St. Cecilia icon

St. Cecilia icon
© Cecilia Lawrence
November 23rd 2013
4.5 x 6 inches
Ink, watercolor, gold leaf

“At daybreak, Cecilia cried out:
Come, beloved knights of Christ,
cast off the works of darkness,
and clothe yourselves in the armor of light!”
~ Antiphon for the Feast of St. Cecilia

“Translating the old legend, to make known
All of that glorious life which was thine own,
Thou ever with the rose and lily crowned,
Cecilia, for virtues high renowned.”
~ Second Nun’s Tale, from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales

I'm a day late, so, a happy (belated) Feast of St. Cecilia! Yesterday also happened to be my golden half-birthday too. Anyway, St. Cecilia (or St. Ce-sa, as I call her ) holds a very special place in my heart because she is my patron saint and my namesake. She's the patroness of music, so I've given her a lyre, and in her other arm she holds lilies, roses, a palm branch (symbols of virginity, martyrdom, and the martyr's victory, respectively) and a Roman gladius (since she was killed by being beheaded). I decided to robe her in blue because...well, blue is my favorite color. So there you go.



:+: A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF THE SAINT :+:

Saint Cecilia (c. 210 – 230 A.D.), is one of the most well-known virgin-martyrs of the Church, and she is one of the eight women commemorated by name in the Mass. According to legend, she was a Roman noblewoman who was raised from her youth in the Christian faith. She had a great love for and devotion to her guardian angel, and often prayed to God for the grace of preserving her virginitiy. A young Roman patrician named Valerian was very much in love with her because of her great beauty, intelligence, virtue, grace, and lovely voice. Cecilia was promised to marry him, and though she also loved him very much, she was determined in her heart to remain a maiden. While musicians played at their wedding banquet it is said that she sang in her heart to God. On her wedding night, while they were alone together in their bridal chamber, Cecilia told Valerian that she wished to tell him a secret, but he had to swear to tell no one else of it. He swore he’d never betray her trust, and so then she told him that she was a Christian, and that he must not dare to try and violate her virginity, for her guardian angel jealously guarded her purity and would protect her from his advances.

At first, Valerian was thunderstruck, then he became violently furious. Feeling betrayed and furthermore, conflicted in his love for Cecilia and his rage and disbelief at what she said, he cried out that he would only believe her if he saw the angel for himself. But, he added, if she had been unfaithful to him and loved another man, he would kill her straightaways himself. Cecilia told him to believe what she said, and that he would certainly see the angel for himself if he did as she told him. She told him that he had to believe in Jesus Christ, and go along the Via Appia where he would meet Pope Urban I, who would then baptize him. She then read to him from the Scriptures and instructed him in the Faith, and spoke to him of the joys of Heaven and how beautiful they would be if they loved God with all their hearts and lived in perfect love for all eternity as virgin spouses. After she read to him from the Gospel, Valerian believed, and agreed to live with her as her chaste husband. He also eagerly sought to be baptized by the Pope so that he could become a Christian and see Cecilia’s angel.

So Valerian set out to the Via Appia, met Pope Urban, told him that Cecilia had sent him, that he believed in Jesus Christ and desired to be baptized. The Pope received him with joy, and baptized him. Valerian returned home and met Cecilia there, and standing next to her was her dazzling angel with two heavenly crowns woven with roses and lilies. He charged them to keep the crowns of faith and virginity unstained until they should live forever in Heaven, and then the angel proceeded to crown them both. Valerian begged the angel to reveal himself also to his beloved brother Tibertius so that he would come to believe in Christ and become a Christian as well.

Tibertius soon came to visit the newlyweds, and when he approached the house he smelled a rich fragrance of roses and lilies, even though they were not in season at the time. He came into the house and saw Valerian and Cecilia standing there. He asked them where the fragrance came from, and they eagerly instructed him in the Faith and told him that if he wanted to see the angel and the crowns they wore that he would have to become a Christian and be baptized. They continued to persuade him, until Tibertius, also confessed the Faith, and went to be baptized by Urban. And he later also saw Cecilia’s angel, and the three happily lived in a most Christian manner.

