). Pour éviter tout scandale, le préfet donna l’ordre de l’ébouillanter dans un bain ; elle en sortit intacte : “Je vous remercie, Père de mon Seigneur Jésus-Christ, de ce que par votre Fils vous avez éteint le feu autour de moi” (Ant.). Il fallut la décapiter. Le bourreau lui donna trois coups (un quatrième n’était pas permis par la loi) et la laissa, baignant dans son sang. Elle vécut encore trois jours, encourageant les malheureux, et consacra sa maison comme église au service de Dieu : “J’ai demandé au Seigneur trois jours de répit pour consacrer ma maison à l’usage d’église” (Ant.).

SOURCE : http://www.introibo.fr/22-11-Ste-Cecile-vierge-et-martyre

Santa Cecilia

Carlo Dolci (1616–1686), Santa Cecilia all'organo, circa 1665, 96,5 x 81, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden

Saint Cecilia

Also known as

Caecilia

Celia

Cecily

Cécile

Cicilia

Memorial

22 November

Profile

Cultivated young patrician woman whose ancestors loomed large in Rome’s history. She vowed her virginity to God, but her parents married her to Valerian of Trastevere. Cecilia told her new husband that she was accompanied by an angel, but in order to see it, he must be purified. He agreed to the purification, and was baptised; returning from the ceremony, he found her in prayer accompanied by a praying angel. The angel placed a crown on each of their heads, and offered Valerian a favor; the new convert asked that his brother be baptised.

The two brothers developed a ministry of giving proper burial to martyred Christians. In their turn they were arrested and martyred for their faith. Cecilia buried them at her villa on the Apprian Way, and was arrested for the action. She was ordered to sacrifice to false gods; when she refused, she was martyred in her turn.

The Acta of Cecilia includes the following: “While the profane music of her wedding was heard, Cecilia was singing in her heart a hymn of love for Jesus, her true spouse.” It was this phrase that led to her association with music, singers, musicians, etc.

Died

martyred in the 3rd century

suffocated for a while, and when that didn’t kill her, she was beheaded

her grave was discovered in 817, and her body removed to the church of Saint Cecilia in Rome

the tomb was opened in 1599, and her body found to be incorrupt

Name Meaning

musical instrument makers

poets

singers

–

Academy of Music, Rome, Italy

Worshipful Company of Musicians

–

Albi-Castres-Lavaur, France, archdiocese of

Omaha, Nebraska, archdiocese of

Valleyfield, Québec, diocese of

–

Albi, France, city of

in Italy

Acquasparta

Caresanablot

Covigliaio

Santa Cecília de Montserrat Abbey

Representation

crown

musical instruments, especially a lute or organ

roses

Storefront

hand painted medals

Additional Information

A Garner of Saints, by Allen Banks Hinds, M.A.

Book of Saints, by Father Lawrence George Lovasik, S.V.D.

Book of Saints, by the Monks of Ramsgate

Catholic Encyclopedia

Golden Legend, by Jacob Voragine

In God’s Garden, by Amy Steedman

Little Lives of the Saints

Lives of the Saints, by Father Alban Butler

Lives of the Saints, by Father Francis Xavier Weninger

New Catholic Dictionary

Patron Saints for Girls

Pictorial Lives of the Saints

Saint Cecilia: Her Influence on Literature and The Arts, from Catholic World

Saint Cecilia’s Day in Rome, from Catholic World

Saints and Saintly Dominicans, by Blessed Hyacinthe-Marie Cormier, O.P.

Saints and Their Symbols, by E A Greene

Saints of the Canon, by Monsignor John T McMahon

Saints of the Day, by Katherine Rabenstein

Short Lives of the Saints, by Eleanor Cecilia Donnelly

Stories of the Saints for Children, by Mary Seymour

Virgin Saints and Martyrs, by Sabine Baring-Gould

books

Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints

Oxford Dictionary of Saints, by David Hugh Farmer

Saints and Their Attributes, by Helen Roeder

Some Patron Saints, by Padraic Gregory

other sites in english

1001 Patron Saints and Their Feast Days, Australian Catholic Truth Society

Adopt A Spire

Catholic Cuisine

Catholic Fire

Catholic Information Network

Catholic Ireland

Catholic Online

Christian Iconography

Cradio

Franciscan Media

Independent Catholic News

John Dillon

Mary’s Blog

Monsignor Charles Pope

Saint Peter’s Basilica Info

Saints for Sinners

Saints Stories for All Ages

images

audio

Life of Saint Cecilia, by Father Prosper Gueranger

A Joyful Noise: Celebrating Saint Cecilia’s Feast Day with Singer Francesca LaRosa

video

YouTube PlayList

e-books

Life of Saint Cecilia, by Father Prosper Gueranger

sitios en español

Martirologio Romano, 2001 edición

sites en français

Abbé Christian-Philippe Chanut

Fête des prénoms

fonti in italiano

Cathopedia

Martirologio Romano, 2005 edition

Santi e Beati

Santo del Giorno

Readings

Arise, soldier of Christ, throw away the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. – Saint Cecilia

MLA Citation

“Saint Cecilia“. CatholicSaints.Info. 16 June 2024. Web. 4 November 2024. <https://catholicsaints.info/saint-cecilia/>

SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-cecilia/

Santa Cecilia

Francesco Francia (1447–1517), Legend of Sts Cecilia and Valerian, Scene 1 : Marriage of Cecilia and Valerian, circa 1504, fresco, oratory of Saints Cecilia and Valeriano, Bologna

St. CECILIA

Feastday: November 22

Patron: of musicians

Birth: 2nd century

Death: 3rd century

In the fourth century a Greek religious romance on the Loves of Cecilia and Valerian was written in glorification of virginal life with the purpose of taking the place of then-popular sensual romances.

Consequently, until better evidence is produced, we must conclude that St. Cecilia was not known or venerated in Rome until about the time when Pope Gelasius (496) introduced her name into his Sacramentary.

It is said that there was a church dedicated to St. Cecilia in Rome in the fifth century, in which Pope Symmachus held a council in 500.

The story of St. Cecilia is not without beauty or merit. She is said to have been quite close to God and prayed often:

In the city of Rome there was a virgin named Cecilia, who came from an extremely rich family and was given in marriage to a youth named Valerian. She wore sackcloth next to her skin, fasted, and invoked the saints, angels, and virgins, beseeching them to guard her virginity

During her wedding ceremony she was said to have sung in her heart to God and before the consummation of her nuptials, she told her husband she had taken a vow of virginity and had an angel protecting her. Valerian asked to see the angel as proof, and Cecilia told him he would have eyes to see once he traveled to the third milestone on the Via Appia (Appian Way) and was baptized by Pope Urbanus.

Following his baptism, Valerian returned to his wife and found an angel at her side. The angel then crowned Cecilia with a chaplet of rose and lily and when Valerian's brother, Tibertius, heard of the angel and his brother's baptism, he also was baptized and together the brothers dedicated their lives to burying the saints who were murdered each day by the prefect of the city, Turcius Almachius.

Both brothers were eventually arrested and brought before the prefect where they were executed after they refused to offer a sacrifice to the gods.

As her husband and brother-in-law buried the dead, St. Cecilia spent her time preaching and in her lifetime was able to convert over four hundred people, most of whom were baptized by Pope Urban.

Cecilia was later arrested and condemned to be suffocated in the baths. She was shut in for one night and one day, as fires were heaped up and stoked to a terrifying heat - but Cecilia did not even sweat.

When Almachius heard this, he sent an executioner to cut off her head in the baths.

The executioner struck her three times but was unable to decapitate her so he left her bleeding and she lived for three days. Crowds came to her and collected her blood while she preached to them or prayed. On the third day she died and was buried by Pope Urban and his deacons.

St. Cecilia is regarded as the patroness of music, because she heard heavenly music in her heart when she was married, and is represented in art with an organ or organ-pipes in her hand.

Officials exhumed her body in 1599 and found her to be incorrupt, the first of all incurrupt saints. She was draped in a silk veil and wore a gold embroidered dress. Officials only looked through the veil in an act of holy reverence and made no further examinations. They also reported a "mysterious and delightful flower-like odor which proceeded from the coffin."

St. Cecilia's remains were transferred to Cecilia's titular church in Trastevere and placed under the high altar.

In 1599 Cardinal Paolo Emilio Sfondrati, nephew of Pope Gregory XIV, rebuilt the church of St. Cecilia.

SOURCE : https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=34

Santa Cecilia

Francesco Francia (1447–1517), Legend of Sts Cecilia and Valerian, Scene 10 : Burial of Saint Cecilia, circa 1504, fresco, oratory of Saints Cecilia and Valeriano, Bologna

St. Cecilia

Virgin and martyr, patroness of church music, died at Rome.

This saint, so often glorified in the fine arts and in poetry, is one of the most venerated martyrs of Christian antiquity. The oldest historical account of St. Cecilia is found in the "Martyrologium Hieronymianum"; from this it is evident that her feast was celebrated in the Roman Church in the fourth century. Her name occurs under different dates in the above-mentioned martyrology; its mention under 11 August, the feast of the martyr Tiburtius, is evidently a later and erroneous addition, due to the fact that this Tiburtius, who was buried on the Via Labicana, was wrongly identified with Tiburtius, the brother-in-law of St. Cecilia, mentioned in the Acts of her martyrdom. Perhaps also there was another Roman martyr of the name of Cecilia buried on the Via Labicana. Under the date of 16 September Cecilia is mentioned alone, with the topographical note: "Appiâ viâ in eâdem urbe Româ natale et passio sanctæ Ceciliæ virginis (the text is to be thus corrected). This is evidently the day of the burial of the holy martyr in the Catacomb of Callistus. The feast of the saint mentioned under 22 November, on which day it is still celebrated, was kept in the church in the Trastevere quarter at Rome, dedicated to her. Its origin, therefore, is to be traced most probably to this church. The early medieval guides (Itineraria) to the burial-places of Roman martyrs point out her grave on the Via Appia, next to the crypt of the Roman bishops of the third century (De Rossi, Roma sotterranea, I, 180-181). De Rossi located the burial-place of Cecilia in the Catacomb of Callistus in a crypt immediately adjoining the crypt or chapel of the popes; an empty niche in one of the walls contained, probably, at one time the sarcophagus with the bones of the saint. Among the frescoes of a later time with which the wall of the sepulchre are adorned, the figure of a richly-dressed woman appears twice and Pope Urban, who was brought personal into close relation with the saint by the Acts of her martyrdom, is depicted once. The ancient titular church of Rome, mentioned above was built as early as the fourth century and is still preserved in the Trastevere. This church was certainly dedicated in the fifth century to the saint buried on the Via Appia; it is mentioned in the signatures of the Roman Council of 499 as "titulus sanctae Caeciliae" (Mansi, Coll, Conc. VIII, 236). Like some other ancient Christian churches of Rome, which are the gifts of the saints whose names they bear, it may be inferred that the Roman Church owes this temple to the generosity of the holy martyr herself; in support of this view it is to be noted that the property, under which the oldest part of the true Catacomb of Callistus is constructed, belonged most likely, according to De Rossi's researches, to the family of St. Cecilia (Gens Caecilia), and by donation passed into the possession of the Roman Church. Although her name is not mentioned in the earliest (fourth century) list of feasts (Depositio martyrum), the fact that in the "Sacramentarium Leoniam", a collection of masses completed about the end of the fifth century, are found no less than five different masses in honour of St. Cecilia testifies to the great veneration in which the saint was at that time held in the Roman Church ["Sacram. Leon.", ed. Muratori, in "Opera" (Arezzo, 1771), XIII, I, 737, sqq.].

About the middle of the fifth century originated Acts of the martyrdom of St. Cecilia which have been transmitted in numerous manuscripts; these acts were also translated into Greek. They were utilized in the prefaces of the above-mentioned masses of the "Sacramentarium Leonianum". They inform us, that Cecilia, a virgin of a senatorial family and a Christian from her infancy, was given in marriage by her parents to a noble pagan youth Valerianus. When, after the celebration of the marriage, the couple had retired to the wedding-chamber, Cecilia told Valerianus that she was betrothed to an angel who jealously guarded her body; therefore Valerianus must take care not to violate her virginity. Valerianus wished to see the angel, whereupon Cecilia sent him to the third milestone on the Via Appia where he should meet Bishop (Pope) Urbanus. Valerianus obeyed, was baptized by the pope, and returned a Christian to Cecilia. An angel then appeared to the two and crowned them with roses and lilies. When Tiburtius, the brother of Valerianus, came to them, he too was won over to Christianity. As zealous children of the Faith both brothers distributed rich alms and buried the bodies of the confessors who had died for Christ. The prefect, Turcius Almachius, condemned them to death; an officer of the prefect, Maximus, appointed to execute this sentence, was himself converted and suffered martyrdom with the two brothers. Their remains were buried in one tomb by Cecilia. And now Cecilia herself was sought by the officers of the prefect. Before she was taken prisoner, she arranged that her house should be preserved as a place of worship for the Roman Church. After a glorious profession of faith, she was condemned to be suffocated in the bath of her own house. But as she remained unhurt in the overheated room, the prefect had her decapitated in that place. The executioner let his sword fall three times without separating the head from the trunk, and fled, leaving the virgin bathed in her own blood. She lived three days, made dispositions in favour of the poor, and provided that after her death her house should be dedicated as a church. Urbanus buried her among the bishops and the confessors, i.e. in the Catacomb of Callistus.

In this shape the whole story has no historical value; it is a pious romance, like so many others compiled in the fifth and sixth century. The existence of the aforesaid martyrs, however, is a historical fact. The relation between St. Cecilia and Valerianus, Tiburtius, and Maximus, mentioned in the Acts, has perhaps some historical foundation. These three saints were buried in the Catacomb of Praetextatus on the Via Appia, where their tombs are mentioned in the ancient pilgrim Itineraria. In the "Martyrologium Hieronymianum" their feast is set down under 14 April with the note: "Romae via Appia in cimiterio Prætextati"; and the octave under 21 April, with the comment: "Rome in cimiterio Calesti via Appia". In the opinion of Duchesne the octave was celebrated in the Catacomb of Callistus, because St. Cecilia was buried there. If, therefore, this second notice in the martyrology is older than the aforesaid Acts, and the latter did not give rise to this second feast, it follows that before the Acts were written this group of saints in Rome was brought into relation with St. Cecilia. The time when Cecilia suffered martyrdom is not known. From the mention of Urbanus nothing can be concluded as to the time of composition of the Acts; the author without any authority, simply introduced the confessor of this name (buried in the Catacomb of Praetextatus) on account of the nearness of his tomb to those of the other martyrs and identified him with the pope of the same name. The author of the "Liber Pontificalis" used the Acts for his notice of Urbanus. The Acts offer no other indication of the time of the martyrdom. Venantius Fortunatus (Miscellanea, 1, 20; 8,6) and Ado (Martyrology, 22 November) place the death of the saint in the reign of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus (about 177), and De Rossi tried to prove this view as historically the surest one. In other Western sources of the early Middle Ages and in the Greek "Synaxaria" this martyrdom is placed in the persecution of Diocletian. P.A. Kirsch tried to locate it in the time of Alexander Severus (229-230); Aubé, in the persecution of Decius (249-250); Kellner, in that of Julian the Apostate (362). None of these opinion is sufficiently established, as neither the Acts nor the other sources offer the requisite chronological evidence. The only sure time indication is the position of the tomb in the Catacomb of Callistus, in the immediate proximity of the very ancient crypt of the popes, in which Urbanus probably, and surely Pontianus and Anterus were buried. The earliest part of this catacomb dates at all events from the end of the second century; from that time, therefore, to the middle of the third century is the period left open for the martyrdom of St. Cecilia.

