Saint Cecilia

Saint Cecilia
Saint Cecilia by Antonio Franchi, circa 1650
Virgin and Martyr
Born 2nd century AD
Rome
Died 176–180 or 222–235 AD[1]
Sicily
Major shrine Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, Rome
Feast November 22
Attributes Flute, organ, roses, violin, harp, harpsichord, singing
Patronage Hymns, great musicians, poets; Albi, France; Archdiocese of Omaha; Mar del Plata, Argentina

Saint Cecilia (Latin: Sancta Caecilia) is the patroness of musicians. It is written that as the musicians played at her wedding she "sang in her heart to the Lord".[2][3] Her feast day is celebrated in the Latin Catholic, Eastern Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches and in the Anglican Communion on November 22.[4] She is one of seven women, excluding the Blessed Virgin, commemorated by name in the Canon of the Mass.

While the details of her story appear to be fictional[5], her existence and martyrdom are considered a historical fact. She is said to have been beheaded with a sword. An early Roman Christian church, Santa Cecilia, was founded in the fourth century in the Trastevere section of Rome, reputedly on the site of the house in which she lived. A number of musical compositions are dedicated to her, and her feast day has become the occasion for concerts and musical festivals.

Life

St. Cecilia is one of the most famous of the Roman martyrs, although some elements of the stories recounted about her do not seem to be founded on historical fact.[5] According to Johann Peter Kirsch, while some details bear the mark of a pious romance, like so many other similar accounts compiled in the fifth and sixth century, the existence of the martyr, however, is a historical fact. The relation between St. 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.[6]

Saints Cecilia, Valerian, and Tiburtius by Botticini

It was long supposed that she was a noble lady of Rome[3] who, with her husband Valerian, his brother Tiburtius, and a Roman soldier named Maximus, suffered martyrdom in about 230, under the Emperor Alexander Severus.[7] The research of Giovanni Battista de Rossi[8] agrees with the statement of Venantius Fortunatus, Bishop of Poitiers (d. 600), that she perished in Sicily under Emperor Marcus Aurelius between 176 and 180.

According to the story, despite her vow of virginity, she was forced by her parents 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.[3] 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 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.[3]

The Ecstasy of St. Cecilia by Raphael

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.[5]

Cecilia was buried in the Catacomb of Callixtus, and later transferred to the Church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere. In 1599, her body was found still incorrupt, seeming to be asleep.[3]

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.[10]

Santa Cecilia in Trastevere

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 which 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.[11]

Meaning of the name 'Cecilia'

The name "Cecilia" was shared by all women of the Roman people known as the Caecilian, whose name may be related to the root of caecus (blind). 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.[12]

Patroness of musicians

Saint Cecilia with an Angel, by Orazio Gentileschi

The first record of a music festival in her honor was held at Évreux in Normandy in 1570.[13]

The Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Italy is one of the oldest musical institutions in the world. It was 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, after whom Gregorian chant is named, and Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of music.

Her feast day became an occasion for musical concerts and festivals that occasioned well-known poems by John Dryden and Alexander Pope[14] and music by Henry Purcell (Ode to St. Cecilia); several oratorios by Marc-Antoine Charpentier (In honorem Caeciliae, Valeriani et Tiburtij canticum; and several versions of Caecilia virgo et martyr to libretti probably written by Philippe Goibaut); George Frideric Handel (Ode for St. Cecilia's Day; Alexander's Feast); Charles Gounod (St. Cecilia Mass); as well as Benjamin Britten, who was born on her feast day (Hymn to St Cecilia, based on a poem by W. H. Auden). Herbert Howells' A Hymn to Saint Cecilia has words by Ursula Vaughan Williams; Gerald Finzi's "For Saint Cecilia", Op. 30, was set to verses written by Edmund Blunden; Michael Hurd's 1966 composition "A Hymn to Saint Cecilia"[15] sets John Dryden's poem; and Frederik Magle's Cantata to Saint Cecilia is based on the history of Cecilia.[16] The Heavenly Life, a poem from Des Knaben Wunderhorn (which Gustav Mahler used in his Symphony No. 4) mentions that "Cecilia and all her relations make excellent court musicians."

From the name of St. Cecilia comes Cecyliada, the name of festival of sacred, choral and contemporary music, held from 1994 in Police, Poland.

Legacy

The Martyrdom of St Cecilia by Carlo Saraceni

Cecilia symbolizes the central role of music in the liturgy.[5]

The Sisters of Saint Cecilia, religious sisters, shear the lambs' wool used to make the palliums of new metropolitan archbishops. The lambs are raised by the Cistercian Trappist Fathers of the Tre Fontane (Three Fountains) Abbey in Rome. The lambs are blessed by the Pope every January 21, the Feast of the martyr Saint Agnes. The pallia are given by the Pope to the new metropolitan archbishops on the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, June 29.

