MEMORIAL OF SAINT CECILIA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR – FEAST DAY ~ NOVEMBER 22ND: Today, we celebrate the Memorial of Saint Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and all the Saints on this feast day, we humbly pray for God’s deliverance from impossible causes or situations. We pray for all musicians, poets and authors. We pray for the sick and dying, especially those who are mentally and physically ill, strokes, heart diseases, and those suffering from cancers and other terminal diseases. We pray for the souls in Purgatory and the repose of the souls of the faithful departed and we pray for all widows and widowers. We pray for torture victims, the poor, the needy and the most vulnerable in our communities and around the world. We pray for all parents and children, for peace, love, justice and unity in our marriages, our families and our world. And we continue to pray for our Holy Father, the Bishops, the Clergy, for vocations to the priesthood and religious life, for the Church, for persecuted christians, for the conversion of sinners, and Christians all over the world… Amen🙏
SAINT CECILIA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR: St. Cecilia is one of the most famous and most venerated of Roman martyrs. St. Cecilia was so highly venerated by the ancient Roman Church that her name was placed in the Canon of the Mass (First Eucharistic Prayer). She is honored as the Patroness of ecclesiastical music. In the city of Rome there was a virgin named Cecilia, who came from an extremely rich family. She wore sackcloth next to her skin, fasted, and invoked the saints, angels, and virgins, beseeching them to guard her virginity. St. Cecilia led a life of prayer and meditation and had vowed lifelong virginity, but was given in marriage to a pagan youth named Valerian by her parents. When the wedding night arrived, she confided to Valerian, “There is a secret, Valerian, I wish to tell you. I have as a lover an angel of God who jealously guards my body.” Valerian promised to believe in Christ if he would be enabled to see that angel. St. Cecilia explained how such was impossible without baptism, he could see the angel if he would go to the third milestone on the Via Appia and be baptized by Pope Urban I and Valerian consented to be baptized. After he was baptized by Pope Urban and had returned “He found Cecilia in her little room lost in prayer, and next to her the angel of the Lord was standing. When Valerian saw the angel, he was seized with great terror.” The angel handed to them a bouquet of fiery red roses and snow-white lilies as a reward for St. Cecilia’s love of chastity, a bouquet that would not wither, yet would be visible only to those who love chastity. As a further favor Valerian besought the conversion of his brother Tiburtius. Upon arriving to congratulate the newlyweds, Tiburtius was astounded by the unspeakably beautiful roses and lilies. As soon as he was informed regarding their origin, he too asked for the waters of baptism. “St. Cecilia said to Tiburtius: Today I acknowledge you as a brother-in-law, because the love of God has made you despise the idols. Just as the love of God gave me your brother as a spouse, so it has given you to me as a brother-in-law.”
During that era, it was forbidden for anyone to bury the bodies of Christians, so together the newly baptized brothers, Valerian and Tiburtius dedicated their lives to burying the saints (Christians) who were murdered each day by the prefect of the city, Turcius Almachius. Both brothers were eventually arrested and brought before the prefect where they were executed after they refused to offer a sacrifice to the Roman god Jupiter. They were martyred because they refused to deny their Christian faith. Their death occurred probably in the reign of Marcus Aurelius or of Commodus, between the years 161 and 192. Maximus was the officer ordered by Almachius to arrest and imprison them. Maximus and his family were baptized during the night preceding execution. As her husband and brother-in-law buried the dead, St. Cecilia spent her time preaching and in her lifetime was able to convert over four hundred people, most of whom were baptized by Pope Urban. St. Cecilia was later arrested and advised to renounce her faith. In reply, she told them that she would prefer to die than to denounce the true faith. She was condemned to be suffocated in the baths. She was shut in for one night and one day, as fires were heaped up and stoked to a terrifying heat – but St. Cecilia did not even sweat. She remained unharmed and prayed, “I thank You, Father of my Lord Jesus Christ, that through Your Son the fire was extinguished at my side.” When Almachius heard this, he sent an executioner to cut off her head in the baths. The executioner struck her three times (the law prohibited more) but was unable to decapitate her so he left her bleeding and she lived for three days. Crowds came to her and collected her blood while she preached to them or prayed. On the third day she died and was buried by Pope Urban and his deacons.
Officials exhumed her body in 1599 and found her to be incorrupt, the first of all incurrupt saints. She was draped in a silk veil and wore a gold embroidered dress. Officials only looked through the veil in an act of holy reverence and made no further examinations. They also reported a “mysterious and delightful flower-like odor which proceeded from the coffin.” St. Cecilia’s remains were transferred to Cecilia’s titular church in Trastevere and placed under the high altar. In 1599 Cardinal Paolo Emilio Sfondrati, nephew of Pope Gregory XIV, rebuilt the church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere on the site of the house where she lived. St. Cecelia is known for “singing in her heart to the Lord” upon her wedding day, despite her consecration to God. St. Cecilia is regarded as the patroness of music, because she heard heavenly music in her heart when she was married, and is represented in art with an organ or organ-pipes in her hand. She is the patron Saint of musicians and poets because of this sentiment and her alleged singing within the oven during her martyrdom. Her fortitude may inspire the modern Catholic in the trials of life and inspire one to find God within music. St. Cecilia is the Patron Saint of martyrs; musicians; music; poets; singers; composers; authors; musical instrument makers; Albi, France; archdiocese of Omaha, Nebraska. St. Cecilia’s Feast day is November 22nd.
PRAYER TO SAINT CECILIA: O glorious St. Cecilia, virgin and martyr, you won the martyr’s crown without renouncing your love for Jesus, the delight of your soul. We ask that you help us to be faithful in our love for Jesus, that, in the communion of the saints, we may praise Him twice in our song of rejoicing for the Blood that He shed which gave us the grace to accomplish His will on earth… Amen🙏
PRAYER: O God, who gladden us each year with the feast day of your handmaid Saint Cecilia, grant, we pray, that what has been devoutly handed down concerning her may offer us examples to imitate and proclaim the wonders worked in his servants by Christ your Son. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever… Amen 🙏