Her church in the Trastevere quarter of Rome was rebuilt by Paschal I (817-824), on which occasion the pope wished to transfer thither her relics; at first, however, he could not find them and believed that they had been stolen by the Lombards. In a vision he saw St. Cecilia, who exhorted him to continue his search, as he had already been very near to her, i.e. near her grave. He therefore renewed his quest; and soon the body of the martyr, draped in costly stuffs of gold brocade and with the cloths soaked in her blood at her feet, was actually found in the Catacomb of Prætextatus. They may have been transported thither from the Catacomb of Callistus to save them from earlier depredations of the Lombards in the vicinity of Rome. The relics of St. Cecilia with those of Valerianus, Tiburtius, and Maximus, also those of Popes Urbanus and Lucius, were taken up by Pope Paschal, and reburied under the high altar of St. Cecilia in Trastevere. The monks of a convent founded in the neighbourhood by the same pope were charged with the duty of singing the daily Office in this basilica. From this time the veneration of the holy martyr continued to spread, and numerous churches were dedicated to her. During the restoration of the church in the year 1599 Cardinal Sfondrato had the high altar examined and found under it the sarcophagi, with the relics of the saints, that Pope Paschal had transported thither. Recent excavations beneath the church, executed at the instigation and expense of Cardinal Rampolla, disclosed remains of Roman buildings, which have remained accessible. A richly adorned underground chapel was built beneath the middle aisle, and in it a latticed window, opening over the altar, allows a view of the receptacles in which the bones of the saints repose. In a side chapel of the church there have long been shown the remains of the bath in which, according to the Acts, Cecilia was put to death.

The oldest representations of St. Cecilia show her in the attitude usual for martyrs in the Christian art of the earlier centuries, either with the crown of martyrdom in her hand (e.g. at S. Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna, in a sixth-century mosaic) or in the attitude of prayer, as an Orans (e.g. the two sixth and seventh-century pictures in her crypt). In the apse of her church in Trastevere is still preserved the mosaic made under Pope Paschal, wherein she is represented in rich garments as patroness of the pope. Medieval pictures of the saint are very frequent; since the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries she is given the organ as an attribute, or is represented as playing on the organ, evidently to express what was often attributed to her in panegyrics and poems based on the Acts, viz., that while the musicians played at her nuptials she sang in her heart to God only ("cantantibus organis illa in corde suo soi domino decantabat"); possibly the cantantibus organis was erroneously interpreted of Cecilia herself as the organist. In this way the saint was brought into closer relation with music. When the Academy of Music was founded at Rome (1584) she was made patroness of the institute, whereupon her veneration as patroness of church music in general became still more universal; today Cecilian societies (musical associations) exist everywhere. The organ is now her ordinary attribute; with it Cecilia was represented by Raphael in a famous picture preserved at Bologna. In another magnificent masterpiece, the marble statute beneath the high altar of the above-mentioned church of St. Cecilia at Rome, Carlo Maderna represented her lying prostrate, just as she had received the death-blow from the executioner's hand. Her feast is celebrated in the Latin and the Greek Church on 22 November. In the "Martyrologium Hieronymainum" are commemorated other martyrs of this name, but of none of them is there any exact historical information. One suffered martyrdom in Carthage with Dativus in 304.

Sources

MOMBRITIUS, Sanctuarium, I, 186 sqq.; BOSIO, Atti di S. Cecilia (Rome, 1600); SURIUS, De vitis Sanctorum (Venice, 1581), VI, 161 sqq.; LADERCHI, S. Caciliae virg. et mart. acta ac transtiberina basilica (Rome, 1722); BOLLANDISTS ed., Bibliotheca hagiographica latina (Brussels, 1898-99), I, 224; SIMEON METAPHRASTES, in P.G., CXVI; BARONIUS, Annales, ad an. 821, 15 xv (the spurious document of Pope Paschal I); BOLLANDISTS ed., Synaxarium Constatinopolitanum (Brussels, 1902), 243; Liber Pontificalis, ed. DUCHESNE, I, xciii sq., 143, and II, 55-57, 65; TILLEMONT, Hist. eccles., III, 259 sqq.; De Rossi, Roma Sotterranea, II, xxxii sq.; GUERANGER, Histoire de Sainte Cecile (Paris 1849; 2nd ed., 1852); IDEM, Sainte Cecile et la société romaine (Paris, 1878); MORSE, BIRKS, and HOLE, in Dict. of Christian Biog., s.v.; AUBE, Les chrétiens dans l'empire romain (2nd ed., Paris, 1881), 352 sqq.; ALLARD, Histoire des persécutions, I, 427 sqq.; ERBES, Die heilige Cacilia im Zusammenhang mit der Papstcrypta sowie der altesten Kirche Roms, in Zeitschrift fur Kirchengeschichte, IX, 1888, 1 sqq.; P.A. KIRSCH, Die heilge Cacilia, Jungfrau und Martyrin (Ratisbon, 1901); IDEM, Das Todesjahr der heiligen Cacilia, in Stromation Archaiologikon (Rome, 1900), 42-77; KELLNER, Das wahre Zeitalter der heil. Cacilia, in Theologische Quartalschrift (Tübingen, 1902), 237 sqq.; (1903), 321 sqq.; (1905), 258 sqq.; DUFOURCQ, Les Gesta martyrum romains (Paris, 1900), 116 sqq., 293 sqq.; MARUCCHI, Basiliques et églises de Rome (Rome, 1902), 438 sqq.; BIANCHI-CAGLIESI, S. Cecilia e sua basilica (Rome, 1902); DETZEL, Christl. Ikonographie (Freiburg im Br., 1896), 220 sqq.; ROHAULT DE FLEURY, Les saints de la Messe, I, pl, 16-17; P. SIXTUS, Elucubrationes historico-liturgicae de recenti quadem sententia circa aetatem S. Caeciliae martyris, in Ephemerides liturgicae (Rome, Sept.-Oct. 1907). See also the accounts in BUTLER, Lives of the Saints, 22 November.

Kirsch, Johann Peter. "St. Cecilia." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 3. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 22 Nov. 2015 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03471b.htm>.

Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Michael T. Barrett. Dedicated to Sophie Kidder-Chang.

Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. November 1, 1908. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.

SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03471b.htm

Santa Cecilia

Antiveduto Grammatica (1571–1626), Saint Cecilia and two Angels Musicians, XVIIth century, 100 x 126, National Museum of Ancient Art, Lisbon

St. Cecilia

Saint Cecilia is said to have heard heavenly music inside her heart when she was forced to marry the pagan, Valerian. A wealth of music, art and festivals in honor of St. Cecilia has grown from this little bit of information from her biography. She is the acclaimed patron saint of music, especially church music, as well as that of musicians, composers, instrument makers and poets. The name Cecilia means blind and so, although we don’t know if she herself couldn’t see, she is also the Catholic patron saint of the blind.

It is believed that St. Cecilia was born in the 2nd or 3d century A.D., although the dates of her birth and martyrdom are unknown. A religious romance telling the love story of Saint Cecilia and Valerian appeared in Greece during the 4th century A.D., and there is a biography of St Cecilia dating from the 5th century A.D.

She is purported to have been the daughter of a wealthy Roman family, a Christian from birth, who was promised in marriage to a pagan named Valerian. Cecilia, however, had vowed her virginity to God, and wore sackcloth, fasted and prayed in hopes of keeping this promise. Saint Cecilia disclosed her wishes to her husband on their wedding night. She told Valerian that an angel watched over her to guard her purity. He wanted to see the angel, so St. Cecilia sent him to Pope Urban(223-230). Accounts of how and when Valerian saw the angel vary, but one states that he was baptized by the Pope, and, upon his return to Saint Cecilia, they were both given heavenly crowns by an angel. Another version recounts that Tibertius, Valerian’s brother, sees the crowns and he too is converted.

The two brothers then make it their mission to bury Christian martyrs put to death by the prefect of the city. In turn, they were brought in front of the prefect and sentenced to death by the sword. Cecilia, in the meantime, continued to make many conversions, and prepared to have her home preserved as a church at her death.

Finally, she too was arrested and brought before the prefect. He ruled that she should die by suffocation in the baths. Saint Cecilia was locked into the bathhouse and the fires vigorously stoked. She remained there for a day and a night but was still alive when the soldiers opened the doors. She was then ordered beheaded, but the executioner, after striking three times without severing St Cecilia’s head, ran away, leaving her badly wounded.

St. Cecilia hung onto life for three days after the mortal blows, preaching all the while. She made many more conversions and people came to soak up her flowing blood with sponges and cloths. There exists in Rome a church in St. Cecilia’s honor that dates from about the fifth century. Her relics were believed to have been found by Pope Paschal I in 821 A.D., in the cemetery of St. Celestas. These remains were exhumed in 1599, when Cardinal Paul Emilius Sfondrati rebuilt the church of St. Cecilia, and said to be incorrupt.

St. Cecilia’s following flourished during the Middle Ages in Europe. Songs were sung in her name, poetry was written, paintings with St. Cecilia as the subject were created, and her feast day, on November 22 was happily celebrated. She continued to be a popular topic for the arts well into the 18th century. Hans Memling, in 1470, painted St. Cecilia playing the organ at the mystical marriage of Catherine of Alexandria. In 1584 she was named patroness of the academy of music founded in Rome. Raphael painted her at Bologna, Rubens at Berlin and Domenichino in Paris. Chaucer commemorates her in his Second Nun’s Tale and Handel set John Dryden’s “Ode to Saint Ceclia” to music in 1736. Never was so much made of such a tiny bit of pseudo-biographical information. St. Cecilia, said to have heard heavenly music at one moment of her life, became the patroness of all western music. Even the Andrews sisters, in 1941, recorded a song, “The Shrine of St. Cecilia.”

In art, Saint Cecilia is typically depicted at the organ, the traditional instrument of the Catholic Church, sometimes with angelic hosts gathered around her. St. Cecilia societies still flourish around the world, often sponsoring musical events and contests. In fact, anyone involved with Church music will know of the feast day of Saint Cecilia and what it represents. Prayers to her ask God’s blessings on musicians and the hymns they proclaim to Him. Musician or not in her real life, St. Cecilia, by her devout, musical followings has certainly earned the right to be called the patroness of music.

SOURCE : http://www.ucatholic.com/saints/saint-cecilia/

Santa Cecilia

Workshop of Guido Reni (1575–1642), Saint Cecilia, circa 1610, 90 x 66, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Cecilia of Rome VM (RM)

(also known as Caecilia, Celia, Cecily)

2nd-3rd century (?). Cecilia is another of the problem saints, though greatly revered from a very early time. Her name is even mentioned in the canon of the first Eucharistic Prayer together with several other saints with questionable elements in their stories.

First: "Cecilia, though wedded, according to Roman law, to a nobleman by the name of Valerian, is always listed as a virgin, as well as a martyr, because her husband respected her private vow to become the bride of Christ and never exercised his marital rights" (Keyes).

Second: The Latin of first words of antiphon at Lauds on her feast day are `cantantibus organis,' so since the 16th century she is depicted as playing an organ and is the patron of church music and musicians. But it means music made in her heart to God at her wedding to Valerian, not that she herself played her own wedding music on the organ. The image is particularly anachronistic because she would not be playing the pipe organ with which we are familiar but an instrument similar to a calliope, which the early Christians would have associated with the Roman circus and spectacles. Therefore, she would have been more likely to trample such an instrument underfoot than to play it.

Third: She is commonly listed as a martyr, but there is no evidence of her martyrdom in Rome.

Cecilia is not mentioned in the early Deposito Martyrum of the 4th century, nor any of the early saints who were especially interested in the martyrs (e.g., Saints Ambrose, Jerome, Damasus, and Prudentius). The first mentioned of her name comes about the year 545 when the Passion of Saint Cecilia was written. The author of her Life may be an African refugee who came to Rome c. 488. He uses the argumentation of Augustine and Tertullian that Saint Valerian and his brother Saint Tiburtius were real martyrs, but Saint Cecilia is unconnected to them.

Even the date of her death is uncertain--estimated at anywhere between 177 to the fourth century, though the martyrdom of her supposed husband (according to the Roman Martyrology) was under Emperor Alexander, who ruled 222-35.

It is more likely that Saint Cecilia was the founder of parish church of that name in the Trastevere section of Rome. Founders of churches were often later turned into saints, not just in Rome. See Vie des Saints by the monks of Abbaye Sainte-Marie for further details on this aspect.

Her name, that she founded a church, and that she was buried in the cemetery of Saint Callixtus (donated to the Church by Cecilia) is all that is really known about Saint Cecilia. Her tomb in the cemetery was the prominent feature of a crypt adjoining the papal crypt according to inscriptions found there.

Her unreliable story, constructed of legends, tells us that Saint Cecilia was born of a patrician family in Rome and raised as a Christian. She wore a coarse horsehair garment beneath her clothes of rank, fasted, and vowed herself to God.

Against her will she was married by her father to a young, pagan patrician named Valerian. While everyone sang and danced at their wedding, Cecilia sat apart, saying only the Psalms. Valerian turned out to be a man of great understanding. On their wedding night, she told Valerian, "I have an angel of God watching over me. If you touch me in the way of marriage, he will be angry and you will suffer. But if you respect my maidenhood, he will love you as he loves me."

Valerian replied, "Show me this angel." She told him that if he believed in the living and one true God and was baptized, he would see the angel. Thus, she persuaded Valerian to respect her vow of virginity.

He was impressed and attracted by his wife's Christian graces, and so Valerian was baptized by Pope Saint Urban (which would be c. 222-230). When he returned to Cecilia, he found her standing by the side of an angel as she promised. The angel told him: "I have a crown of flowers for each of you. They have been sent from paradise as a sign of the life you are both to lead. If you are faithful to God, He will reward you with the everlasting perfumes of heaven."

The angel then crowned Cecilia with roses, and Valerian with a wreath of lilies. The delightful fragrance of the flowers filled the whole house. At this point Valerian's brother, Tiburtius, appeared. He, too, was offered salvation if he would renounce false gods. Cecilia converted him, and he was baptized.

From that time the two young men dedicated themselves to good works. Because of their ardor in burying the bodies of martyred Christians, they were arrested. The prefect Almachius told them that if they would sacrifice to the gods, they could go free. They refused, and Valerian rejoiced when he was handed over to be scourged.

The prefect wanted to give them another chance, but his assessor warned him that they would simply use the interim to give away their possessions so that they couldn't be confiscated. They were beheaded in Pagus Triopius, four miles from Rome. With them was an officer named Maximus, who had declared himself a Christian after witnessing their fortitude.

Cecilia buried the three and then decided to turn her home into a place of worship. Her religion was discovered and she herself asked to refute her faith. She converted those who were sent to convince her to sacrifice to the gods. When Pope Urban visited her at home, he baptized over 400 people.

In court, Almachius debated with her for some time. She was sentenced to be suffocated to death in the bathroom of her own house. The furnace was fed seven times its normal amount of fuel, but the steam and heat failed to stifle her. A soldier sent to behead her struck at her neck three times, and she was left dying on the floor. She lingered for three days, during which time the Christians thronged to her side, and she formally made over her house to Urban and committed her household to his care.

She was buried next to the papal crypt in the catacombs of Saint Callixtus. In 817, Pope Saint Paschal I discovered her grave, which had been concealed from the Lombard invader Aistulf in 756, and translated her body to beneath the main altar of what was later called the titulus Sanctae Caeciliae, which translates as "the church founded by a lady named Cecilia." In 1599, during the renovation of the church, Cardinal Sfondrati opened her tomb and found her holy remains incorrupt. Even the green and gold of her rich robe had not been injured by time. Thousands had the privilege of seeing her in her coffin, and many have been blessed by miracles. The body disintegrated quickly after meeting with the air.

Under the high altar in Saint Cecilia's Church is a beautiful marble statue by Maderna portraying the "martyr" bathed in her own blood as she fell after the stroke of the sword. A replica of this statue occupies the the original resting place of the saint in the catacomb of Callixtus. Other artists were allowed to paint pictures of her after her tomb was opened.

Until the middle ages, Pope Saint Gregory had been the patron of music and musicians, but when the Roman Academy of Music was established in 1584, it was put under the protection of Saint Cecilia; thus, her patronage of music originated. Dryden wrote a "Song for Saint Cecilia Day" and Pope an "Ode for Music on Saint Cecilia Day."

Valerian, Tiburtius, and Maximus are historical characters; they were Roman martyrs, buried in the cemetery of Praetextatus, but nothing else is known of them. Their story as outlined above may is a fabrication; but it wasn't until recently that scholars were able to elucidate it, and from the 6th century onwards Saint Cecilia, virgin and martyr, was held in high honor by Christians in the West. Her legend was the basis for the Second Nun's Tale in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

Whatever the true story of Saint Cecilia, the virtues assigned to her can be found in authoritative acta of other saints and, thus, are worthy of our heeding and following the example set down in the response and antiphon in the old Roman breviary for the Office of Saint Cecilia:

"In the midst of the concert of instruments, the virgin Cecilia sang to God alone in her heart: 'May my heart and my body remain pure, O God. Let me not be confounded.'

