November isn’t just a month to give thanks for our blessings, it’s also offers us a day set aside to celebrate Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of music and musicians. Saint Cecilia, a Roman noblewoman who lived in Rome during the 3rd century, was one of the earliest Christian martyrs. Historians say that Cecilia (a particularly beautiful young woman) vowed her virginity to one of God’s Angels. She was an extremely devout Christian and had a close relationship with God. After making her vow, she wore sackcloth and fasted continuously. But because she was a beautiful woman with money, from a powerful Roman family, her parents married her against her will to a man named Valerian, the son another powerful Roman family.
Cecilia, not happy about the upcoming marriage, beseeched the angels to protect her. Unfortunately, she was forced to marry Valerian. During the wedding ceremony, Cecilia silently sang to God in her heart. When it was time for the wedding night, she told her new husband about her vow of virginity and that an angel protected her and her choice. Valerian wasn’t particularly happy. So he said to her that if he could speak to this angel, and this angel corroborated her story, he’d abide by her vow.
Cecilia told him the only way he could see the angel was if he traveled to the third milestone on the Via Appia (Appian Way) and was baptized by Pope Urbanus. Valerian agreed, and after his baptism he suddenly saw a vision of Cecilia talking to the angel. The angel crowned Cecilia with a crown of roses and lilies. It was such a powerful vision, he converted on the spot. Then he convinced his brother Tibertius to covert. Once Tibertius was baptized, he also saw the vision and converted.
Both brothers then dedicated their lives to burying the martyrs–Christian men and women who being killed daily by the Roman prefect Turcius Almachius. Of course, Turcius Almachius wasn’t happy with what the brothers were doing. So he arrested the brothers and told them to make a sacrifice the Roman gods. When the brothers refused, Turcius Almachius executed them.
After Cecilia’s husband and brother-in-law were buried, Cecilia began to preach about Christianity. In her lifetime, she converted over 400 people, most of whom were baptized by Pope Urban. But, eventually, Turcius Almachius decided Cecilia was causing too many problems and arrested her as well. He condemned her to death by suffocation in a Roman bath. Cecilia was shut into a bath for 24 hours while the fires were stoked to an impossibly high heat. But Cecilia survived and didn’t even sweat. When Turcius Almachius heard she survived, he was furious and tried to burn her at the stake. When that didn’t work, and she didn’t burn, an executioner was sent to chop off her head.
The executioner struck her three times but was unable to decapitate the poor woman. He left her on the floor of the baths, bleeding out, where she lingered for three days. Crowds of people came to visit her while she preached and prayed with them. Then, miraculously, she began to sing the heavenly song she sang at her wedding. Once she died, Pope Urban buried her. The date we celebrate her death (in the Gregorian calendar, not the Julian calendar) is November 22, now known as her feast day.
In 1599, her body was exhumed and she was found to be incorrupt. She is the first known of the all the incorrupt saints. Even her clothes, a gold embroidered vest and silk veil, were still completely intact. The officials who examined the tomb also reported a “mysterious and delightful flower-like odor which proceeded from the coffin.” Her remains were transferred to a 5th century church in the Trastavere neighborhood in Rome, not far from where she grew up. Her tomb is still under the high altar.
Because St. Cecilia heard and sang heavenly music during her wedding ceremony and on the eve of her death, she is considered the patroness of music and musicians. Now musicians all of the world dedicate their work–including many of our favorite Christmas hymns–to St. Cecilia. And since this is a month of gratitude and holidays, dedicating a feast day to the patron saint of music seems an appropriate way to remember a grateful woman who lived–and died–with a song in her heart.
