Name: Cecilia
Born: c. 200-210 AD; Rome
Died: c.230 AD; Rome
Feast Day: 22^nd November
Patron Saints of: Music; musicians

The Roman Canon (First Eucharistic Prayer) of the Mass has two sets of saints who are venerated; all of them are martyrs of the early Church. The second commemoration of these martyrs includes a number of women martyrs, including Cecilia, who were immediately venerated for their outstanding witness as Christians. Being from such an early period in Church history there are scant reliable records of her life, and consequently much of her story comes down to us from a later tradition. The legend holds that Cecelia was a patrician girl of Rome, who from a young age observed rigorous Christian practices. In spite of her high social status, she wore coarse garments under her regular clothing as a penance. She would have preferred to remain as a virgin consecrated to Christ but her father arranged a husband for her from another patrician family, one Valerian. Valerian was a pagan but being a noble, upright man sought to honour his bride’s wishes to remain a virgin. Cecilia insisted that an angel of God watched over her to protect her. Valerian asked to see the angel, and Cecilia replied that he would be able to see the angel if he were baptised a Christian. Valerian sought out bishop Urban and was baptised. He returned to Cecilia and to his astonishment saw the angel standing guard over Cecilia placing on her head a crown of roses. Valerian’s brother Tibertius was also convinced by Cecilia to receive baptism.

Valerian and Tibertius thereafter committed themselves to works of charity, including rescuing the bodies of martyred Christians to offer them a Christian burial. Before long they were arrested and cross-examined by the Roman prefect Almachius, who offered them a reprieve if they were willing to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods. They refused stating that the only God for whom they would offer incense was the one true God of the Christians. Valerian and Tibertius were executed outside Rome and it fell to Cecilia to oversee the recovery of their bodies for Christian burial. Cecilia was then arrested and called upon to renounce her Christian faith, yet as she spoke to her interrogators with such conviction she managed to convince them of the truth of her faith in Jesus Christ. Cecilia’s house became an adopted church and the Pope is said to have baptised 400 Christians there.

When news reached Almachius, the prefect was furious and had the noble maiden Cecilia brought before him for questioning. Her boldness and composure infuriated the prefect who ordered her to be locked in her home’s balnea (a sauna heated by a wooden furnace) with the furnace raging for three days intending to suffocate her. When she emerged unharmed, Almachius ordered her to be beheaded. Despite receiving three blows of the sword upon her neck she remained alive for three days, during which the Christians of Rome flocked to visit this ‘living martyr’. She died and was buried in the catacomb of St Callistus, where her tomb can be visited to this day. Tradition also maintains that the ancient basilica of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere was built on the site of her home.

Over the centuries St Cecilia became invoked as the patron saint of music and musicians. Although the precise reasons are foggy, it is not unreasonable to assume that being from a wealthy noble family, she would have learned a musical instrument, according to the custom of the times. The acta (which tells the legend of St Cecilia) tells us that while the musicians played at her wedding “Cecilia sang to the Lord in her heart”. In any case it is note-worthy that from the earliest centuries Christians recognised the power and importance of music especially within the liturgy. It’s a curious detail of Matthew’s gospel that after the Last Supper (the first ever Eucharistic liturgy) Jesus and His disciples “sung a hymn” (see Matt 26:30). Given the Jewish origins of Christian liturgy it is not surprising that music and singing formed part of Christian prayer from the earliest times. Luke’s Gospel contains three canticles (the Benedictus of Zechariah, the Magnificat of Mary and the Nunc Dimittis of Simeon) and we also encounter canticles in St Paul’s letters (e.g., Philippians 2:6-11 and Colossians 1:12-20).  These provide evidence of singing in the early Church. In the ensuing centuries the stirring, hauntingly beautiful modalities of Gregorian chant came to characterise the liturgies of the Roman Rite. Over time plain chant developed into the ecstatic reveries of polyphony (Palestrina, Victoria, Byrd, Tallis, Allegri, etc.). Throughout the Christian world, in every language we also see a strong tradition of choral singing. The glory of the human voice giving praise to God is among the most beautiful and natural expressions of Christian prayer. With good reason did St Augustine declare: “He who sing prays twice!”

Yet the Church has also enriched her musical repertoire with instrumental sacred music. In the early centuries of Christianity, the Byzantine Church developed the primitive hydraulic pipe organs of Ancient Greece for use in churches, using bellows. Over time the use of pipe organs spread throughout Western Europe, becoming the prized instruments of the great European cathedrals. The pipe organs of the Baroque grew in complexity and for about 400 years had the distinction of being the most complicated man-made devices ever created, up until the development of the telephone exchange at the end of the 19^th century. Over two thousand years Christianity has produced an abundance of sacred music that has enriched the lives of countless billions of people, Christian and non-Christian alike. Some of the greatest composers in history have left behind a legacy of Mass settings, hymns, motets or other sacred works of sublime value: Bach, Vivaldi, Handel, Hayden, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Saint-Saëns, Poulenc…just to name a few! Today, the music industry is a worth well over 30 billion dollars per year, a clear indication that music continues to have an undiminished cultural value.

It is especially fitting in view of our ‘Saint of the Week’, St Cecilia, that we will welcome this Sunday the Youth Sacred Music Choir, under the direction of Mr Baltazar Kurowski. They will sing at the 10:30am Mass at St Patrick’s Lilydale. We welcome them and their families and certainly encourage them to continue in giving glory to God and delight to the faithful with their songs of praise! It might be timely to warmly encourage any new musicians or choristers to come forward to assist with the music at our Masses – you would be most welcome!

St Cecilia, pray for us!