"She imposed on herself fasts of three and four days. She prayed and gave into God's keeping that for which she feared.

"Saint Cecilia, you triumphed over Almachius, the prefect, and converted two brothers by showing them bishop Urban of the angelic face. Like an industrious bee, you served the Lord.

"The glorious virgin forever carried the Gospel in her heart. Day and night she prayed and communed with God. She stretched out her hands to the Lord. Her heart was on fire with heavenly love.

"With her hairshirt, Cecilia subdued her body. She groaned and cried out to God. She brought Tiburtius and Valerian to share the crown. She was a wise virgin, to be numbered among the discreet.

"O Lord Jesus Christ, our good Shepherd, author of chaste vows, receive the fruit of the seed that you sowed in Saint Cecilia. Your servant Cecilia, like an industrious bee, spent herself in your service. The husband that came to her like a fierce lion, she brought to you like a most gentle lamb.

"There is a secret, Valerian, that I wish to tell you: 'I have as my friend an angel of God who watches over my body with jealous care.

"Saint Cecilia said to Tiburtius: 'Today I greet you as my brother, for the love of God has made you spurn idols.'

"We believe that Christ, the son of God, who chose unto himself such a servant, is the true God.

"As the dawn was breaking, Cecilia cried: 'Awake, soldiers of Christ. Cast away the works of darkness and clothe yourselves with the arms of light.

"I asked the Lord to spare me yet for three days that I might consecrate my house as a church." (Appleton, Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Coulson, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Keyes, Melady, Sheppard, Walsh, White)

Saint Cecilia's emblem is, of course, the organ in images dating after the 15th century. She is shown with an organ, harp, or other musical instrument. Sometimes she is (1) crowned with roses carrying a palm; (2) converting her husband, Saint Valerian; (2) dragged by oxen (this is also told of Saint Lucy); (4) in a cauldron; (5) pierced through the throat by a sword (a common attribute of many virgin martyrs); (6) with Saint Valerian, crowned by angels; or (7) shown in ways similar to Saint Dorothy (Husenbeth quotes several English rood-screens on which her attributes seem to be similar) (Roeder).

Representations without musical instruments can be found in S. Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna (6th century), Roman frescoes in the catacomb of Callixtus, and in Santa Maria Antiqua (Farmer). After she was depicted by Raphael as an organist, her image has been a favorite subject for stained glass in the choir loft (Appleton). Saint Cecilia is the patroness of musicians (Roeder, White) and Albi cathedral.

SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/1122.shtml

Santa Cecilia

Giuseppe Cesari (1568–1640), Santa Cecilia che suona un piccolo organo, 1630

November 22

St. Cecily, Virgin and Martyr

A.D. 230

THE NAME of St. Cecily has always been most illustrious in the church, and ever since the primitive ages is mentioned with distinction in the canon of the mass, and in the sacramentaries and calendars of the church. Her spouse Valerian, Tiburtius, and Maximus, an officer, who were her companions in martyrdom, are also mentioned in the same authentic and venerable writings. St. Cecily was a native of Rome, and of good family, and educated in the principles and perfect practice of the Christian religion. In her youth she by vow consecrated her virginity to God, yet was compelled by her parents to marry a nobleman named Valerian. Him she converted to the faith, and soon after gained to the same his brother Tiburtius. The men first suffered martyrdom, being beheaded for the faith. St. Cecily finished her glorious triumph some days after them. Their acts, which are of very small authority, make them contemporary with Pope Urban I., and consequently place their martyrdom about the year 230, under Alexander Severus: for, though that emperor was very favourable to the Christians, sometimes in popular commotions, or by the tyranny of prefects, several martyrs suffered in his reign. 1 Ulpian, the prefect of the prætorian guards and prime minister, was a declared enemy and persecutor; but was at length murdered by the prætorian troops which were under his command. Others, however, place the triumph of these martyrs under Marcus Aurelius, between the years 176 and 180. Their sacred bodies were deposited in part of the cemetery of Calixtus, which part from our saint was called St. Cecily’s cemetery. Mention is made of an ancient church of St. Cecily in Rome in the fifth century, in which Pope Symmachus held a council in the year 500. This church being fallen to decay, Pope Paschal I. began to rebuild it; but was in some pain how he should find the body of the saint, for it was thought that the Lombards had taken it away, as they had many others from the cemeteries of Rome, when they besieged that city under King Astulphus, in 755. One Sunday, as this pope was assisting at matins, as he was wont, at St. Peters, he fell into a slumber, in which he was advertised by St. Cecily herself that the Lombards had in vain sought for her body, and that he should find it; and he accordingly discovered it in the cemetery called by her name, clothed in a robe of gold tissue, with linen cloths at her feet, dipped in her blood. With her body was found that of Valerian, her husband; and the pope caused them to be translated to her church in the city; as also the bodies of Tiburtius and Maximus, martyrs, and of the popes Urban and Lucius, which lay in the adjoining cemetery of Prætextatus, on the same Appian road. 2 This translation was made in 821. Pope Paschal founded a monastery in honour of these saints, near the church of St. Cecily, that the monks might perform the office day and night. He adorned that church with great magnificence, and gave to it silver plate to the amount of about nine hundred pounds,—among other things a ciborium, or tabernacle, of five hundred pounds weight; and a great many pieces of rich stuffs for veils, and such kinds of ornaments; in one of which was represented the angel crowning St. Cecily, Valerian, and Tiburtius. This church, which gives a title to a cardinal priest, was sumptuously rebuilt in 1599 by Cardinal Paul Emilius Sfondrati, nephew to Pope Gregory XIV. 3 when Clement VIII. caused the bodies of these saints to be removed from under the high altar, and deposited in a most sumptuous vault in the same church, called the Confession of St. Cecily: it was enriched in such a manner by Cardinal Paul Emilius Sfondrati as to dazzle the eye and astonish the spectator. This church of St. Cecily is called In Trastevere, or, beyond the Tiber, to distinguish it from two other churches in Rome, which bear the name of this saint.

St. Cecily, from her assiduity in singing the divine praises, (in which, according to her Acts, she often joined instrumental music with vocal,) is regarded as patroness of church music. The psalms and many sacred canticles in several other parts of the holy scripture, and the universal practice both of the ancient Jewish and of the Christian church, recommend the religious custom of sometimes employing a decent and grave music in sounding forth the divine praises. By this homage of praise we join the heavenly spirits in their uninterrupted songs of adoration, love, and praise. 4 And by such music we express the spiritual joy of our hearts in this heavenly function, and excite ourselves therein to holy jubilation and devotion. Divine love and praise are the work of the heart, without which all words or exterior signs are hypocrisy and mockery. Yet as we are bound to consecrate to God our voices, and all our organs and faculties, and all creatures which we use; so we ought to employ them all in magnifying his sanctity, greatness, and glory, and sometimes to accompany our interior affections of devotion with the most expressive exterior signs. St. Chrysostom elegantly extols the good effects of sacred music, and shows how strongly the fire of divine love is kindled in the soul by devout psalmody. 5 St. Austin teaches that “it is useful in moving piously the mind, and kindling the affections of divine love.” 6 And he mentions that when he was but lately converted to God, by the sacred singing at church, he was moved to shed abundance of sweet tears. 7 But he much bewails the danger of being too much carried away by the delight of the harmony, and confesses that he had some time been more pleased with the music than affected with what was sung, 8 for which he severely condemns himself. St. Charles Borromeo in his youth allowed himself no other amusement but that of grave music, with a view to that of the church. As to music as an amusement, too much time must never be given to it, and extreme care ought to be taken, as a judicious and experienced teacher observes, that children be not set to learn it very young, because it is a thing which bewitches the senses, dissipates the mind exceedingly, and alienates it from serious studies, as daily experience shows. Soft and effeminate music is to be always shunned with abhorrence, as the corrupter of the heart, and the poison of virtue.

Note 1. See Tillemont, Hist. des Emper. in Alex. art. 18, et Hist. de l’Egl. t. 3, in S. Urban, p. 260. Orsi. l. 6, n. 39. [back]

Note 2. Anastasius in Paschali I. ap. Murat. t. 3, pp. 215, 216. [back]

Note 3. Uncle to Cardinal Celestin Sfondrati, author of the posthumous work. Nodus Prædestinationis Dissolutus, often mentioned in the schools. [back]

Note 4.

Angels and we, assisted by this art,

May sing together, though we dwell apart.

Waller.

[back]

Note 5. S. Chrys. in Ps. 41, t. 5, p. 131, ed. Ben. [back]

Note 6. S. Aug. ep. 55, (ol. 118,) ad Januar. c. 18, t. 2, p. 142. [back]

Note 7. S. Aug. Conf. l. 9, c. 6, l. 10, c. 33. [back]

Note 8. Ib. l. 10, c. 33. [back]

Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73). Volume XI: November. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.

SOURCE : http://www.bartleby.com/210/11/221.html

Santa Cecilia

Bernardo Cavallino (1616–1656), La Santa Cecilia in estasi, 1645, 183 x 129, National Museum of Capodimonte. Il dipinto è un bozzetto per il quadro di maggiori dimensioni esposto a fianco (inv. Q 1795, dove l'angelo ha la testa girata di tre quarti), e proviene dalla sagrestia della chiesa di Sant'Antonio a Napoli.

Saints and Their Symbols – Saint Cecilia

Article

A.D. 280, November 22. Patron saint of music. She was of a noble Roman family, and was brought up by her parents in the Christian faith. She early developed an extraordinary talent for music; she invented the organ, and sang hymns, composed by herself, with such sweetness and beauty that angels came from heaven to hear and join with her. She secretly dedicated herself to the service of God, but was obliged by her parents to marry a heathen noble named Valerian. She told him of her faith and vow, and that she had a guardian angel who watched her day and night. Valerian was converted by her teaching, and received baptism from Saint URBAN, who had been driven by persecution to take refuge in the catacombs. Returning to his wife’s room, he saw an angel, who placed a crown of roses on the head of each, and told Valerian to ask what be would, and his desire should be granted. Valerian prayed that his beloved brother, Tiburtius, should also know the truth; and the angel, telling him his request was pleasing to God, vanished. Soon after Tiburtius entered, and being surprised at the heavenly roses, Cecilia explained all to him, and such was the power of her words that he, too, was converted, and went to Saint Urban for baptism. The three together devoted their lives to good works, but were soon denounced to the prefect as Christians, and the, two brothers cast into a dungeon. Here they converted their gaoler Maximus, who soon after suffered martyrdom with them. Cecilia took the bodies, and buried them together in the catacomb of Saint Calixtus. The prefect, desiring to possess himself of her wealth, put her to many tortures, ordering her to be thrown into her own bath filled with boiling water. As she remained quite unharmed, he commanded that she should be beheaded; but the executioner quailed, and, having given her three wounds in the neck, fled. After this she lived three days, spent in prayer and almsgiving. At her desire, Saint Urban made her house into a place of worship, and a church now stands on the site (Saint Cecilia in Trastevere), where remains of her bath-room are still to be seen. She was buried in the catacomb of Saint Calixtus, but in the ninth century the place of her burial was revealed to Pope Pascal I, and he transferred her body to the Church of Saint Cecilia, which he was then rebuilding, and where it now rests. Virgin, Martyr, A.D. 280. Patron saint of music and musicians. Emblem – Angel. Crown of red and white roses. Musical instruments, especially an organ. Palm.

MLA Citation

E A Greene. “Saint Cecilia”. Saints and Their Symbols, 1908. CatholicSaints.Info. 24 June 2023. Web. 4 November 2024. <https://catholicsaints.info/saints-and-their-symbols-saint-cecilia/>

SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saints-and-their-symbols-saint-cecilia/

Santa Cecilia

Domenichino (1581–1641), Death of Saint Cecilia. circa 1612, Polet Chapel, San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome

Weninger’s Lives of the Saints – Saint Cecily, Virgin and Martyr

Article

Saint Cecily, a Roman maiden of high nobility, had the happiness of being instructed, in her youth, in the truths of Christianity. The love of Christ took such deep root in her heart, that, choosing Him as her bridegroom, she consecrated her virginity by vow, and desired nothing more fervently, than to shed her blood for His sake. She constantly carried the Gospel with her, and read it with great delight, so as to conform her actions more and more to its lessons. Whilst she thus lived according to the dictates of Christianity, her parents promised her hand to a noble and rich youth, named Valerian, and when the wedding-day arrived and all was joy in her parents house, she alone was sad unto death. According to her station she was splendidly attired, dazzling with costly jewels: but under her magnificent apparel, she wore, as usual, a rough penitential garment, and though her heart was sorrowful, her trust in God wavered not. She had fasted during the three previous days, to move her heavenly Spouse to protect her virginity. To the same end she invoked her Guardian Angel and the Blessed Virgin, the Queen of virgins. When the wedding was over, and Valerian was alone with her, Cecily, trusting in God, said gently but firmly to him: “Valerian, I am under the protection of an Angel, who guards my virginity. Therefore, be very careful that you act towards me in such a manner that the wrath of the Almighty may not be roused against you.” This unexpected speech astonished Valerian greatly; but when she informed him that she was a Christian and had vowed her virginity to God, telling at the same time, how agreeable it is to God when we keep our word with Him, and how we offend Him by breaking our vows, his heart was touched, and he said that he also would believe in Christ if he could see the Angel under whose protection she was. Cecily replied that this could not be unless he was baptized. The youth, desiring to see the Angel, promised to embrace Christianity, if she would procure him an opportunity to be instructed. Cecily informed him of the place where pope Urban was concealed on account of the persecution which the Christians suffered at that period. Valerian went to him, on the following day, and after having been instructed and baptized, returned to his bride. He found her praying, and saw beside her, what he had wished to behold, an Angel surrounded by heavenly brightness. Ancient legends tell us that the Angel held two wreaths of roses and lilies in his hand, one of which he gave to Cecily, the other to the new convert, exhorting both to constancy. Prostrating themselves, both gave bumble thanks to the Almighty. Meanwhile, Tiburtius, the brother of Valerian, came to visit them, and having been told what had happened, he also resolved to become a Christian. Valerian took him to the pope, who instructed and baptized him, and thus enabled him to behold the same Angel whom his brother had seen.

The conversion of these two young men could not long remain a secret. Almachius, the Governor, summoned them into his presence, and as they were determined to remain in the Christian faith, he had them both executed, after a long and most painful martyrdom. The holy virgin Cecily was also compelled to appear before the judge. She was first asked where the fortune was concealed which the two brothers had left. She replied, that it had been well disposed of, as the poor had received it. The Governor, enraged at this reply, commanded Cecily to be brought into the idolatrous temple, and if she refused to sacrifice immediately to the gods, she was to die a cruel death. Cecily was taken thither by a company of rough soldiers, to whom, on the way, she represented so strongly the truth of the Christian religion, that they all promised to forsake idolatry. Almachius, still more embittered, ordered Cecily to be taken to her own house, locked into the bathing-room and stifled by the heat. But it was all in vain. The bath was heated a whole day and night without causing. the Saint the least inconvenience. She was, at last, condemned to be beheaded. Three times the axe of the executioner fell without being able to sever her head from her body. When, at the third stroke, the Saint sank to the ground, the executioner left her for dead. Cecily, however, lived three days longer, and gave to all that came to see her, the most wholesome instructions. She left her property to the holy pope for the poor, and expressed the wish that her dwelling should be consecrated as a church, which was accordingly done. After three days, her triumphant soul went to her heavenly Spouse, about the middle of the third century of the Christian Era. We must not omit what the Roman Breviary also records of this holy virgin, that, when she heard the harmony of the music with which her wedding was celebrated, she sang to God in the interior of her heart: “O Lord, preserve my heart and body spotless, that I may not perish.” How holy a song, and how agreeable a prayer it was to God and the holy Angels, her history has shown.

