Saint Cecilia (Latin: Sancta Caecilia), also spelled Cecelia, was a Roman Christian virgin martyr, who is venerated in Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, and some Lutheran churches, such as the Church of Sweden.[2] She became the patroness of music and musicians, it being written that, as the musicians played at her wedding, Cecilia "sang in her heart to the Lord".[3][4] Musical compositions are dedicated to her, and her feast, on 22 November,[5] is the occasion of concerts and musical festivals. She is also known as Cecilia of Rome.
Saint Cecilia is one of several virgin martyrs commemorated by name in the Canon of the Mass in the Latin Church. The church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, founded in the 3rd century by Pope Urban I, is believed to be on the site of the house where she lived and died.
Life
Saints Cecilia, Valerian, and Tiburtius by Botticini
According to the story, despite her vow of virginity, her parents forced her to marry a pagan nobleman named Valerian. During the wedding, Cecilia sat apart singing to God in her heart, and for that, she was later declared the saint of musicians.[4] When the time came for her marriage to be consummated, Cecilia told Valerian that watching over her was an angel of the Lord, who would punish him if he sexually violated her but would love him if he respected her virginity. When Valerian asked to see the angel, Cecilia replied that he could see the angel if he would go to the third milestone on the Via Appia and be baptized by Pope Urban I. After following Cecilia's advice, he saw the angel standing beside her, crowning her with a chaplet of roses and lilies.[4]
The martyrdom of Cecilia is said to have followed that of her husband Valerian and his brother at the hands of the prefect Turcius Almachius.[9] The legend about Cecilia's death says that after being struck three times on the neck with a sword, she lived for three days, and asked the pope to convert her home into a church.[10]
Cecilia is one of the most famous Roman martyrs, although some elements of the stories recounted about her do not appear in the source material.[10] According to Johann Peter Kirsch, the existence of the martyr is a historical fact. At the same time, some details bear the mark of a pious romance, like many other similar accounts compiled in the fifth and sixth centuries. The relation between Cecilia and Valerian, Tiburtius, and Maximus, mentioned in the Acts of the Martyrs, has some historical foundation. Her feast day has been celebrated since about the fourth century.[11] There is no mention of Cecilia in the Depositio Martyrum, but there is a record of an early Roman church founded by a lady of this name, Santa Cecilia in Trastevere.[12]
The church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere is reputedly built on the site of the house in which she lived. The original church was constructed in the fourth century; during the ninth century, Pope Paschal I had remains that were supposedly hers buried there. In 1599, while leading a renovation of the church, Cardinal Paolo Emilio Sfondrati had the remains, which he reported to be incorrupt, excavated and reburied.[13]
Name
The name "Cecilia" applied generally to Roman women who belonged to the plebeianclan of the Caecilii. Legends and hagiographies, mistaking it for a personal name, suggest fanciful etymologies. Among those cited by Chaucer in "The Second Nun's Tale" are: lily of heaven, the way for the blind, contemplation of heaven and the active life, as if lacking in blindness, and a heaven for people to gaze upon.[14]
Cecilia symbolizes the central role of music in the liturgy.[10]
The Cistercian nuns of the convent nearby Santa Cecilia in Trastevere shear lambs' wool to be woven in the palliums of new metropolitan archbishops. The lambs are raised by the Trappists of the Abbey Tre Fontane in Rome. The Pope blesses the lambs every 21 January, the Feast of Saint Agnes. The pallia are given by the Pope to the new metropolitan archbishops on the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, 29 June.
Cecilia is frequently depicted playing the viola, a portative organ, or other musical instruments,[10] evidently to express what was often attributed to her, namely that while the musicians played at her nuptials, she sang in her heart to God. The organ, however, may be misattributed to her[11] as the result of a mistranslation[24], though this is denied by the Italian musicologist and organist Domenico Morgante.[25]
Alessandro ScarlattiIl martirio di santa Cecilia, oratorio donné pour la première fois le 1er mars 1708; Messa di Santa Cecilia(1720).
Georg Friedrich Händel composed two works for Saint Cecilia with John Dryden: The Oratorio Alexander's Feast or The Power of Music (1736) and Ode for St. Cecilia's Day (1739).
Joseph Haydn, Missa Sanctae Caeciliae ou Missa Cellensis in honorem Beatissimae Virginis Mariae (1766–67).
Judith Shatin wrote The Passion of Saint Cecilia for piano and orchestra[30] and Fantasy on Saint Cecilia[31] for solo piano.[32]
Fred Momotenko composed "Cecilia", a composition for full mixed choir, "a hymn to the past as well as to the future of the monastic tradition". The world premiere was at Koningshoeven Abbey on Saint Cecilia's feast day, 2014.[33]
Stalk-Forrest Group (later name changed to Blue Öyster Cult), recorded a song "St. Cecilia.". The EP was later released under the SFG name as the St. Cecilia Sessions.
