Praise the Lord with the lyre, make melody to Him with the harp to ten strings! Sing to Him a new song. Rid yourself of what is old and worn out, for you know a new song. A new man, a new covenant – a new song. Let us sing a new song not with our lips but with our lives.
— from a discourse by St. Augustine

Throughout the ages people have responded with faith to the story of the patroness of music and musicians, St. Cecilia. In the song of her hidden life, we hear the melody of one who witnessed to the faithful love of Christ. This virgin and martyr of the early Church testified to the love of one wholly given over to God as a living sacrifice.

St. Cecilia was from an influential family in Rome. At a young age Cecilia had taken a vow of chastity, dedicating her life totally to Christ. Against her will her father arranged for her to be married to a young nobleman named Valerian. Cecilia entrusted this dilemma to God. “On the day of the marriage, amid the music and rejoicing of the guests, Cecilia sat apart, singing to God in her heart and praying for the Lord’s help and guidance in her predicament” (Butler’s Lives of the Saints). God faithfully answered her prayers. On the night of the wedding she spoke to Valerian about her vow of virginity, and he agreed to respect it. Cecilia told him of the angel that protected her and that he too could see the angel if he was baptized. Valerian agreed and upon returning after his baptism, he saw Cecilia in her room praying and an angel holding two crowns of roses and lilies that he placed on each of their heads. Valerian was so changed by this experience that he devoted his life to acts of charity, finally giving his life as a martyr.

Cecilia continued to witness to Christ, and through her words, four hundred people were converted to Christianity and baptized. The Roman authorities had her arrested and condemned to death. After a failed attempt to suffocate her in the baths, an executioner was sent to cut off her head. The soldier struck at her neck three times, but did not succeed in severing her head. Cecilia continued to live for three days, offering her suffering and her life, while she continued to witness to those who came to be with her in her final hours.

St. Cecilia’s body was buried in the catacombs of St. Callistus outside of Rome. When her body was exhumed in 1599, they found her lying on her right side with her hands crossed in prayer — her body incorrupt almost fourteen hundred years after her death! She is the first saint whose body experienced this miracle of incorruptibility that testifies to the purity and sanctity of this young woman.

Kathy Green
Carpe Gratiam, Vol. 2, Is. 2.