Today, November 22, the Church celebrates the feast of St. Cecilia. She is one of the few saints mentioned in the traditional Roman Canon of the Mass. After the Blessed Virgin Mary you’d be hard pressed to find another saint who has inspired so many poems, songs, and works of art. While all the saints are, in their holiness and goodness, an appeal to the beauty of God’s work in the human soul, the enduring devotion to St. Cecilia and her legacy are a unique appeal to beauty. Faithful throughout the centuries have been moved by her story and have looked to her for inspiration and wonder. The body of work inspired by her story is a testament to the human soul’s desire for beauty and the poignant reflections that can be drawn out from meditation on the beauty of one life, especially one life that was given wholly to God. 

The story of St. Cecilia, passed down through the Acts of St. Cecilia, goes that Cecilia was a beautiful young woman of a senatorial Roman family. She was betrothed to a pagan named Valerian but had already dedicated herself privately to God. On her wedding night, she told Valerian that the marriage could not be consummated and that she was protected by her guardian angel. He asked to see the angel and, seeing it, was converted to Christianity. His brother, Tiburtius, also converted. Valerian and Tiburtius were arrested and martyred together for the crime of burying the Christians who had been martyred. Cecilia was then arrested for burying her husband and brother-in-law. The first attempt to put her to death in the baths at her own home was unsuccessful. Attempts were made to cut off her head but the executioner was unable to fully sever her head. She died three days later, spending the remaining hours of her life preaching the good news of Jesus Christ. 

She is the patron saint of music because, according to the martyrologies, she “sang in her heart to the Lord” - “While the musical instruments were playing, Cecilia sang unto the Lord saying: Let my heart be undefiled that I be not ashamed” (from the Divine Office for St. Cecilia’s feast day). Her heart belonged to the Lord, although this did not prevent her from that true charity which desires all others to know, love, and serve Him. She brought as many people with her to the love of Christ as she possibly could. In this, her evangelical heart, she is to be most admired and emulated. Are we inspired by her great charity? Are we inspired by her complete devotion to God? An antiphon from the Divine Office for her feast proclaims, “as dawn was breaking into day, Cecilia cried out saying: Courage, soldiers of Christ, cast away the deeds of darkness and put ye on the armor of light.” Let us ask for courage like Cecilia. Let us turn to Cecilia to lead us to the beauty of the soul, which is love, as St. Augustine says.

We have a opportunity today to reflect on the beauty of the soul of Cecilia by musing on the works of art inspired by her life. One of the most famous statues of a saint (the cover picture for this blog post) is a haunting depiction of how the young woman’s body was found incorrupt in the year 1599. The sculptor Stefano Moderno made the sculpture in1600 in her honor based on the description of those present when her body was discovered. There is a line that marks the spot the executioner attempted to sever her head from her body. Her body, even in death, exudes a kind of gracefulness. We can also turn to several poems written in her honor - Alexander Pope’s “Ode for Music on St. Cecilia’s Day,” John Dryden’s “A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day,” and W.H. Auden’s “Anthem for St. Cecilia’s Day.” Of course, there is much music to listen to and enjoy on this beautiful feast day. Benjamin Britten set music to the words of Auden’s poem. Henry Purcell’s “Hail Bright Cecilia” is his composition to the poem written by Nicholas Brady. Handel composed a magnificent song to the words of Dryden’s poem. Finally, Charles Gonoud composed an entire Mass in honor of St. Cecilia. 

I hope you take the opportunity to today relish the beauty of St. Cecilia and the beauty her life has inspired throughout the centuries.