Gerald Finzi composed "For St. Cecilia" for solo tenor, chorus (SATB), and orchestra. Setting of a work by English poet and author Edmund Blunden. Duration ca 18 minutes.
On the 2015 Feast of Saint Cecilia, Foo Fighters released their EP "Saint Cecilia" for free download via their website. The five-song EP features a track named after the EP "Saint Cecilia". The EP was recorded during an impromptu studio session at Hotel Saint Cecilia located in Austin, Texas.[37]
Informator Choristarum (organist and master of the choristers) at Magdalen College, Oxford (1957–1981), Bernard Rose's unaccompanied anthem for SATB choir (with divisions) Feast Song For St. Cecilia (1974) is a setting a poem of the same name by his son, musician Gregory Rose.[citation needed]
E. Florence Whitlock composed Ode to St. Cecilia, Opus 5, based on text by John Dryden, in 1958.[38]
Singer/Songwriter/Guitarist, Rik Emmett, composed the song "Calling St. Cecilia" on his 1992 LP Ipso Facto.[citation needed]
Blue Öyster Cult released a song, “The Return of St. Cecilia”, on their 2020 album “The Symbol Remains”
The Chicago band Turnt (now known as Everybody All The Time) released a song called Girls which refers to St Cecilia in the lyrics. The song was first performed at Northwestern University's Mayfest Battle of the Bands on Friday 24 May 2013 at 27 Live in downtown Evanston.[39]
The poem "Moschus Moschiferus", by Australian poet A. D. Hope (1907–2000), is subtitled "A Song for St Cecilia's Day". The poem is of 12 stanzas and was written in the 1960s.
Cecilia is also the subject of Alexander Pope's poem "Ode on St. Cecilia's Day".
Agnes of Rome is a virgin martyr, venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church, Oriental Orthodox Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, as well as the Anglican Communion and Lutheran Churches. She is one of several virgin martyrs commemorated by name in the Canon of the Mass, and one of many Christians martyred during the reign of the Roman emperor Diocletian.
Pope Paschal I was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 25 January 817 to his death in 824.
Pope Lucius I was the bishop of Rome from 25 June 253 to his death on 5 March 254. He was banished soon after his consecration, but gained permission to return. He was mistakenly classified as a martyr in the persecution by Emperor Valerian, which did not begin until after Lucius' death.
An oratorio is a musical composition with dramatic or narrative text for choir, soloists and orchestra or other ensemble.
The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context does not mean "a large meal, typically a celebratory one", but instead "an annual religious celebration, a day dedicated to a particular saint".
Saint Lawrence or Laurence was one of the seven deacons of the city of Rome under Pope Sixtus II who were martyred in the persecution of the Christians that the Roman emperor Valerian ordered in 258.
Saint Apollonia was one of a group of virgin martyrs who suffered in Alexandria during a local uprising against the Christians prior to the persecution of Decius. According to church tradition, her torture included having all of her teeth violently pulled out or shattered. For this reason, she is popularly regarded as the patroness of dentistry and those suffering from toothache or other dental problems. French court painter Jehan Fouquet painted the scene of St. Apollonia's torture in The Martyrdom of St. Apollonia.
The Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a Marian litany originally approved in 1587 by Pope Sixtus V. It is also known as the Litany of Loreto, after its first-known place of origin, the Shrine of Our Lady of Loreto (Italy), where its usage was recorded as early as 1558.
Santa Cecilia in Trastevere is a 5th-century church in Rome, Italy, in the Trastevere rione. It is dedicated to the Roman martyr Saint Cecilia and serves as the conventual church for the adjacent abbey of Benedictine nuns.
The Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia is one of the oldest musical institutions in the world, founded by the papal bull Ratione congruit, issued by Sixtus V in 1585, which invoked two saints prominent in Western musical history: Gregory the Great, for whom the Gregorian chant is named, and Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of music. Since 2005 it has been headquartered at the Renzo Piano designed Parco della Musica in Rome.
Eugenia of Rome was an early Christian Roman martyr whose feast day is celebrated on December 25 in the Roman Catholic Church, on December 24 in the Eastern Catholic Churches and Eastern Orthodox Church, and on January 23 in the Armenian Apostolic Church. She is included in the Golden Legend.
Hail! Bright Cecilia (Z.328), also known as Ode to St. Cecilia, was composed by Henry Purcell to a text by the Irishman Nicholas Brady in 1692 in honour of the feast day of Saint Cecilia, patron saint of musicians.
Saints Digna and Emerita are venerated as saints by the Catholic Church. They were Roman maidens seized and put to the torture as Christians in the persecution of Valerian at Rome.
