Saint Cecilia

Cecilia was a Roman noblewoman and was martyred, according to the Martyrology, on September 16 of a year around 230. Her memorial, though, is celebrated on November 22, which is probably the date her basilica was dedicated. The story says she was given in marriage to the nobleman Valerian, and that on her wedding day, while instruments played and people sang in the house, she “sang in her heart” to God alone. It’s from that phrase — *cantantibus organis, Caecilia Domino decantabat* — that everything comes: it was read as if she herself were singing, then as if she were playing, and that is how Cecilia became the patron saint of music. She converted her husband and her brother-in-law Tiburtius, and all three were killed. First they tried to suffocate her in the bath of her house, then came the sword: three blows, which according to the story weren’t enough, and she lived three more days. Apart from the Madonna, she is one of only seven women saints named in the Canon of the Roman Mass. The basilica of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere stands on what is believed to have been her house. In 1599 her tomb was opened and her body found intact; the sculptor Stefano Maderno, who saw it, portrayed it just as it was, and that statue is still there beneath the altar. If your name is Cecilia, today is your name day.