Located on the Isle of Wight, St. Cecilia's Abbey, Ryde was founded in 1882. The nuns live a traditional monastic life of prayer and work, and study in accordance with the ancient Rule of St. Benedict.[17]

The famous luthier Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume produce a line of violin and viola under the name St. Cécile with a decal stamped on the upper back.[18]

Iconography

Cecilia is frequently depicted playing a viola, a small organ, or other musical instrument,[5] 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, though the organ may be attributed to her erroneously,[6] as the result of a mistranslation.[19]

A miniature Saint Cecilia beneath Worcester Cathedral was featured on the reverse side of the Sir Edward Elgar £20 banknote, which was withdrawn by the Bank of England in 2010.

In contemporary music

Composer Judith Shatin wrote The Passion of Saint Cecilia for piano and orchestra[20] and Fantasy on Saint Cecilia[21] for solo piano.[22]

Composer Fred Momotenko has written "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, 22 November 2014.[23]

Conmposer Benjamin Britten wrote a Hymn to St Cecilia, a setting for the poem by W. H. Auden.

Composer Arvo Part has written "Cecilia, vergina romana" for Chorus (SATB) and orchestra in 2000, rev. 2002 The composition is dedicated to conductor Myung-Whun Chung. Duration 17–19 minutes.

Composer Gerald Finzi has written "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 November 22, 2015, subsequently on the Feast of Saint Cecilia, Foo Fighters released their EP "Saint Cecilia" for free download via their website. The 5 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.[24]

Sometime 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.

In literature

The poem "Moschus Moschiferus", by Australian poet A. D. Hope (1907–2000), is sub-titled "A Song for St Cecilia's Day". The poem is of 12 stanzas and was written in the 1960s.

St. Cecilia is also the subject of Alexander Pope's poem "Ode on St. Cecilia's Day."

Geoffrey Chaucer retells the story of St. Cecilia and Valerian and his brother in "The Second Nun's Tale" in The Canterbury Tales.

St. Cecilia is a symbol for the divine power of music in Heinrich von Kleist's extended anecdote, "St. Cecilia, or the Power of Music".

Domenichino's Fresco Cycle in San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome (1614)

The apse mosaic in the Church of St. Cecilia in Trastevere

See also

References

  1. ↑ "The Saint Andrew Missal, with Vespers for Sundays and Feasts," by Dom Gaspar LeFebvre, O.S.B., Saint Paul, MN: E. M. Lohmann Co., 1952, p. 1685
  2. ↑ Lovewell, Bertha Ellen. The Life of St. Cecilia, Yale Studies in English, Lamson, Wolffe, and Company, Boston, 1898
  3. 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. ISBN 971-91595-4-5.
  4. ↑ Wikisource Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Cecilia, Saint". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Foley O.F.M., Leonard. Saint of the Day, (revised by Pat McCloskey O.F.M.), Franciscan Media ISBN 978-0-86716-887-7
  6. 1 2 Kirsch, Johann Peter. "St. Cecilia", The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 3. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 24 April 2013.
  7. ↑ Fuller, Osgood Eaton: Brave Men and Women. BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2008, page 272. ISBN 0-554-34122-0
  8. ↑ Rom. sott. ii. 147.
  9. ↑ The Life of Saint Cecilia Archived 2007-10-11 at the Wayback Machine. – Golden Legend article
  10. ↑ "Feast: November 22".
  11. ↑ Goodson, Caroline J. (February 2007). "Material memory: rebuilding the basilica of S. Cecilia in Trastevere". Early Medieval Europe. 15: 2–34. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0254.2007.00197.x. Retrieved 2015-05-11.
  12. ↑ Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, The Second Nun's Tale, prologue, 85–119. As the rubric to these lines declare, the nun draws her etymologies from the Legenda Aurea of Jacobus de Voragine (Jacobus Januensis - James of Genoa - in the rubric).
  13. ↑ "Academyofsaintcecilia.com".
  14. ↑ Ode on St. Cecilia's Day (composed 1711) at, for example, www.PoemHunter.com
  15. ↑ Published by Novello & Co., HL.14013968
  16. ↑ "En bemærkelsesværdig cd" (in Danish). Udfordringen. 29 January 2004. Retrieved 17 May 2012.
  17. ↑ "St. Cecilia's Abbey".
  18. ↑ "J.B. Vuillaume: soloist violin St. Cecile des Thernes".
  19. ↑ 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.
  20. ↑ "Judith Shatin - The Passion of St. Cecilia".
  21. ↑ noochinator (17 April 2015). "Judith Shatin: Fantasy on Saint Cecilia (1st mvt.) (Gayle Martin, piano)" – via YouTube.
  22. ↑ "Judith Shatin - Fantasy on St. Cecilia".
  23. ↑ "Alfred Momotenko - Cecilia".
  24. ↑ "Foo Fighters release surprise new EP, Saint Cecilia, for free download". 23 November 2015.
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