Practical Considerations

• The two Saints, whose history we have related were at the same time virgins and martyrs. Saint Cecily was a martyr of faith; Saint Maxilinda, a martyr of chastity. Saint Cecily manifested, in deeds, that she esteemed the true faith above honor, wealth and life; while Saint Maxilinda proved by her death that she preferred chastity to all the treasures of the world, and even to her own life. The one died rather than forsake the true faith: the other, rather than break the vow she had made to God. May the entire Christian world learn from these two Christian heroines, the value of the true faith and chastity. There have been many, who, for temporal gain forsook the true faith, or by an ill advised marriage, placed themselves in great danger of becoming apostates. These will, one day, though too late, learn, to their eternal misery, what they lost and what they gained. There are also many, who for some temporal advantage, or to satisfy their desires, lose their innocence, and thus imitate the traitor Judas, when he offered to sell his divine Master, saying: u What will you give me and I will deliver him unto you?” (Matthew 26) Woe to all these senseless people! In eternity, they will curse their wickedness and blindness, and cry out: “Therefore we have erred from the way of truth, and the light of justice hath not shined unto us.” (Wisdom 5) I hope that my reader does not resemble such blind and foolish people.

• Saint Cecily carried the Gospel continually with her, read it with great delight, and endeavored to conform her life to its precepts. Saint Maxilinda passed much time in devout reading, and drew from it, not only the spirit of piety which animated her, but also her love of chastity and her strength to protect it. What book do you carry about? What books do you read? And what sort of spirit do you draw from them? Are your books such that you can gain salvation by following their lessons? or are they such that nothing can be learned from them but vanity, pride, licentiousness, infidelity, heresy, and contempt of God and ‘His holy religion? If you value your soul, read only such books as Saint Paul recommended to Timothy: books that will instruct you in the way you have to walk in order to gain your salvation. Avoid those which would lead you to the broad path of evil and thus precipitate you into eternal ruin. Rest assured that many have fallen into great crimes by reading immoral and heretical books, and have by this means gone to everlasting destruction. Others, on the contrary, by reading a devout book, were animated with true piety, which afterwards, strengthened by the same means, guided them in the way to heaven. Follow the example of the latter, and appoint a time in which you will read the Gospel, or other devout book; and take care, at the same time, that, after the examples of Saint Cecily and Saint Maxilinda, you conform your life in accordance with the lessons you will receive. “Thou must know,” writes Saint Jerome, “that God not only commands us to be acquainted with His laws, but also, to live up to them.”

• The purity of these two holy virgins was wonderfully preserved by the Almighty. He protected them while they were in the most imminent danger. To increase Maxilinda’s glory in heaven, God permitted her to be slain in defense of her chastity. But why did the Lord thus protect both of them? Because both placed their trust in Him, and prayed for His aid, and did everything in their power to help themselves. If you do not, in like manner, receive the divine protection, in temptations of body and soul, then the fault is in yourself, not in God. Your trust in the Almighty is not what it ought to be. Your prayer is either faulty or perhaps entirely neglected, and you do not resist earnestly enough. Correct your conduct in this respect, if you wish God to hear you. Do all that is in your power and call on God for help. Repeat frequently the short, but expressive prayer of Saint Cecily: “O Lord! preserve my heart and body pure, that I may not go to destruction.” Add mortification to prayer, as Saint Cecily did, and then trust implicitly in the Lord; for, Holy Writ assures us that God will not forsake those who trust in Him. He has the power to protect, and will surely hold His hand over you. “Do all you can,” says Saint Bernard, “and leave the rest to the Almighty.” He will do all that you are unable to do. “In every danger and temptation, we must endeavor to help ourselves as strenuously, as though there was no God to assist us, or as though we had everything to do for ourselves; but at the same time, we must call for aid on the Most High, as though we possessed no means whatever to help ourselves.” Thus speaks Saint James of Nisibis.

In conclusion, every parent ought to learn, from the history of Saint Maxilinda, the great misfortune he may occasion by promising his children to any one, without their consent, or by forcing them to marry against their inclination. It is natural that parents should advise their children in regard to marriage, and when a child wishes to marry one who is not a Catholic, it is their duty to oppose it with all their power; but to force them to bind themselves for life to one for whom they have no inclination is not allowed; because this occasions dissensions and many crimes for which they will have, one day, to render an account to the Almighty. Children, however, must also know that they commit great sin by giving their promise to any one without sufficient reason, by marrying without the knowledge of their pa- rents or perhaps even against their prohibition. We generally find that such marriages are not blessed; as, according to Holy Writ, the Almighty has pronounced an especial curse against children who bring sorrow upon their parents, or who wickedly provoke their anger.

MLA Citation

Father Francis Xavier Weninger, DD, SJ. “Saint Cecily, Virgin and Martyr”. Lives of the Saints, 1876. CatholicSaints.Info. 26 May 2018. Web. 11 November 2024. <https://catholicsaints.info/weningers-lives-of-the-saints-saint-cecily-virgin-and-martyr/>

SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/weningers-lives-of-the-saints-saint-cecily-virgin-and-martyr/

Santa Cecilia

Claude Vignon (1593–1670), Sainte Cécile, 1630, 87 x 64,5

Golden Legend – Saint Cecilia

Article

Here follows of Saint Cecilia, virgin and martyr, and first of her name.

Cecilia is as much to say as the lily of heaven, or a way to blind men. Or she is said of celo and lie, or else cecilia, as lacking blindness. Or she is said of celo, that is heaven, and legs, that is people. She was a heavenly lily by cleanness of virginity, a way to blind men by information of example, heaven by devout contemplation, lia by busy operation, lacking blindness by shining of wisdom, and heaven of the people. For the people beheld in her as in following the spiritual heaven, the sun, the moon, and the stars, that is to say, shining of wisdom, magnanimity of faith, and diversity of virtues. Or she is said a lily, for she had the whiteness of cleanness, a good conscience, and odour of good fame. Or she is said heaven, for Isidore says that the philosophers say that heaven is movable, round, and burning. In like wise was she moving by busy operation, round by perseverance, and burning by fiery charity.

Saint Cecilia, the holy virgin, was come of the noble lineage of the Romans, and from the time that she lay in her cradle she was fostered and nourished in the faith of Christ, and always bare in her breast the gospel hid, and never ceased day nor night from holy prayers, but recommended to God always her virginity. When this blessed virgin should be espoused to a young man named Valerian, and the day of the wedding was come, she was clad in royal clothes of gold, but under she wore the hair. Hearing the organs making melody, she sang in her heart, only to God, saying: “O Lord, I beseech thee that mine heart and body may be undefouled so that I be not confounded.” Every second and third day she fasted, commending herself unto our Lord whom she dreaded.

The night came that she should go to bed with her husband as the custom is, and when they were both in their chamber alone, she said to him in this manner: “O, my best beloved and sweet husband, I have a counsel to tell thee, if so be that you wilt keep it secret and swear that ye shall betray it to no man.” Valerian said that he would gladly promise and swear never to betray it, and then she said to him: “I have an angel that loves me, which ever keeps my body whether I sleep or wake, and if he may find that ye touch my body by villainy, or foul and polluted love, certainly he shall anon slay you, and so should ye lose the flower of your youth. And if so be that you love me in holy love and cleanness, he shall love thee as he loves me and shall show to thee his grace.”

Then Valerian, corrected by the will of God, having dread, said to her: “If you wish that I believe that you say to me, show to me that angel that you speak of, and if I find veritable that he be the angel of God, I shall do what you say, and if so be that you love another man than me, I shall slay both him and thee with my sword.

Cecilia answered to him: “If you will believe and baptize thee, you shalt well now see him. Go then forth to Via Appia, which is three miles out of this town, and there you shalt find Pope Urban with poor folks, and tell him these words that I have said, and when he hath purged you from sin by baptism, then when ye come again ye shall see the angel.”

And forth went Valerian and found this holy man Urban Iouting among the burials; to whom he reported the words that Cecilia had said, and Saint Urban for joy can hold up his hands and let the tears fall out of his eyes, and said: “O Almighty God Jesu Christ, sower of chaste counsel and keeper of us all, receive the fruit of the seed that you has sown in Cecilia, for, like a busy bee she served thee; for the spouse whom she hath taken which was like a wood lion, she hath sent hither like as a meek lamb.” And with that word appeared suddenly an old man clad in white clothes, holding a book written with letters of gold, whom Valerian seeing, for fear fell down to the ground as he had been dead. Whom the old man raised and took up, and read in this wise. “One God, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all, above all, and in us all, everywhere.”

And when this old man had read this, he said: “Believe you this or doubt you it? Say yea or nay.”

Then Valerian cried saying: “There is nothing truer under heaven.” Then vanished this old man away. Then Valerian received baptism of Saint Urban and returned home to Saint Cecilia, whom he found within her chamber speaking with an angel. And this angel had two crowns of roses and lilies which he held in his hands, of which he gave one to Cecilia, and that other to Valerian, saying: “Keep ye these crowns with an undefouled and clean body, for I have brought them to you from Paradise, and they shall never fade, nor wither, nor lose their savour, nor they may not be seen but of them to whom chastity pleases. And you Valerian because you has used profitable counsel, demand what you wilt.”

To whom Valerian said: “There is nothing in this world to me liefer than my brother, whom I would fain that he might know this very truth with me.”

To whom the angel said: “Thy petition pleases our Lord, and ye both shall come to him by the palm of martyrdom.”

And anon Tyburtius, his brother, came and entered into this chamber, and anon he felt the sweet odour of the roses and lilies, and marvelled from whence it came. Then Valerian said: “We have crowns which thine eyes may not see, and like as by my prayers you has felt the odour of them, so if you wilt believe you shalt see the crowns of roses and lilies that we have.” Then Cecilia and Valerian began to preach to Tyburtius of the joy of heaven and of the foul creance of paynims, the abuse of idols, and of the pains of hell which the damned suffer, and also they preached to him of the incarnation of our Lord, and of his passion, and did so much that Tyburtius was converted and baptized of Saint Urban. And from then forthon he had so much grace of God that every day he saw angels, and all that ever he required of our Lord he obtained.

After, Almachius, provost of Rome, which put to death many christian men, heard say that Tyburtius and Valerian buried Christian men that were martyred, and gave all their goods to poor people. He called them to fore him, and after long disputation he commanded that they should go to the statue or image of Jupiter for to do sacrifice, or else they should be beheaded.

And as they were led, they so preached the faith of our Lord to one called Maximus that they converted him to the Christian faith, and they promised to him that if he had very repentance, and firm creance that he should see the glory of heaven which their souls should receive at the hour of their passions, and that he himself should have the same if he would believe. Then Maximus gat leave of the tormentors for to have them home to his house, and the said Maximus, with all his household and all the tormentors, were turned to the faith. Then came Saint Cecilia thither with priests, and baptized them, and afterwards,when the morning came, Saint Cecilia said to them: “Now, ye knights of Christ, cast away from you the works of darkness and clothe you with the arms of light.”

And then they were led four miles out of the town, and brought tofore the image of Jupiter, but in no wise they would do sacrifice ne incense to the idol, but humbly with great devotion kneeled down and there were beheaded, and Saint Cecilia took their bodies and buried them. Then Maximus, that saw this thing, said that he saw in the hour of their passion angels clear shining and their souls ascend into heaven, which the angels bare up, wherefore many were converted to the Christian faith.

And when Almachius heard that Maximus was christened, he did do beat him with plummets of lead so long till he gave up his spirit and died whose body Saint Cecilia buried by Valerian and Tyburtius. And after, Almachius commanded that Cecilia should be brought into his presence for to do sacrifice to Jupiter, and she so preached to them that came for her that she converted them to the faith, which wept sore that so fair a maid and so noble should be put to death. Then she said to them: “O you good young men, it is nothing to lose the youth, but to change it, that is, to give clay, and take therefor gold, to give a foul habitation, and to take a precious, to give a little corner, and to take a right great place. God rewards for one simple, a hundredfold. Believe you what I have said?”

And they said: “We believe Christ to be very God which hath such a servant.” Then Saint Urban was called, and four hundred and more were baptized.

Then Almachius, calling before him Saint Cecilia, said to her: “Of what condition are you?” And she said that she was of a noble kindred. To whom Almachius said: “I demand thee of what religion are you?”

Then Cecilia said: “Then begannest you thy demand foolishly, that wouldst have two answers in one demand.”

To whom Almachius said: “From whence cometh thy rude answer?”

And she said: “Of good conscience and faith not feigned.”

To whom Almachius said: “Know you not of what power I am?”

And she said: “Your power is little to dread, for it is like a bladder full of wind, which with the pricking of a needle is anon gone away and come to nought.”

To whom Almachius said: “In wrong begannest thou, and in wrong you perseverest; knowest you not how our princes hare given me power to give life and to slay?”

And she said: “Now shall I prove thee a liar against the very truth. Thou mayst well take the life from them that live, but to them that be dead, you mayst give no life, therefore you art a minister not of life, but of death.”

To whom Almachius said: “Now lay apart thy madness and do sacrifice to the gods.”

To whom Cecilia said: “I wot never where you hast lost thy sight, for them that you sayest be gods we see them stones, put thine hand, and by touching you shalt learn that which you mayst not see with thine eyes.”

Then Almachius was wroth, and commanded her to be led into her house, and there to be burnt in a burning bain, which her seemed a place cold and well attempered. Then Almachius, hearing that, commanded that she should be beheaded in the same bath. Then the tormentor smote at her three strokes, and could not smite off her head, and the fourth stroke he might not by the law smite, and so left her there lying half alive and half dead, and she lived three days after in that manner, and gave all that she had to poor people, and continually preached the faith all that while; and all them that she converted she sent to Urban for to be baptized, and said: “I have asked respite three days, that I might commend to you these souls, and that ye should hallow of mine house a church.” And then at the end of three days she slept in our Lord, and Saint Urban with his deacons buried her body among the bishops, and hallowed her house into a church, in which unto this day is said the service unto our Lord.

She suffered her passion about the year of our Lord two hundred and twenty three, in the time of Alexander the emperor, and it is read in another place that she suffered in the time of Marcus Aurelius, which reigned about the year of our Lord one hundred and seventy. Then let us devoutly pray unto our Lord that by the merits of this holy virgin and martyr, Saint Cecilia, we may come to his everlasting bliss in heaven. Amen.

SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/golden-legend-saint-cecilia/

Santa Cecilia

Emmanuel Hannaux bas relief : Sainte-Cécile présenté dans la revue l'Oeuvre d'art du 1er janvier 1899

Revue Generale – Saint Cecilia: Her Influence on Literature and The Arts

While the great men who have dreamed of distinguishing their names die and are forgotten, or at least, as Juvenal said of Alexander, become the idle theme of a rhetorical recitation, those who in this world have lived and suffered for God leave behind them, through all ages, an immortal memory.

The work for which each of us has been sent into the world has been conspicuously accomplished by the saints. This makes them our rightful masters; and, while we rarely imitate them, we can at least understand that such heroism must elevate the soul, and we admire them all the more that we feel ourselves unable to follow in their steps. Nor is such a recognition a useless sentiment. From the mansion of glory whence they see all things, the saints never cease to interest themselves in the affairs of the world, and among the dogmas of the Catholic Church which our estranged brethren have rejected, the communion of saints is one of the most touching and sublime.

There is indeed between the two worlds, visible and invisible, a strange but undeniable communication. Each of us, in investigating his own soul, will find there certain phenomena which have their origin neither in ourselves nor in the outer world: sadness from no apparent cause, inexplicable sensations of internal happiness, bursts of enthusiasm or sudden inspirations which Plato attributed to superior intelligences. Many of us, recalling some miraculously escaped danger, and profoundly touched by this heavenly protection, will bear willing witness, unless checked by dread of worldly criticism, to this influence of the saints and angels on our human career. “The people,” with the good sense which so happily inspires them (at least, where the sophists have not succeeded in corrupting them) – “the people” believe in it; and when the peasant or the poor working-woman gives a name in baptism to the child just entering on the struggles of life, she believes, in her simple, lucid faith, that she is securing a patron for it. It is not in vain, they say, that a young girl is called Mary; surely she will the more readily share in the sweetness, the self-denial, the incomparable purity, of the Queen of Virgins; the name of Agnes will be a pledge of innocence; that of Theresa promises a heart of fire; that of Cecilia, a soul gentle yet strong, eager for harmony; while the name of Francis recalls heroic isolation; those of Paul and of John, indefatigable zeal and perfect charity. If it is not always thus, it is because the human soul is free to resist grace; but these occasional rebellions do not prevent a harmony between heaven and earth as mysterious as it is sure.

These thoughts have frequently passed through our mind; but one day last October, while visiting the church of Saint Cecilia in Rome, they monopolized it.

In such moments, we persuade ourselves very easily that we can express them in writing. Undoubtedly, they are not new; but, if the life of this great saint, one of the glories of Rome, is well known, it is a story which will bear repetition: really fine old melodies never lose their charm, and, if they thrill one human soul with a divine emotion, who will complain of hearing them again?