The Palazzo San Callisto is a Baroque palace in the Trastevere neighborhood of Rome and one of the extraterritorial Properties of the Holy See. The original Palazzo is located in the Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere, the later extensions have their entrance in Piazza di San Callisto. The entire complex is one of the areas of the Holy See regulated by the 1929 Lateran Treaty signed with the Kingdom of Italy. As such it has extraterritorial status.
The Santa Cecilia Choir is a polyphonic male choir composed of seminarians of the Rachol Seminary of the Catholic Archdiocese of Goa and Daman in Goa, India.
Saints Tiburtius, Valerian, and Maximus are three Christian martyrs who were buried on 14 April of some unspecified year in the Catacombs of Praetextatus on the Via Appia near Rome.
Marco Frisina is an Italian Roman Catholic priest and composer. He is director of the Pastoral Worship Center at the Vatican.
Saint Soteris was a Roman Christian virgin martyr, who was put to death for her faith in the early 4th century. She is venerated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church and Roman Catholic church, with a feast day on 10 February and 11 February respectively.
The Messa di Santa Cecilia is a religious work by Alessandro Scarlatti, written in 1720 for five soloists (SSATB), choir and orchestra, commissioned by and dedicated to cardinal Francesco Acquaviva of Aragona.
St. Cecilia is a Baroque sculpture by Stefano Maderno and commissioned by Cardinal Paolo Emilio Sfrondrato in the church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, Rome. Stefano Maderno was a famous Italian sculptor from the early 1600s best known for his statues of saints. St. Cecilia was the Roman saint of music who was executed for baptizing her fellow Romans and as such became a martyr for Christianity. The statue was part of a renovation done to the St. Cecilia Basilica in Trastevere, Rome, which displays the saint lying on her side with her dress tucked between her knees in a Baroque art style as part of an exhibit which also displays a new tomb of St. Cecilia's actual body. The body was moved during Pope Paschal I's campaign to move Christian saints' bodies inside the walls of Rome. The sculpture exists as a Christian symbol of overcoming hatred and prosecution.
References
Citations
↑ Dom Gaspar LeFebvre, OSB (1952). The Saint Andrew Missal, with Vespers for Sundays and Feasts. Saint Paul, MN: E. M. Lohmann Co. p.1685.
1 2 3 4 5 Fr. Paolo O. Pirlo, SHMI (1997). "St. Cecilia". My First Book of Saints. Sons of Holy Mary Immaculate – Quality Catholic Publications. pp.280–282. ISBN978-971-91595-4-4.
↑ Verspaandonk, J. A. J. M. (1975). Het hemels prentenboek: Devotie- en bidprentjes vanaf de 17e eeuw tot het begin van de 20e eeuw. Hilversum: Gooi en Sticht. p.15.
↑ Domenico Morgante, «Cantantibus» o «Candentibus» organis?, in “Musica”, n.324 (marzo 2021), pp. 50-54)..
↑ The Gentleman's Journal, or Monthly Miscellany, November 1692, cited in Rimbault's edition, London: Musical Antiquarian Society Publications, 1848, p. 2.
Ælfric of Eynsham (1881). "Of Saint Cecilia". Ælfric's Lives of Saints. London, Pub. for the Early English text society, by N. Trübner & co.
Connolly, Thomas (1995). Mourning into Joy: Music, Raphael, and Saint Cecilia. Yale. ISBN9780300059014.
Hanning, Barbara Russano (2004). "From Saint to Muse: Representations of Saint Cecilia in Florence". Music in Art: International Journal for Music Iconography. 29 (1–2): 91–103. ISSN1522-7464.
Lovewell, B.E. (1898). The Life of St. Cecilia. Yale Studies in English. Boston: Lamson, Wolffe, and Company.
Kirsch, Johann Peter (1908). "St. Cecilia". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol.3. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Luckett, Richard (1972–1973). "St. Cecilia and Music". Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association. 99: 15–30. doi:10.1093/jrma/99.1.15.
Mason, Daniel Gregory (1917). F. H. Martens; M. W. Cochran; W. D. Darby) (eds.). A Dictionary-Index of Musicians. The Art of Music: A Comprehensive Library of Information for Music Lovers and Musicians. New York: National Society of Music.
Meine, Sabine (2004). "Cecilia without a Halo: The Changing Musical Virtues". Music in Art: International Journal for Music Iconography. 29 (1–2): 104–112. ISSN1522-7464.
Rice, John A. (2022). Saint Cecilia in the Renaissance: The Emergence of a Musical Icon. University of Chicago Press. ISBN9780226817101.
White, Bryan (2019). Music for St Cecilia's Day from Purcell to Handel. Boydell. ISBN9781783273478.
External links
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