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.
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. ecclés.,
III, 259 sqq.; De Rossi, Roma Sotterranea, II, xxxii sq.; GUERANGER,
Histoire de Ste Cecile (Paris 1849; 2nd ed., 1852); IDEM, Ste Cecile et
la societe 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 persecutions, 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 (Tubingen, 1902), 237 sqq.; (1903), 321
sqq.; (1905), 258 sqq.; DUFOURCQ, Les Gesta martyrum romains (Paris,
1900), 116 sqq., 293 sqq.; MARUCCHI, Basiliques et eglises 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.
J.P. KIRSCH (Catholic Encyclopedia)
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