History of Saint Cecilia

In the year 250 after Christ, in the reign of Septimus Severus, at a time when the Roman Empire was still the most formidable power of the world, there lived in Rome a young girl who will be famous when the imperial glories shall be forgotten.

Beauty, the reflection of heaven in the human countenance; grace, mysterious charm whose origin is invisible; modesty, that exquisite reserve of a virgin soul; nobility, precious perfume of the past; and, above all, the power of loving, the most magnificent and the most powerful present of the Creator to the created: all these gifts were united in the daughter of Caecilius. It was an illustrious family: in the records of the Republic it counted eighteen consuls and several conquerors, nor had it degenerated under the Empire.

To-day, when the traveller, weary from a day spent in the galleries of Rome, setting forth from the city towards sunset, wanders pensively down the long Appian Way, while he contemplates with emotion the outlines of the aqueducts with their broken arches, the Sabine mountains gilded by the light, and all that celebrated landscape of the environs of Rome, majestic and melancholy as a fallen queen, he finds upon his right, rising like a great tower, the tomb of Caecilia Metella. There slept of yore the long-forgotten ancestress of her who will render immortal, for time and for eternity, the name of Caecilius.

Cecilia was eighteen. The Roman poor knew her charity. Often had they seen her in the caves of the martyrs alone, or only accompanied by a faithful servant. Her father, although he respected her religion, did not share it: he hoped, indeed, at a suitable time to marry his daughter to some distinguished husband, and to see himself, through her, live again in her beloved children. But Cecilia had raised her heart above this world, and night and day prayed that the palm of virginity she had dreamed of should not be taken from her.

He whom her parents had chosen for her seemed not unworthy of the honor. Though still a pagan, Valerian possessed at least those natural gifts which prepare the soul for faith, hope, and charity, the supernatural gifts of Christ crucified. Nevertheless, who can express the fears of the young Christian? Had not God accepted all her heart as she had offered it? Could a pagan understand this mystery, and would not this union of the soul with an invisible spouse seem a strange folly to a man still living in the world of the senses? More than one Christian soul has felt these chaste doubts. It is honorable to hesitate before making for a mortal a sacrifice for which a young girl sometimes can never console herself. Cecilia felt these terrors most acutely, but she loved God well enough to feel perfect confidence in him. So she poured forth her whole soul in prayer, and, against all hope, trusted in his aid.

So, when, towards evening, already married in the eyes of the world, she found herself alone with her husband, she said to him in that incomparable conversation whose charm has come down to us in her life:

“There is a secret, Valerian, that I wish to confide to you. I have a lover, an angel of God, who watches over me with jealous care. If you preserve inviolate my virginity, he will love you also as he loves me, and will overpower you with his favors.”

Much astonished, Valerian wished to know this angel.

“You shall see him,” said Cecilia, “when you are purified.”

“How shall I become so?”

“Go to Urban. When the poor hear my name, they will take you to his sanctuary: he will explain to you our mysteries.”

Drawn by an unknown power, the young man consented to go. We know the result of this decision – his interview with the Pope in the catacombs, his conversion, and his baptism. Still dressed in his white robe, he returned to Cecilia. He could now understand the love of the angels, and its perfect beauty. In future, he loved Cecilia as his sister in God, to whom belong the heart and mind.

In those Christian ages others loved as he did. Undoubtedly most of them carried their secret with them to the tomb; but among those whose genius has made them famous, Dante had his Beatrice; Petrarch sang of Laura: and these pure loves, unknown to the ancient pagans, and scoffed at by our modern pagans, will remain an ornament to the soul, an act of faith in its immortality, and for us who read their history a breath of heaven on earth.

No one knows what conversation took place, in those hours of rapture and prayer, between this pair, whose marriage was to be perfected in heaven; what thanksgivings they rendered to God, who in a moment transforms hearts: nor would it be easy to describe. Of all the arts, music alone might perhaps dare to attempt it, and the revelation would require the genius of Handel or Beethoven.

In his ardent zeal, Valerian, like Cecilia, understood the value of the soul.

So, when the beloved brother Tiburtius sought them, what eloquence they displayed to prove to him that his gods were only idols! Subdued by the mysterious charm of the Christian virgin, conquered by the eagerness of the convert, Tiburtius also wished to see the angel who watched over Cecilia. If for this it was necessary to be purified, purified he would be; and thus became the first conquest of his brother, who had besought God for it.

Such souls were too beautiful for pagan Rome. In the absence of Septimus Severus, Almachius, the governor, summoned Valerian and Tiburtius before his tribunal. The two young patricians avowed their faith in Christ, to the great scandal of the worldly and prosperous. Valerian went to his martyrdom as to a triumph. He went to wait for Cecilia in heaven.

Tiburtius did not forsake him. On the Appian Way, four miles from the city, they were beheaded for having dared to worship a different God from those of the Empire. Cecilia piously reclaimed their bodies, and prepared to rejoin them. Called in her turn to answer for her conduct, she disconcerted the judge. Before such purity, innocence, and heroism, entreaties, artifices, and threats failed; the daughter of Caecilius, convicted of loving the poor and a crucified God, was instantly confined in the bath-room of her own house, there to be suffocated in a hot vapor bath. But in the midst of this fiery atmosphere she remained uninjured. The stupefied jailers related how they had discovered her singing the praises of God. Such a delusion could but provoke Almachius. The executioner was summoned. With a trembling hand, he inflicted three wounds on the neck of the virgin martyr, without succeeding in severing the head. Then, terrified himself, he fled. Stretched on the flags, bathed in her blood, Cecilia lived three days. The Christians gathered round her. She was able to bid farewell to the poor, to whom she had bequeathed her property. Then, feeling her strength fail, while Urban was in the act of giving her his blessing, she drew her robe around her, and, turning her face away, gave back her soul to God.

According to her last desire, the Pope transformed the house that had witnessed her martyrdom into a church. The bath-room became a chapel; and by its arrangement bears witness to-day to the truth of the saint’s life. One can still see the mouth of the pipes which let in the vapor, covered with a grating; and on the same flags where the Roman virgin expired, the kneeling Christian can ponder in his heart the example of heroism that she has given to the world. He who has not had the good fortune to pray on the tombs of the martyrs cannot appreciate the strength one finds there, or what precepts their relics give forth. The martyrs are the incontrovertible witnesses of the value of faith, of the power of love; and it is said that their beatified spirits lend to these bones, which were their bodies, an all-powerful eloquence.

The remains of the young girl were taken down into the catacombs of Saint Callixtus, and remained there six centuries. After the invasion of the Lombards, most unhappily, all trace was lost of them till, in 822, the place where they were hidden was revealed to Pope Saint Pascal.

The long-sought coffin was placed in the basilica of Saint Cecilia, which had been repaired by the Pope’s care. It was placed under the high altar. And even in our day the custodian points out to the pilgrim a curious fresco of the thirteenth century, representing the apparition of the saint to the sleeping Pope. In 1599, Cardinal Sfondrate ordered the tomb to be opened with solemnity. To the great delight of Christian Rome, the corpse of the Roman virgin, respected by centuries, appeared, miraculously preserved.

The chaste folds of her dress were restrained by a girdle. At her feet were found the blood-stained cloths which had bound her wounds; and her arms, thrust forward, still seemed to serve as a veil. Three fingers of her right hand were open, only one of the left, as if even in dying she had wished to avow her belief in one God in three persons. Finally, so that she might not give to the world her last look, but think only of Christ, her spouse, by a supreme effort she had turned her head aside.

Thus she reposes on her bier of cypress; thus extended on the flags she had died; and thus a great artist has faithfully represented her to us. The celebrated statue of Etienne Maderno, lying on its side, full of modesty and of grace, seems the dying virgin herself; and the whiteness of the marble, which so resembles the paleness of death, adds yet more to the illusion. Seen in this honored place, in this house which was the saint’s and has become God’s, this masterpiece of Christian sculpture, admirably executed and in exquisite taste, touches the heart profoundly.

The Influence of Saint Cecilia on Literature

Such a beautiful story could not fail to be repeated. As long as the persecutions lasted, to strengthen their courage, the faithful passed from mouth to mouth these details which had been so affectionately collected. So great, indeed, was the enthusiasm for the memory of Cecilia that she obtained the great and rare honor of being mentioned in the canon of the Mass with Saints Felicitas, Perpetua, Agatha, Lucy, Agnes, and Anastasia. Thus for fifteen centuries, throughout the Catholic world, wherever the holy sacrifice is celebrated, her name is invoked; and, truly immortal, each hour, each moment perhaps, her memory rises from earth to heaven with incense and with prayer.

Her acts, chronicled in the fifth century, have since then been the subject of several works. We shall only mention the Greek translation of Simeon Metaphrastes, the verses of Saint Adhelme and of the Venerable Bede in England, the works of Flodoard at Rheims, and Rhoban Maur. Then, during that magnificent efflorescence of philosophy and Catholic literature, we see Victor de Beauvais relate the story of Saint Cecilia; Albert the Great, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Saint Bonaventure, preaching several sermons in her honor. In the fifteenth century, the eloquent Saint Vincent Ferrer recited her praises; but the Reformation came soon after, and it is only in Italy now that they think of the glories of Saint Cecilia.

In vain her history is its own defence; in vain may it claim in its favor the imposing testimony of Christian tradition, in the East as in the West, during fourteen centuries; in vain the liturgies of the churches of Rome, of Milan, of Toledo, of Greece, and of Gaul have inserted in the office for the 22d of November fragments of the text; in vain even the discovery of her body testified anew to its veracity. Towards the middle of the seventeenth century, the Jansenist school rejected it.

The historical works on the first centuries of Christianity which during the last forty years have been undertaken in France and Germany, by tracing out the original sources with scrupulous care, and taking advantage of monuments, have dealt justly with this excessive criticism.

But error is more prone to spread than easy to uproot. Launoy, that “great demolisher of saints,” who, in attacking the most poetic beliefs of the faithful, strayed into the road to rationalism, made a school. Even now Feller’s Dictionary of Universal Biography, and, following him (for these works usually copy each other), those of Michaud and of F. Didot, have repeated, on the authority of Tillemont and of Baillet, that the authenticity of the life of Saint Cecilia is very doubtful, although the arguments cited in support of this thesis had been successfully refuted by Laderchi early in the eighteenth century, and annihilated for ever twenty years ago by R. P. Dom Guéranger, in his excellent book on Saint Cecilia.

The touching story of Saint Cecilia must also inspire poets. Without mentioning the ancient hymns to be found in the Italian, Spanish, and Gallic liturgies, several poems in her honor may be quoted. At the time of the Renaissance, Baptiste Spagnuolo made it the subject of a real epic poem, where we find, as in the Æneid, the speeches of Venus and Juno, and the conspiracies of the inhabitants of Olympus against common mortals. The god of pagan love, accompanied by his mother, comes sadly to Juno to complain of the disdain of Cecilia, who wishes to remain a virgin. Forgetting her resentment, the wife of Jupiter inspires the father of Cecilia with the idea of uniting his daughter to a pagan. Foiled in their attempt by the conversion of Valerian, the angry goddess instigated Mars to suggest to Almachius the plan of drowning in blood this Christian band, rebels against the Olympian gods. Among the nine hundred verses may be found some fine ones, but we must confess that these unfortunate pagan reminiscences, so popular in the sixteenth century, ruin the poet’s work for us.

Happily, the Roman virgin was to have her life, her death, and her glories sung in poems of purer inspiration. Angelus Tangrinus, priest of Monte Cassino, wrote on this subject a long epithalamium, which lacks neither grace of expression nor of thought.

The English poet Pope has also written an ode to Saint Cecilia. The poem is elegantly versified, but cold and unmarked by any Christian feeling. The classic author recalls the magical effect of music in all ages, nor has he forgotten the adventure of Eurydice; he speaks with complacency of the Styx and of Phlegethon, of Ixion and of Sisyphus, of Proserpine and the Elysian Fields. Finally, feeling a pang of remorse, and remembering that he had dedicated his ode to a virgin martyr, he asserts that the poets must instantly abandon Orpheus and proclaim Cecilia the queen of music; for if the musician of Thrace drew by his music a spirit from hell, Cecilia by hers raised the soul to heaven.

Very recently, Count Anatole de Ségur has published a dramatic poem, which seems to us the finest homage that poetry has yet offered to Saint Cecilia. The style pure and musical, the interest sustained and engrossing, it merits the praises which the best judges have bestowed on it; and we should willingly quote some verses of this exquisite book, did we not prefer to leave our readers the pleasure of perusing it as a whole.

The Influence of Saint Cecilia on the Fine Arts

We have seen the story of Saint Cecilia inspire eloquence and poetry, but it was destined to exercise a still greater influence on the fine arts. There are, indeed, some general rules for these intimate relations between art and holiness that it would be well to remember. Besides, we may say that the saints were themselves powerful artists. Who has sought the ideal more eagerly than these indefatigable lovers of heavenly things? But they have not contented themselves with seeking infinite beauty in an abstract form; they have endeavored, as far as it was possible to human weakness, to realize it in their lives. As the sculptor cuts into a block of marble to render it into beautiful forms, they, with obstinate labor, have sought to model their souls, to render them more pure, less unworthy of God. The contemplation of martyrdom, so habitual to the first Christians, gave them that serene dignity now become so rare. As a bride prepares herself for the bridegroom, so did these souls of virgins, of mothers, of the young and of the old, endeavor, day by day, to grow in grace in the eyes of Jesus Christ, till the blade of the executioner harvested them for heaven. The soul, grown beautiful, transfigures in its turn the body which it animates, and the living mirror of the countenance reflects strength and gentleness, peace and ardent zeal, purity and ecstatic rapture. Thus we may fairly conclude that Christianity has offered to artists, through the saints, not only the perfection of form, but a type of human beauty elevated by an ever-constant love.

But why was Saint Cecilia singled out from such an innumerable band of the beatified to become especially dear to artists? Many others, gifted with all worldly advantages, in all the radiance of youth and beauty, died, like her, virgins and martyrs, without attaining her distinction. We will examine later the motives of the musicians in taking her for their patron. As for the artists, they had no long discussion on the causes of this secret sympathy. Each one, when he dreamed of heaven, painted Cecilia, saying to himself, probably, that there was not in the world a young girl’s face which could so perfectly express the rapture of the soul listening to ineffable harmony.

It would require time to glance even hastily over the long gallery of pictures of which our saint has been the subject. We will only mention the most celebrated. It is probable that many, scattered through the many galleries of Europe, have escaped us; but we wish only to discuss those which we have appreciated with our own eyes, and, also, the limits of this article would prevent our attempting to mention all.

In order to preserve some regularity in this examination, and that it may not become an adventurous journey through all ages and countries in search of pictures of Saint Cecilia, we will separate these works into three classes, and, according to their nature and their predominant tendencies, we will class them, one by one, in the sensualistic, rationalistic, and mystical schools. Nevertheless, we must say that here, as in all other classification, the confines of each class are very apt to mingle with each other. Sometimes, indeed, in the same picture one figure will express sensuality and the others religious emotion.

But let us render judgment on the entire effect of the picture and its predominant tendency. We must repeat here that in all artistic works we note two things: first, the idea of the artist, and, in consequence, the order of psychological effect – sensual pleasures, spiritual joy, or heartfelt rapture – which the picture gives rise to in the souls of those who behold it; secondly, the execution, the dexterity, more or less perfect, with which the idea has been expressed, and, consequently, the greater or less satisfaction felt by connoisseurs, whom a special education has fitted to appreciate the technical merits or faults of a picture. These are two widely different points of view; and, to be just, one should specify from which standpoint a picture is judged, for it might easily happen that the spirit of a picture would be really beautiful and the execution very feeble; the coloring perhaps unpleasing, the perspective faulty, or even the drawing incorrect.

First, The sensual school. Among the greatest geniuses, Rubens, perhaps, falls oftenest into sensualism. It is to the senses, indeed, that he usually addresses himself; hence the vividness of his coloring, the brilliancy of the flesh, which seems palpitating with life and ready to rebound under the critic’s finger. But, indeed, except “The Descent from the Cross” and “The Elevation of the Cross,” nothing could be less religious than most of his religious pictures. In vain his “Saint Cecilia” passionately raises her eyes; her plumpness and her dress wake only worldly thoughts. Others may admire the intensity of the flesh tints, the lustre of the robes. We think such exuberant health little suited to the young Christian who watched and fasted the more entirely to give herself up to prayer. As for the pouting cherubs which frolic round her, they are not adapted for inspiring heavenly aspirations.

