Saint Cecilia:

Feast day : 22 November

Today the Church celebrates the feast of Saint Cecilia who lived during the 2nd century AD. She is believed to have died around 177 AD. She was martyred for her faith when she chose to die rather than worship pagan gods. Though her executioner tried to behead her, he could not severe her head after three blows to her neck, as per the law. She died after suffering for three days and nights with her half severed head. Remarkably after more than 1400 years, her body was found to be incorrupt in the year 1599, probably the first among saints with this phenomenon!! She is the patron saint of musicians and her feast day is celebrated on November 22.

Early life and martyrdom:

Legend has it that Saint Cecilia belonged to a rich and distinguished family in Rome who gave her in marriage to a pagan noble man named Valerian despite her attempts to remain a virgin. During their wedding, as the music played, Cecilia sat apart singing to God in her heart. On their wedding night, Cecilia successfully persuaded her husband to respect her vow of virginity. She told him that she was watched over by an angel of the Lord who would punish him if he violated her vow. When Valerian asked to see the angel, she said he would see the angel if he would go to the third milestone on the Via Appia and be baptised by Pope Urban I. After following her advice, Valerian saw the angel standing next to Cecilia, crowning her with a chaplet of roses and lilies. Later his brother Tiburtius too converted to Christianity. But when they were asked by the Christian persecutors to renounce their faith, both of them heroically refused and were beheaded. Cecilia was arrested too and was given a choice of sacrificing to the heathen gods or being put to death. She steadfastly affirmed her faith and chose to die rather than renounce it.

Because of her nobility and youth, her captors decided to execute her in secrecy and she was ordered to be confined to the vapour bath of her home and to die of suffocation there. She remained a whole day and night in the vapour bath but survived. Later an executioner was sent to behead her but inspite of three heavy blows to her neck, he failed to severe her head. She was left on the pavement of her bath, alive and fully conscious with her head half severed. She was lying on her right side, her hands crossed in prayer before her. She turned her face to the floor and remained praying in that position for three days and nights. The position of her fingers, three extended on her right hand and one on the left were her final silent profession of her faith in the Holy Trinity.

The Christians, on discovering her body, clothed it in rich robes of silk and gold and placed it in a cypress coffin in the same position in which she was found dead. At her feet were placed the linen cloths and veils that were used to collect her blood. She was laid to rest in the Catacomb of St. Callistus by Pope Urban I who had baptised her husband and his brother.

Incorrupt body:

In the year 822, during the time of the restoration of the Church dedicated to her memory, Pope Paschal I wished to transfer the remains of the Saint to a place of honor in her Cathedral but could not locate her grave. Saint Cecilia appeared to him in a remarkable vision while he was at prayer and showed him the location where her body was laid. The Pope then had her coffin casket alongwith that of her husband, his brother and the martyr Maximum placed below the altar of the Church.

Again in 1599, nearly 777 years later, one of the most documented exhumations of any saint’s body occurred. Cardinal Sfondrato ordered the restoration of the some parts of the Basilica. On October 20, 1599 during the course of work being done under the altar, two white marble sarcophagi were discovered which corresponded with the description left by Pope Paschal I of the caskets containing the relics of the holy martyrs. The Cardinal had the sarcophagi opened in the presence of witnesses. When the cypress casket which was in a good state of preservation was opened, the body of Saint Cecilia was found completely incorrupt, laid to rest in the position that she was found dead almost 1400 years before!! Through the silk veil that modestly covered the body could be seen the gold embroidered dress of the Saint, the mortal wound in the neck and the blood stained clothes.

The casket of the Saint was later placed in a hall located at the upper extremity of a nave of the Basilica where it could be seen through a grated window. The platform and the casket were covered with gold embroidered silk drapery and the room was magnificently decorated with candelabras, handsome lamps and flowers of silver and gold. On the orders of Pope Clement VIII, the relic was left exposed till her feast on November 22 that year and there was a huge outpouring of faithful to view the body. At the end of the one month period of exposition, the relic still reposing in the ancient cypress casket was placed in a silver coffin that had been commissioned by the Pope himself as a symbol of veneration for the holy martyr. In the presence of 42 cardinals and diplomatic representatives from several countries, the Pope celebrated the Solemn High Mass during which the body of the Saint was again laid to rest beneath the main altar.

A sculptor of great talent, Stefano Maderno made a statue of the Saint depicting the posture in which her incorrupt body lay with the mark of the fatal blow to her neck. This statue is today found in front of the high altar where her body was laid. The Basilica of St. Cecilia is believed to have been built on the site of St. Cecilia’s family mansion. The second chapel, on the right aisle, is called the Caldarium and is the room where St. Cecilia was condemned to death. She is regarded as the patron saint of musicians and her feast day is celebrated on November 22.