Cecilia and Valerian continued to live together in a chaste marriage and busied themselves in charitable works and almsgiving. Soon, their works became known to the prefect Almachius, who had Valerian and Tibertius seized and imprisoned, and ordered them to be executed because they would not offer sacrifices to an idol of Jupiter. They were detained in the house of the officer Maximus with their executioners, and when they saw how unjustly the two were being treated, they pitied them, and soon the two brothers instructed them also in the faith, until they too, desired baptism. Cecilia came with some priests in the evening and they were all baptized together, and Cecilia exhorted them saying: "Now, Christ's own beloved knights, put away all the works of darkness, and arm yourself in the armor of light. In truth you have fought a great battle, your course is finished, and you have preserved your faith; go to the unfading crown of life. The Righteous Judge whom you have served shall give it to you, as you have won it." They were then led out to be executed.

Cecilia buried the bodies of the martyrs, and Almachius also had her seized and imprisoned so that she could sacrifice to Jupiter. When she was dragged before the prefect, he ordered her to sacrifice to the idol, but she steadfastly refused after many entreaties and threats. Finally, the prefect ordered her to be suffocated in a bath. After some time, however, she was found to be completely unharmed, so that an executioner was dispatched to behead her. He tried three times to cut off her head, but her neck still remained unsevered, and Roman law forbade more than three strokes. So she was left to die on floor of the bath. She lived on for three more days, and in that time she gave away all of her belongings to the poor and asked that her house be converted into a church. Cecilia’s body was secretly carried away and buried alongside her husband and the other martyrs.

A church was built over her home by Pope Urban, but another, larger church was built over it in the 5th century. The church was rebuilt in 822, and additions were made in the 18th century. The church is known as Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, near the Tiber River in Rome.

St. Cecilia’s body was re-discovered in 1599 and was found to be incorrupt. She is one of the earliest saints to be discovered to be incorrupt. This sculpture by Stefano Maderno was made to commemorate the re-discovery of her body, and was copied from her actual pose: vultus.stblogs.org/cecilia-4.j…



There are some beautiful passages written by the modern mystic and visionary Maria Valtorta that pertain to the life of St. Cecilia. The first speaks of her life at home with Valerian:

“Cecilia passes by smiling and blessed, and I see her then sit down between her husband and brother-in-law and read them some sacred passages and answer their questions. And then, at Valerian’s urging, she sings some of the hymns which must be very pleasing to her husband. I understand why she is the patroness of music. Her voice is pliant and harmonious, and her hands run swiftly over the cithara or lyre, whatever it is, drawing from it harmonies like pearls falling down on thin crystal, and arpeggios worthy of the throat of a nightingale.”

This second one describes her death:

“Cecilia does not groan, she does not weep. She prays. I have the impression that she fell that way when she was wounded, and that she has remained thus perhaps from the impossibility of raising her head, her neck especially, because the nerves are severed. Yet her life remains. When she feels that her life is about to escape, she makes a superhuman effort to move and get on her knees. But she only manages to make a half-turn on herself and fall in the position we see her with her head and her arms, on which she has uselessly propped herself, and which have slipped on the glossy marble without supporting her torso. In the place where her head was at first there appears a red stain of fresh blood, and her hair on the side of the wound is like a skein of purple threads, soaked as they are with blood.

The saint dies without any spasms, in a last act of faith, accomplished with her fingers instead of her mouth which can no longer speak. I do not see the expression of her face because it is against the ground. But she has surely died with a smile."

~ Maria Valtorta “St. Cecilia”
www.bardstown.com/~brchrys/Cec…



The Feast of St. Cecilia is celebrated on November 22nd.

St. Cecilia is the patron saint of musicians and music, especially sacred and liturgical music.

O God,
who gladden us each year
with the feast day of your handmaiden Saint Cecilia,
grant, we pray,
that what has been devoutly handed down concerning her
may offer us examples to imitate
and proclaim the wonders worked in His servants by Christ your Son.
Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.