But let us look no longer to the sensual school for a type of beauty which it cannot give us. Let us see how Saint Cecilia has been understood by those artists who, without troubling themselves much to express Christian ideas, have, at least, endeavored to satisfy the intelligence and to appeal to the mind through the eyes.

Second, The rationalistic school. Of all the painters whom we class under the name of the rationalistic school (that is, spiritual without being Christian), Domenichino is the most celebrated, or, at least, the one who has consecrated the most important works to the glory of Saint Cecilia. His frescoes in the church of Saint Louis des Français, at Rome, are considered classics. There we see Saint Cecilia distributing, from the terrace of her house, her garments to a crowd of poor people, who, in picturesque groups, are disputing over them. Then, Almachius, on his judgment-seat, commanding, by an imperative gesture, the saint to sacrifice to the idols. But she expresses with dignity her horror; and it is in vain for the priests to offer a goat, and in vain incense smokes on a tripod before a statue of Jupiter. Here Cecilia dies, surrounded by kneeling women; some watching her, others putting the blood from her wounds into vases by the aid of sponges. In the meanwhile, the Pope, Urban, gives her his blessing, and an angel brings her, from heaven, a crown and a palm. In yet another fresco, an angel presents crowns to Cecilia and Valerian. And last, on the ceiling is painted the apotheosis of the saint supported in the arms of angels, and borne to heaven.

But Domenichino’s picture in the great gallery of the Louvre is more generally known than the frescoes of Saint Louis. Here Saint Cecilia is standing, and while she sings the glories of God, accompanying herself on a violoncello, an angel offers her a music-book. But she does not heed it, and raises to heaven eyes that seem just melting in tears. Undoubtedly the head is truly dignified and inspired, but we must regret that the religious sentiment is not more manifest in this fine picture, for without the nimbus round the head one might take the saint for a sibyl.

Guido, with his usual grace, has represented Cecilia dying, lying on her side, as in Maderno’s statue. She has, however, her arms crossed upon her breast, and the head is not turned aside; two women staunch her bleeding wounds with cloths, and in the background an angel holds a palm, which he hastens to give her.

To Annibal Carracci is usually attributed the Saint Cecilia which is to be found in the Museum of the Capitol at Rome. At all events, one easily recognizes, by a certain shade of naturalism, a work of the Bologna school. As before, the saint is singing and accompanying herself on an organ; but here, we see beside her the Blessed Virgin holding the infant Jesus in her arms, and a Dominican priest – expressive faces, apparently enraptured with the celestial concert.

The majority of French artists, above all in the reign of Louis XIV, belong to the rationalistic school. Their composition is clever, their drawing correct, the style dignified, sometimes almost theatrical. They are indeed almost always natural, but with the exception of some of Lesueur’s, one rarely perceives in their works the inspiration of a superhuman emotion. There are in the galleries of French art in the Louvre two pictures which do not contradict these observations. Jacques Stella, who lived during the first half of the seventeenth century, has left us a Saint Cecilia. She is standing playing on an organ, her eyes modestly lowered, while two angels are singing at her side. She wears a wreath of roses in her hair; but, more charming than inspired, resembles the portrait of a young girl of the age of Louis XIII with a taste for music.

Mignard’s picture is, however, more celebrated. Of finished execution, perfect in detail, so that even the glimpse of landscape seen through the pillars of the portico is treated with great care, it inspires artists with admiration also by the beauty of its coloring. The saint, richly dressed, and wearing a large turban, which gives her a very oriental look, is seated playing on the harp. No wonder that this picture pleased the king, or that he desired it to adorn his collection. Unfortunately, all this magnificence fails to move us. We see the Persian sibyl executing a prelude to her oracles, but nothing reminds us of Rome and the early martyrs, and neither in the piteous figures nor in those up-raised eyes can we trace any Christian feeling.

Third, the mystical school. Beyond the region of the senses and of that which usually bounds the human spirit, opens the supernatural and divine world. One cannot enter here without a pure heart, and to enjoy its beauty we must by prayer and humility, those two wings of the soul, rise above ourselves and transitory things. Thus the mystical school of art, disdained by hypercritical connoisseurs, requires a sort of moral preparation, and might write above its door, as a salutary warning, “Let none enter here save him who loves God entirely.” It is here that we must finally seek the type of Saint Cecilia in all its supernatural beauty: a human face illuminated by ecstasy.

We shall only mention, for the satisfaction of antiquaries, the Saint Cecilia of Cimabue at the entrance to the magnificent Uffizi Gallery at Florence. This also is a type of the Byzantine virgin, not however without a certain majesty in its stiffness. Far more celestial is the impression left on us by the Saint Cecilia of blessed Fra Angelico da Fiesole, in that wonderful picture of the “Incoronazione della Vergine,” which so worthily commences the great gallery of the Louvre. Cecilia is in the foreground, close to Saint Magdalen, recognizable by her long golden hair. Entirely absorbed in the contemplation of Christ, and indifferent to the world, she turns away, so that one sees only the long blue mantle and the crown of roses, emblems of virginity, which encircles her head. Nevertheless, the lost profile which we can only glance at is not without grace, and suggests a countenance radiant with love and purity.

To the mystical school also may be attributed five little pictures by Pinturicchio in the gallery at Berlin, which were much admired by Dom Guéranger. Undoubtedly, Pinturicchio has none of Cimabue’s stiffness; we willingly acknowledge his ease and natural grace; but how far he is from the angelic touch of Beato, or the perfection of Raphael!

Perhaps Bologna contains the largest array of fine pictures. In the chapel of Saint Cecilia, behind Saint Giacomo Maggiore, ten admirable frescoes represent the entire history of Saint Cecilia. By the hand of Francesco Francia himself, we have her marriage with Valerian, and her funeral; six other scenes were painted by his pupils, G. Francia, Chiodarolo, and Aspertini. The two representing Pope Urban instructing Tiburtius, and the virgin distributing her property to the poor, are considered Lorenzo Casta’s masterpieces. But it is to the Museum one must turn to admire the Saint Cecilia of Raphael, one of the most beautiful of pictures, and certainly the most splendid homage offered by art to the Roman virgin. It was to be seen in Paris from 1798 till 1815, when it was taken back to Bologna; and it is well worth a voyage across the Alps. Letting fall the organ she still retains in her hands, Saint Cecilia stands, seeming to listen in ecstasy to the concert of angels, contemplating this transporting choir, which the artist has revealed in the yawning skies. At her side stand Saint John, Saint Paul, Saint Magdalen, and Saint Augustine; at her feet lie the broken instruments of earthly music. Apparently Raphael wished to recapitulate on this sublime page the highest precepts of philosophy. Here is typified by the instruments of pleasure the world of the senses, whose bonds we must break and free ourselves from. But if it is well to know something of this material world, the realm of the human intellect, it is necessary sometimes to know, like Cecilia, how to raise one’s self still higher and prepare to listen to the ineffable music of the soul. Do we accuse ourselves of being sinners? Here is Magdalen with her vase of ointment, and behind her Augustine. They may well inspire us with hope, they also have experienced the temptations of the senses and the proud rebellions of the will, but there they stand to prove that humility and penitence may conquer these. Do you say that, obliged to lead an active life, you daily find yourself overwhelmed by a thousand cares? Behold Saint Paul, the apostle of nations, who also experienced pain, labor, shipwrecks, and dangers of all kinds; nevertheless, leaning on his sword, he meditates. Finally, are you philosophers or theologians? Behold Saint John, the master of you all. Radiant, he contemplates the enraptured saint, and seems to say, “Forget yourselves for a space; turn from the sound of human words; like Cecilia, listen to the celestial harmonies of the Word. Look at this young girl. She has known how to find love, peace, and happiness.”

According to M. Passavant, it was also the history of Saint Cecilia, and not the martyrdom of Saint Felicitas, as is usually believed, which formed the subject of Raphael’s fresco, formerly to be admired in the chapel “De la Magliano” at Trastavere. In 1830, an unknown vandal of a proprietor bethought himself of cutting a huge gash through the centre in order to place a “pew, where he could hear Mass without mingling with his servants!” Thus mutilated, the fresco was transferred to canvas in 1835, and has probably been bought by some more enlightened connoisseur; but the most enthusiastic appreciation cannot now repair such outrages.

Among the moderns, we shall only mention, in Germany, the Saint Cecilia of Molitor, whose attitude reminds us much of Raphael’s. Certainly it has not the same nobility of style, but we find there the charming grace of the Düsseldorf school. In France, we may mention with praise the Saint Cecilia of Paul Delaroche. Seated on an antique chair, dressed in a robe falling in long folds, the virgin with one hand restrains her mantle, bordered with a fringe of gold, with the other she touches a little organ presented to her by two kneeling angels, under the semblance of pure-faced boys. This sweet picture, full of poetry and grace, is a happy contrast to some others, and makes us the more regret the painter of this Christian martyr, so beautiful and chaste – night brooding on the face of the waters.

But of one art Saint Cecilia is especially the patron, and that is music. Why the Roman virgin was chosen from so many others, would be very difficult to explain with any precision. The mystic sense of the tradition which makes Cecilia the queen of harmony is now lost, and on this point we are reduced to conjectures. Let us hope, however, that the conjectures we shall advance may seem probable after a little reflection.

Undoubtedly Cecilia, the daughter of a noble family, enjoying all worldly advantages and instructed to please, was taught music. Without doubt, also, she consecrated to God a talent acquired for worldly ends; and in the meetings of the faithful in the catacombs she must have taken part in the psalms and canticles. But the most weighty argument in favor of this glorious patronage which the Christian ages have ascribed to our saint, is the sentence from her life incorporated in the Roman Litany: “Cantantibus organis, Caecilia Domino decantabat: Fiat cor meum immaculatum ut non confundar.”

In January, 1732, a Jansenist critic, otherwise entirely unknown, remarked, in the Mercury of France, “that the selection of Saint Cecilia as the patron of music was not a good choice.” Indeed, he says, a little farther on, “we can easily see that this saint was very insensible to the charms of music; for on her wedding day, while they played on several instruments, she remained absorbed in prayer.” Poor man! he could not get beyond the outer husks of things, and the material side of art. He did not know that elevated natures naturally respond to human music by prayer, that heavenly music. And undoubtedly, he had never heard those sublime melodies which a loving soul sings to itself, and of which the most beautiful concerts of this world are but a feeble echo.

But the Christian people had a better inspiration. They understood that music, and, above all, religious music – the most beautiful of all, whose highest aim is to free us from the senses and lift us out of ourselves, in order to raise us to God – might well be protected by this young girl, whose soul had become like a lyre, from which the faintest breath will wake harmonious vibrations, and who, virgin and martyr – while for three days she lay on the bloody flags, seemed in a long song of love to render back her spirit.

In Rome and Italy, musical societies early placed themselves under the patronage of Saint Cecilia. We find one in France, founded in 1571, at Evreux, “by the choristers of the cathedral church, and other pious inhabitants of this city, for the purpose of learning music.” Henry III gave letters patent to the “Society of Madame Saint Cecilia,” established at Paris, in the church of the “Grands Augustins,” by zealous artists and amateurs of music. These societies disappeared with many others in the revolutionary troubles, but their charitable intentions have been revived. Every year, on the 22d of November, the Association of Musical Artists gives in the great church of Saint Eustache at Paris a musical mass, whose proceeds are destined to relieve their sick and poor members. Undoubtedly one might often wish more religious music. These pretended masses are far too theatrical to seem much inspired when compared to the oratorios which Handel and Beethoven have dedicated to Saint Cecilia. Nor is it there that one could find pious meditation. Nevertheless, we may still rejoice that at a time when materialism has corrupted so many hearts, these solemnities still attract crowds. Indeed, one may say of music as Tertullian said of the soul, that it is naturally Christian. To draw the soul from all that occupies it, weighs on it, and destroys it, to sustain it by prolonged melody, inspiring dreams of infinity, is also to elevate it above itself, and gently prepare it for the broken utterances of prayer.

We know, then, that Saint Cecilia is powerful enough in heaven to turn an idler into yet another Christian. Never in vain was she approached while on earth, or her memory celebrated since she has reigned in heaven. She has held her court of littérateurs, poets, painters, and musicians, men with impassioned hearts, which she has gently drawn toward heaven. For each she has obtained some special grace. Let others come; for the treasures she distributes are never exhausted.

In the early Christians who read her history, she inspired love of purity and a martyr’s strength; to the artists who have striven to represent her, she has revealed a type of beauty unknown on earth. For the most humble of her servants, she has smiles which heal the soul wonderfully. Who has inspired more masterpieces? who has been more loved than this virgin? who is more alive than she, who has been dead for sixteen centuries? But, martyr to love, she died for Christ. Is this really dying?

– text taken from the article “Saint Cecilia: Her Influence on Literature and The Arts”, author unknown though it is credited to the Revue Generale; the article appeared in the July 1871 edition of The Catholic World magazine

SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/revue-generale-saint-cecilia-her-influence-on-literature-and-the-arts/

Santa Cecilia

Guido Reni (1575–1642), Santa Cecilia, 1606, oil on canvas, 95,9 x 74,9, Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, California

November 21, 2016 by Msgr. Charles Pope

St. Cecilia, Patron Saint of Musicians and Evangelizer Extraordinaire

November 22nd is the feast day of St. Cecilia. She is the patron saint of musicians, especially church musicians, of which I am one. Prior to my ordination I was at various times a Cantor, a choir director, and an organist.

St. Cecilia was born into a wealthy family in Rome in the 2nd or 3rd century A.D. Her parents promised her in marriage to a pagan nobleman named Valerian, even though she had vowed her virginity to God.

It is said that as the musicians played at her wedding, she “sang in her heart to God.” This story led to her being named the patron saint of (church) musicians, who should themselves sing to God rather than in order to impress human beings.

Prior to the consummation of her marriage, Cecilia told her husband Valerian that she had taken a vow of virginity and that an angel was watching over her to guard her purity. Valerian was skeptical and asked to see the angel as proof. Cecilia told him that he needed faith in order to do so and that he should journey to be baptized by Pope Urban, who was living near the third milestone along the Appian Way. Amazingly, Valerian made the journey.

Following his baptism, Valerian returned to his wife and found the angel by her side. The angel crowned Cecilia with a chaplet of roses and lilies. Shortly thereafter Valerian’s brother, Tibertius, was also baptized. The two brothers made it their mission to bury Christian martyrs who were put to death by the prefect of the city, Turcius Almachius.

Both brothers were eventually arrested and brought to trial before the prefect. They were executed when they refused to offer a sacrifice to the gods.

Meanwhile, the courageous Cecilia went about evangelizing. During her lifetime she was able to convert over four hundred people, most of whom were baptized by Pope Urban.

Cecilia was later arrested and condemned to be suffocated and scalded in the baths. The bathhouse doors were shut and the fires were stoked to an intense heat, but it is said that Cecilia did not even sweat. The prefect then sent an executioner to behead her, and although he struck her three times with the sword, was unable to decapitate her. He left her bleeding, and she clung to life for three days, preaching all the while. After her death, she was buried by Pope Urban and his deacons.

When Cecilia’s body was exhumed in 1599 it was found to be incorrupt; she was the first of the incorrupt saints. She was buried draped in a silk veil and wore a gold embroidered dress.

Give thanks to God for this heroic martyr and fruitful evangelizer!

I often go to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception here in Washington D.C. in order to celebrate Mass. On one occasion when I was in the crypt church, I took a series of photographs of the beautiful mosaics of the women of the Scriptures and the early Church. Among the women depicted there are Agatha, Agnes, Anastasia, Anne, Brigid, Catherine, Cecilia, Lucy, Margarita, Perpetua, Felicity, and Susanna.

At right is a mosaic of St. Cecilia.

The mosaics date back to 1927 and were designed and installed by Ravenna Mosaic Co. of St. Louis. They are the backdrops for the 14 side altars that ring the apse and side galleries of the crypt. Inspiring Latin inscriptions are integral to each mosaic. I could spend hours reading the inscriptions and studying them!

Below is a video I created several years ago of some of the images. The music you hear was composed by Francisco Guerrero. The Latin text of the music is from the Song of Songs: Ego flos campi, et lilium convallium. Sicut lilium inter spinas, sic amica mea inter filias (I am the flower of the field, and the lily of the valleys. As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters).

SOURCE : https://blog.adw.org/2016/11/st-cecilia-patron-saint-musicians-evangelizer-extraordinaire/

Santa Cecilia

Gustave Moreau (1826–1898), Sainte Cécile (Les anges lui annoncent son prochain martyre), circa 1897

Amy Steedman – Saint Cecilia

It was in the days when cruel men killed and tortured those who loved our Blessed Lord that in the city of Rome, a little maid was born. Her father and mother were amongst the richest and noblest of the Roman people, and their little daughter, whom they called Cecilia, had everything she could possibly want. She lived in a splendid palace, with everything most beautiful around her, and she had a garden to play in, where the loveliest flowers grew. Her little white dress was embroidered with the finest gold, and her face was as fair as the flowers she loved.

But it was not only the outside that was beautiful, for the little maiden’s heart was fairer than the fairest flowers, and whiter than her spotless robe.

There were not many people who loved our Lord in those dark days. Any one who was known to be a Christian was made to suffer terrible tortures, and was even put to death.

But though Cecilia’s father and mother knew this they still taught their little daughter to be a servant of Christ and to love Him above all things. For they knew that the love of Christ was better than life, and worth all the suffering that might come.

And as Cecilia grew into a stately maiden every one wondered at the grace and beauty that shone out of her face. And every one loved her because she loved every one. She was always ready and willing to help others, and she specially cared to be kind to the poor. In the folds of her gold embroidered dress she always carried a little book which she loved to read. It was the book of the Gospels, and the more she read and heard of Christ, the more she longed to grow like Him. She could not bear to think that she wore fine dresses, while He had been so poor and suffered so much. And so, underneath her soft, white robe she wore a harsh, coarse garment made of hair. And when it hurt and rubbed her sorely, the pain only made her glad, because she wore it for Christ’s sake.

Some say the meaning of her name Cecilia is “Heaven’s Lily.” And that name certainly suited this little Roman maiden. For as God plants the lilies in the dark earth, and presently they grow up and lift their pure white cups to heaven, so Cecilia seemed to lift her heart above the sins and sorrows of the world, where God had planted her, and to turn her face ever heavenwards.

And the poor people whom she helped and cheered with her kind sympathy loved to look at her, for the peace of paradise shone in her eyes, and it seemed to bring heaven nearer to the poor souls.

As soon as Cecilia was old enough, it was arranged that she should marry a young Roman noble called Valerian, and this made her very unhappy. She had so hoped to belong only to Christ, and this Valerian was a pagan who knew nothing of the Lord whom she served. But she knew that her guardian angel would watch over her and keep her from all harm, and so she obeyed her fathers and mother’s wishes, and was married to the young Roman noble.

When Valerian had taken Cecilia home and all the guests had gone, and they were left alone together, she told him that, though she was married, she belonged first of all to Christ, and that her guardian angel, who never left her, would guard and protect her from all danger.

“Wilt thou not show me this angel, so that I may know that what thou sayest is true?” asked Valerian.

“Thou canst not see the heavenly messenger until thou hast learnt to know my Lord,” answered Cecilia.

And as Valerian eagerly asked how he should learn to know this Christ, Cecilia told him to go along the great Appian Way, outside the walls of Rome, until he should meet some poor people who lived in the Campagna. And to them he should say:

“Cecilia bids you show me the way that I may find the old man, Urban the Good.”

So Valerian started off and went the way Cecilia directed. And the people guided him as she had promised, until they came to a curious opening in the ground, down which they told him he must go if he wished to find Pope Urban.

This opening was the entrance to a strange underground place called the Catacombs.

There were miles and miles of dark passages cut out of the rock, with here and there a little dark room, and curious shelves hollowed out of the walls. It was here that many poor Christians lived, hiding themselves from those who would have put them to death. And the little shelves were where they buried the bodies of poor Christians who had died for Christ.

It was here that the old Pope, Urban the Good, lived, and he welcomed Valerian most gladly, knowing why he had come. He began at once to teach him all that he should know—how God was our Father, and Jesus Christ His Son, our Saviour. And as Valerian listened to the strange, wonderful words, the love of God shone into his heart, so that when the old man asked:

“Believest thou this?”

He answered with all his heart:

“All this I steadfastly believe.”

Then Urban baptized Valerian, and by that sign the young Roman knew that he was indeed a Christian, a servant of Christ.

All the world looked different to Valerian as he walked back along the Appian Way to Rome. The flat, low fields of the Campagna, fading away into the ridges of the purple Apennines, seemed almost like the fields of paradise, and the song of the birds was like the voice of angels. He scarcely thought of the dangers and difficulties that were before him, or if he did it was only to feel glad that he might have anything to bear for his new Master.

And when he reached home, and went back to the room where he had left Cecilia, he found her there waiting for him, with a glad welcome in her eyes. And as they knelt together they heard a rustle of wings, and looking up they saw an angel bending over them, with a crown of lilies and roses in each hand. These he placed upon their heads, and to Valerian he said:

“Thou hast done well in allowing Cecilia to serve her Master, therefore ask what thou wilt and thy request shall be granted.”

Then Valerian asked that his brother, whom he dearly loved, might also learn to know Christ.

And just then the door opened, and the brother whom Valerian loved so much came in. He, of course, only saw Valerian and Cecilia, and could not see the angel, or even the wreaths of heavenly roses. But he looked round in astonishment and said:

“I see no flowers here, and yet the fragrance of roses and lilies is so sweet and strange, that it makes my very heart glad.”

Then Valerian answered:

“We have two crowns here, which thou canst not see, because thou knowest not the Lord who sent them to us. But if thou wilt listen, and learn to know Him, then shalt thou see the heavenly flowers, whose fragrance has filled thy heart.”

So Valerian and Cecilia told their brother what it meant to be a Christian. And after the good Urban had taught him also, he was baptized and became God’s knight. Then he, too, saw the heavenly crowns and the face of the angel who guarded Heaven’s Lily.

For a while the home of Valerian and Cecilia was like a paradise on earth. There was nothing but happiness there. Cecilia loved music above everything. Her voice was like a bird’s, and she sang her hymns of praise and played so exquisitely, that it is said that even the angels came down to listen.

But before long it began to be known that Valerian and his brother helped the poor Christians, and the wicked governor of the city ordered them both to be seized and brought before him. He told them that there were but two ways before them: either they must deny that they were Christians, or they must be put to death.

But God’s knights did not fear death, and they went out to meet it as if they were on their way to a great victory. And when the soldiers wondered, and asked them if it was not sad that they should lose their lives while they were still so young, they answered that what looked like loss on earth was gain in heaven—that they were but laying down their bodies as one puts off one’s clothes to sleep at night. For the immortal soul could never die, but would live for ever.

So they knelt down, and the cruel blows were struck. But, looking up, the soldiers saw a great pathway of light shining down from heaven. And the souls of Valerian and his brother were led up by angel hands to the throne of God, there to receive the crowns of everlasting glory which they had won on earth.

And so Cecilia was left alone. But she did not spend her time grieving. Gathering the people and soldiers around her, she taught them about the Lord of Heaven, for whose sake Valerian and his brother had so gladly suffered death. And it was not long before she also trod the shining pathway up to heaven and met the ones she loved.

For the governor was not satisfied with the death of Valerian and his brother, but ordered Cecilia to be brought before him.

“What sort of a woman art thou, and what is thy name?” he asked.

“I am a Roman lady,” she answered with grave dignity, “and among men I am known by the name of Cecilia. But”—and her voice rang out proudly as she looked fearlessly into those angry eyes—”my noblest name is Christian.”

Then the enraged governor ordered that she should be taken to her house, and put to death in her bath. But the boiling water could not hurt her, and she was as cool as if she had bathed in a fresh spring.

This made the governor more furious than ever, and he ordered that her head should be cut off.

But even after she had received three strokes from the sword she did not die, but lived for three days. And these days she spent in quietly putting her house in order and dividing her money among the poor, ever singing in her sweet voice the praises of God.

And so at the end of three days God’s angel came and led Cecilia home, and all that was left of her on earth was her fair body, lying like a tired child asleep, with hands clasped, gently resting now that her work on earth was done.

And in Rome to-day there is a splendid church built over the place where Cecilia’s house stood. Some day if you go there, you will see her little room and the bath in which the boiling water could not hurt her. You will see, too, a beautiful marble figure lying under the altar, and you will know exactly how Cecilia looked when she left her tired body lying there, and went up the shining path to God.

SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/amy-steedman-saint-cecilia/

Santa Cecilia

Lorenzo Pasinelli (1629–1700), Santa Cecilia, 1665, Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna

Catholic World – Saint Cecilia’s Day in Rome

Saint Cecilia is one of the few figures among the representative throng of virgin-martyrs that strike us at once as the most familiar, the most lovable, and the most to be exalted. Every one knows the legend of her life, and the conversion of her husband and his brother, brought about by her prayers, as also by the miracles she obtained for their further confirmation in the faith. Her death, in itself a miracle, needs no retelling, neither does the history of her wondrously preserved remains, that are now laid in the shrine beneath the altar of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, a church erected, by her own wish and behest, on the spot where her palace stood. This church is a basilica, and has its altar raised many steps above the level of the mosaic floor of the nave, and the front of the altar turned away from the people so that the celebrant at Mass stands facing the congregation, as in many other ancient Roman churches. Under the altar, on the lower level of the nave, is the shrine of the saint, and there lies her marble image, small and frail, though it is said to be life-sized, and reverently and truly copied from the sleeping body, whose form remained entire and uncorrupted, at least until the last time it was solemnly uncovered. To the right of the church is a dark side-chapel, floored with rare mosaic, once the bath-room of the young and wealthy patrician, and the consecrated spot where heathen cruelty twice endeavored to put an end to the sweet singer’s life. The actual bath is said to be within the railings that divide a narrow portion of the chapel from the rest. There was the first miracle performed, of her preservation from the boiling water; there also the second, of the prolongation of her life after the three deadly yet ineffectual strokes of the unskillful executioner’s sword. One can fancy the young matron, so childlike in years, so experienced in holiness, lying in meek and chaste expectation of the embraces of her heavenly Bridegroom, and of the purified reunion with her earthly and virgin spouse while, all the time the wondrous, angel-sustained life lasted, the Christians, her brethren in the faith, her children through charity, would be coming and going, silently as to an altar, rejoicingly as to a saint, and learning, from lips on whom the kiss of peace of the glorified Jesus was already laid, lessons of fortitude and love most precious to their faithful souls. We are told, also, that Urban, the pope, visited her on her glorious death-bed, and, no doubt, he learnt from her entranced soul more than he could teach it in its passing hour; learnt, perhaps, things whose sweetness became strength to him in the hour of his own not far distant martyrdom.

Cecilia, in her short and heavenly life, seems a fitting model for all women, and especially for young maidens and wives. She was of those who know well how to put religion before men in its most beautiful garb and most enthralling form; purity with her was no ice-cold stream and repellent rocky fastness: it was beauty, it was reward, it was glory. Crowns of lilies and roses, heavenly perfume, and angelic companionship were to be its lovely guerdon; and not otherwise should it ever be preached, nor otherwise surrounded, when its precepts are presented to man. Had we more Cecilias among our Christian women of to-day, there would be more Valeriani and Tiburtii among our men, and virtue would be more readily deemed an honor than a yoke; home would be more of a temple, rather than a mere resting-place; home-life more of a prayer, rather than a simple idyl. For blamelessness is not Christian purity; righteousness is not Christian faith. We want the visible blessings of the church on our daily lives, even as Cecilia brought into the circle of home the visible, angelic gifts of flowers; and we know that to those who seek them where Valerian and his brother sought the heavenly apparition that is, through faith and prayer these blessings, these gifts, these blossoms, these safeguards, are never denied.

And to pass from these aspirations after a more Christian ideal of home to the impressions made on an eyewitness by the feast of Saint Cecilia in Rome, we will merely say that this feast had been eagerly looked forward to, and had always held a special charm over the mind of the writer of these pages.

On this day, the 22d of November, Mass is said from dawn till noon in the catacomb chapel, where the martyr was first buried. This chapel is one of the largest and most interesting in the Catacomb of Saint Callixtus. The distance from the Eternal City to this shrine is not long, but the old Appian Way that leads from the one to the other is crowded with memories and monuments, each a history in itself.

The most noticeable of these is very near the catacomb, and is none other than the mausoleum of Cecilia Metella, the mysterious and oft-sung pile that Byron has made strangely familiar to us. One cannot help being struck by the familiarity of the two names, and the proximity of the two shrines, of the Cecilias of Rome. The proud mausoleum, stately as a palace, strong as a fortress, built by some ostentatious patrician, or by some sorrowing husband, for the merely worldly end of perpetuating the memory of an illustrious house, or of the domestic virtues of a spouse a little above the common run of licentious Roman matrons, stands now deserted and unvisited, its real history lost and forgotten, and a fictitious one attached to it through the imaginative efforts of a foreign poet. The lonely sepulchre in an earthen wall, the hidden recess in an underground chapel dug out by silent, persecuted men for the proscribed body of a so-called criminal remains to this day the pilgrimage of thousands, the well-remembered and well-loved spot where devout followers of the faith Cecilia followed come to beg her intercession as they kneel before the same sacrament, and assist at the same sacrifice, whose blessings were Cecilia’s only strength. Cecilia Metella, the rich Roman lady, is unknown save to antiquaries; Cecilia, the virgin-martyr, is honored all over the world, by all races and all nations. The wealth of the first has rusted away and is heard of no^ more, because its last emblem was a palatial tomb; the riches of the second have increased a hundred-fold, and have been sown broadcast over the earth, because their abiding symbol lies in a church built over her former dwelling; and the harvest her prayers have reaped is gathered year after year in the riches untold, of virgins crowned with miraculous flowers, of Nyives laden with the conversions of those dear to them, of women of all ages, all ranks, all nations, bearing in their hands the charity born of Cecilia’s death-bed generosity, and in their hearts the faith of her death-bed professions.

And so, past the stately tomb worthy of Egypt’s solemn magnificence, the road leads to a small door in a wall, which opens on to a field. A path fringed with red and purple flowers, the last-born children of a southern autumn, winds through the field, to the head of a steep but wide flight of stairs, at the foot of which is the entrance to Saint Callixtus’ Catacomb. The pure air, just mist-veiled in the morning coolness, shows the landscape around to its utmost advantage; the omnipresent dome of Saint Peter’s basilica clears the line of the blue horizon; the wide purple plain is crossed here and there by dust-whitened roads and arched aqueducts, as by the gigantic bones of a decayed and now powerless monster; the distant hills, darkened at their base by chestnut woods, and dotted with white villas, as with the loosened beads of a string of pearls, throw bluer shadows on the dusky, olive-spotted expanse: and we pause, and wonder whether, after all, things looked so very unlike this on the dawning day when the Christians bore the happy Cecilia to her first resting-place. Their hearts surely must have felt as ours do now, full of joy and thanksgiving, and, above all, full of peace. There would have been a silent throng, a quiet gradual gathering of the future martyrs around the narrow grave of their blessed-forerunner; for in those days no one knew how soon he or she might be called from the altar to the stake, and summoned to carry the unconsumed sacrament within his bosom to the tribunal of an unjust and ignorant judge.

The avenues of the perplexing labyrinth of the catacomb are all guarded by the government on this day of Saint Cecilia’s, so that no one may stray from the one chapel where service is going on. Close to the entrance is the small recess where the saint was laid in her first sleep. It is low and reaches far back into the damp earth-wall; myrtle and bay-leaves are strewn over its floor, and flowers and little oil-lamps are spread about like stars. As each person leaves the chapel, he takes away a leaf or flower as a holy remembrance. Two altars are erected, one close to the martyr’s grave, just beneath a Byzantine fresco head of our divine Lord, the other on the opposite side of the chapel. The space, small enough for a modern congregation, though large for a catacomb chapel, is so crowded that it is difficult for the priests to pass in and out from the altars to the temporary sacristy, and the worshippers almost lean upon them when they stand to say the “Judica me, Deus.” No noise is heard, save the murmured words of the Mass and the tinkling of the elevation-bell. Foreigners are there with fair-haired boys serving the Mass of some favorite friend and accompanying chaplain; Romans are there with their intense, if not deep, southern devotion; rich and poor, prince and beggar, student and peasant, are alike crowding the virgin-martyr’s shrine. A few hundred years ago, this was the church’s cradle, and patrician and slave came to be baptized together and wear for one day the white robes that tomorrow twilight would see red with blood on the deserted sand of the gladiator’s amphitheatre. The priest who said Mass in those days hardly knew, when he came to the consecration, whether the hand of the pagan soldiery might not be upon him before the communion; the mother who knelt in tears, half of natural sorrow, half of heavenly joy, and thought of the fair young boy she had but yesterday given back to God on the scaffold, did not know whether tomorrow’s dawn might not find her herself prostrate and headless on the same place of execution. Partings then were seldom for long, and, even when the Christians parted with our Lord on the hidden altars, they knew they would meet him soon again at the right hand of his Father. Not unfrequently, the Blessed Sacrament was kept in a silver vessel made in the shape of a dove, and one cannot help thinking how sweet a union must have existed between this custom and the idea of the protection and the teaching the Holy Spirit was to afford to his spouse, the church. “When the Spirit of truth cometh,” Jesus had said, “he shall teach you all things.” And so the Dove of heaven taught the church the hidden beauties of the ineffable sacrament, and protected this greatest treasure of the Bride in its integrity of doctrine and its continuity of love. May we not so interpret, lovingly and reverentially, the olden custom of the dove-shaped tabernacle?

Beautiful as the day was, it was a sore trial to leave the darksome, silent chapel, where generations of older and braver Christians than ourselves had spent their triumphant vigils and been brought back to sleep their peaceful hero-slumbers – it was a trial, I say, to return to the carelessly beautiful earth, the unheeding theatre of such wondrous mysteries. To leave the catacombs in Cecilia’s times was to go forth to almost certain death; to leave prayer and solitude, the catacombs of the heart in our day, is to encounter certain sorrow and possible sin. It is hard to leave God’s temple and mingle with the chattering throng; it is hard to lift the curtain of silence and mix with the wrangling world. Yet it is our duty. Few are privileged to be hermits, and those few not until the privilege is turned into a trial, and the apparent retreat is no other than a hard-won stronghold. In the battle, we must fight, and fight manfully, in the foremost rank; it is only the generals and the chiefs among us that watch from afar, and feel, like wearied Moses, the weight of victory or defeat hanging on the issue of their prayers. Our part seems the harder, but it is only because our nature is so little that dissatisfaction with our present lot is the very air we breathe. After all, if we could look around us, we should see many beautiful things; if we are bound in fetters of duty, they are golden fetters, with the word of God carved all over their sunlike sheen; if we are led in one way and forced to wear the harness of unalterable circumstances, the reins are broidered with fair work that tells the story of how the angel led the ass of Balaam, and how palms were strewn on the path of Jesus; the way is emblazoned with rarest flowers and sweetest fruits, the heraldry of grace; if we bear a yoke and a burden, they are but spices and ointments, wine and oil, and milk and honey, all fair and gracious merchandise from the great mart of heaven, to be borne over the world, as the clouds bear the rain, in fertilizing charity and fruit-bearing meekness. So let us leave the dear catacomb, where even Music hushed her sighs, and come forth across the Roman Campagna, with the mist-veils rolled off it, and the noonday sun, with its reminiscences of summer, gilding its fringe of distant mountains, and its strange rifts of sudden, unsuspected valleys. Here and there, an aqueduct or a proud stone pyre, a mound of stones, each of which bears an imperial inscription, a rude shepherd’s fence, or irregular stone wall, that is all you see. Not far from here, in a cornfield whose waves of brown and gold a few months ago kissed the foot of an ilex-crowned hillock, is the fountain of Egeria, a grotto, fern-clothed, with a broken goddess of mouldering stone. The water and the “maiden-hair” fern are there still, as beautiful as when the king of Rome is said to have wandered here in search of wisdom; the sage himself and the problematic nymph of tradition are dead and gone, forgotten by the owner of the corn-field, ignored by the peasant who drinks at the fountain, unknown to the brown, barefooted child who gathers the feathery fern.

Of what use is it to say any more? Facts are more cruel commentaries on the past than any words.

Yet we have just seen children and peasants, women from northern lands, men from eastern climes, bearing away as a relic a leaf of bay or a starry flower from the once filled recess where Cecilia lay in peace-sealed slumber.

Where is the difference, and why?

A little child can tell, but the philosopher will not listen.

The feast of Saint Cecilia, though to the writer of these pages it ended on the threshold of the catacomb, is not completed here.

At her church in the Trastevere, the church already mentioned, takes place the ceremony of solemn vespers, in which the artists of Rome assist and take part gratuitously, out of homage to the queen of music. The antiphon “Cantantibus Organis” is magnificent in art, but unresponsive in devotion. The phantom of the unhappy Renaissance breathes in these strains, religious only in so far as they are a fabric built on sacred words. The simple solemnity of the church’s service dwells not in them, and the touching silence of the catacomb recalls the saint to our mind far more sweetly than these outbursts of paganized minstrelsy within the halls she once called her own. Still, if honor to God be meant by this concourse of the artist fraternity, let us be simple of intention, and see in it, as God does, the first-fruits of what they have offered to the God of all.

Reader, if you ever pray before the early shrine of the virgin-martyr in Saint Callixtus’ chapel, remember the writer of these few words, and let our prayers go up to God together, “as a morning sacrifice” and “as incense in his sight.”

SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/catholic-world-saint-cecilias-day-in-rome/

Santa Cecilia

Sebastiano Conca's fresco on the ceiling of the main nave in Basilica of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, Rome.

Affresco di Sebastiano Conca sul soffitto della navata centrale della Basilica di Santa Cecilia in Trastevere (Roma)

Santa Cecilia Vergine e martire

22 novembre

sec. II-III

Al momento della revisione del calendario dei santi tra i titolari delle basiliche romane solo la memoria di santa Cecilia è rimasta alla data tradizionale. Degli altri molti sono stati soppressi perché mancavano dati o anche indizi storici riguardo il loro culto. Anche riguardo a Cecilia, venerata come martire e onorata come patrona dei musicisti, è difficile reperire dati storici completi ma a sostenerne l'importanza è la certezza storica dell'antichità del suo culto. Due i fatti accertati: il «titolo» basilicale di Cecilia è antichissimo, sicuramente anteriore all'anno 313, cioè all'età di Costantino; la festa della santa veniva già celebrata, nella sua basilica di Trastevere, nell'anno 545. Sembra inoltre che Cecilia venne sepolta nelle Catacombe di San Callisto, in un posto d'onore, accanto alla cosiddetta «Cripta dei Papi», trasferita poi da Pasquale I nella cripta della basilica trasteverina. La famosa «Passio», un testo più letterario che storico, attribuisce a Cecilia una serie di drammatiche avventure, terminate con le più crudeli torture e conclusesi con il taglio della testa. (Avvenire)

Patronato: Musicisti, Cantanti

Etimologia: Cecilia = dal nome di famiglia romana

Emblema: Giglio, Organo, Liuto, Palma

Martirologio Romano: Memoria di santa Cecilia, vergine e martire, che si tramanda abbia conseguito la sua duplice palma per amore di Cristo nel cimitero di Callisto sulla via Appia. Il suo nome è fin dall’antichità nel titolo di una chiesa di Roma a Trastevere.

Nel mosaico dell’XI secolo dell’abside della Basilica di Santa Cecilia a Roma oltre a Cristo benidecente, affiancato dai santi Pietro e Paolo, alla sua destra è rappresentata santa Cecilia, posta accanto a papa Pasquale I, che reca in mano proprio questa chiesa da lui fatta edificare nel rione Trastevere: l’aureola quadrata del Pontefice indica che egli era ancora vivo quando venne eseguita l’opera.

A sinistra di Cristo, invece, san Valeriano, sposo di santa Cecilia. La fondazione del titulus Caeciliae risale al III secolo. Il Liber pontificalis narra che nell’anno 545, durante le persecuzioni cristiane, il segretario imperiale Antimo andò ad arrestare papa Vigilio e lo trovò nella chiesa di Santa Cecilia, a dieci giorni dalle calende di dicembre, ovvero il 22 novembre, ritenuto dies natalis della santa. Tuttavia altre fonti storiche (come il Martirologio geronimiano del V secolo) ritengono che questa non sia la data della morte o della sepoltura, ma della dedicazione della sua chiesa.

La Nobildonna romana, benefattrice dei Pontefici e fondatrice di una delle prime chiese di Roma, visse fra il II e III secolo. Venne iscritta al canone della Messa all’inizio del VI secolo, secolo in cui sorse il suo culto. Nel III secolo papa Callisto, uomo d’azione ed eccellente amministratore, fece seppellire il suo predecessore Zeferino accanto alla sala funeraria della famiglia dei Caecilii. In seguito aprì, accanto alla martire, la “Cripta dei Papi”, nella quale furono deposti tutti gli altri pontefici di quello stesso secolo.

Cecilia sposò il nobile Valeriano. Nella sua Passio si narra che il giorno delle nozze la santa cantava nel suo cuore: «conserva o Signore immacolati il mio cuore e il mio corpo, affinché non resti confusa». Da questo particolare è stata denominata patrona dei musicisti. Confidato allo sposo il suo voto di castità, egli si convertì al Cristianesimo e la prima notte di nozze ricevette il Battesimo da papa Urbano I. Cecilia aveva un dono particolare: riusciva ad essere convincente e convertiva. Le autorità romane catturarono san Valeriano, che venne torturato e decapitato; per Cecilia venne ordinato di bruciarla, ma, dopo un giorno e una notte, il fuoco non la molestò; si decise, quindi, di decapitarla: fu colpita tre volte, ma non morì subito e agonizzò tre giorni: molti cristiani che lei aveva convertito andarono ad intingere dei lini nel suo sangue, mentre Cecilia non desisteva dal fortificarli nella Fede. Quando la martire morì, papa Urbano I, sua guida spirituale, con i suoi diaconi, prese di notte il corpo e lo seppellì con gli altri papi e fece della casa di Cecilia una chiesa.

Nell’821 le sue spoglie furono traslate da papa Pasquale I nella Basilica di Santa Cecilia in Trastevere e nel 1599, durante i restauri, ordinati dal cardinale Paolo Emilio Sfondrati in occasione dell’imminente Giubileo del 1600, venne ritrovato un sarcofago con il corpo della martire che ebbe l’alta dignità di essere stata sepolta accanto ai Pontefici e sorprendentemente fu trovata in un ottimo stato di conservazione. Il Cardinale commissionò allo scultore Stefano Maderno una statua che riproducesse quanto più fedelmente l’aspetto e la posizione del corpo di santa Cecilia, così com’era stato ritrovato, con la testa girata a tre quarti, a causa della decapitazione e con le dita della mano destra che indicano tre (la Trinità) e della mano sinistra uno (l’Unità); questo capolavoro di marmo si trova sotto l’altare centrale di Santa Cecilia.

Nel XIX secolo sorse il cosiddetto Movimento Ceciliano, diffuso in Italia, Francia e Germania. Vi aderirono musicisti, liturgisti e studiosi, che intendevano restituire onore alla musica liturgica sottraendola all’influsso del melodramma e della musica popolare. Il movimento ebbe il grande merito di ripresentare nelle chiese il gregoriano e la polifonia rinascimentale delle celebrazioni liturgiche cattoliche. Nacquero così le varie Scholae cantorum in quasi tutte le parrocchie e i vari Istituti Diocesani di Musica Sacra (IDMS), che dovevano formare i maestri delle stesse Scholae.

Il tortonese e sacerdote Lorenzo Perosi, che trovò in San Pio X un paterno mecenate, è certamente l’esponente più celebre del Movimento Ceciliano, che ebbe in Papa Sarto il più grande sostenitore. Il 22 novembre 1903, giorno di santa Cecilia, il Pontefice emanò il Motu Proprio Inter Sollicitudines, considerato il manifesto del Movimento.

Autore: Cristina Siccardi

SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/25350

Santa Cecilia

Orazio Gentileschi (1563–1639) and Giovanni Lanfranco (1582–1647), Saint Cecilia and an Angel, circa 1617, 87.5 x 108, National Gallery of Art

Santa Cecília, patrona de la Música

Dilluns, 22 de Novembre de 2004, per LLUIS HERRERA LLOP

Cada 22 de novembre celebrem la festa de Santa Cecília que és, a més del sant d’una de les nostres estimades conserges, la Patrona de la Música, entre altres coses. En aquest breu article, miraré de fer-vos-en cinc cèntims de qui va ser aquesta santa i dels “patronatges” que se li atribueixen.

No sabem massa coses de la vida de Sta. Cecília, però sembla que va pertànyer a una família romana bastant rica. Malgrat això, acostumava a vestir-se amb una túnica de tela aspra i havia decidit no perdre mai la virginitat (qualitat que havia consagrat a Déu). Els seus pares la van prometre en matrimoni amb un jove anomenat Valerià. Un cop casats, la nit de noces, Cecília va dir al seu marit que no podia perdre la virginitat ja que l'havia consagrat a Déu. Valerià, malgrat tot, no solament va respectar aquesta decisió sinó que, a més, va convertir-se ell també al cristianisme.

L'alcalde de Roma, anomenat Almaquio, no volia que els cadàvers dels cristians fossin enterrats i, tot i la prohibició, Cecília i el seu marit es van dedicar a fer-ho. Com a conseqüència, van ser arrestats i portats davant l'alcalde. Almaquio va dir que els perdonaria si renunciaven a la religió cristiana. Però ni Cecília ni Valerià van fer-ho i per això van ser martiritzats fins a la mort l'any 177 d. C. Abans de morir, Cecília va convertir la seva casa en una església que encara avui es conserva a la ciutat de Roma.

Pel que fa a la relació entre Santa Cecília i la Música, hi ha diferents opinions però la més generalitzada és la que explica que durant el banquet de noces, Sta. Cecília, mentre sonava la música, resava a Déu perquè no es perdés la seva virginitat. Una altra versió diu que mentre era martiritzada, Sta. Cecília no parava de cantar. Finalment, la darrera versió diu que una frase escrita en llatí que descriu el martiri de la Santa dient "candentibus organis Caecilia Domino decantabat" (que es podria traduir per "mentre el forn estava al roig, Cecília cantava al Senyor") va ser mal traduïda amb el pas dels anys. La paraula llatina "organis" que es podria traduir per "eina" o "estri", va ser traduïda per "orgue" (instrument musical). La tradició ha fet que, amb el pas dels anys, totes aquestes coincidències hagin convertit Santa Cecília en la Patrona de la Música.

La iconografia ha representat sovint Santa Cecília tocant un orgue o, en el seu defecte, altres instruments musicals, tot i que no hi ha cap certesa d’aquesta realitat.

Santa Cecília és també la patrona de l’Ajuntament de Lleida, i en especial de la Guàrdia Urbana. El motiu cal buscar-lo en els esdeveniments que va viure Lleida el 1647 (ara fa uns 350 anys) en el transcurs de la Guerra dels Segadors.

En aquella data Lleida estava assetjada pels exèrcits francesos i defensada per les tropes de Felip IV. L'exèrcit francès, dirigit pel comte d'Harcourd, estava format per 20.000 soldats d'infanteria, 3.600 de cavalleria i moltes peces d'artilleria, mentre que la ciutat de Lleida era defensada per soldats castellans, portuguesos, irlandesos i lleidatans sota el comandament del General Brito. La població total de la ciutat no passava aleshores de 6.000 persones.

Finalment, després de vuit mesos de setge, la ciutat va decidir rendir-se a l'exèrcit francès. En el moment en què els francesos anaven a entrar a Lleida, van arribar més tropes castellanes dirigides pel marquès de Leganés que van fer retirar l'exèrcit de Harcourd. Tot això passava el dia 21 de novembre i el dia següent, el 22 de novembre (dia de Santa Cecília), les tropes de Felip IV van entrar victorioses a Lleida. És per això, que els paers van decidir que adoptarien a Santa Cecília com a patrona de l'Ajuntament.

Així doncs, com es pot veure, Santa Cecília és una data especialment festejada pels lleidatans i per doble motiu aquells que a més de lleidatans, ens dediquem a això de la Música. Felicitats a tots i a totes si hi esteu implicats d’alguna manera.

Lluís Herrera