Saint Cecilia

Roman Catholic saint, martyr and patron saint of music

b. c. 200 · d. c. 22 Nov 230

Cecilia of Rome was a Christian virgin martyr, who is venerated in Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and some Lutheran churches, such as the Church of Sweden. She became the patron saint of music and musicians, it being written that, as the musicians played at her wedding, Cecilia "sang in her heart to the Lord." Musical compositions are dedicated to her, and her feast, on 22 November, is the occasion of concerts and musical festivals.

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How we know

Carried by the tradition of the church. Louis Duchesne, Le Liber pontificalis: texte, introduction et commentaire — t. I, Introduction, p. xciii, para. 26 — the notice of Urban I is borrowed from the Passio s. Caeciliae, 'un document qui parait etre du cinquieme siecle'

  • Roman Martyrology 1 claim — The martyrdom of Cecilia

Written about

Glosses

  • How a passion gets written A martyr’s story is rarely a report and usually a composition, and Delehaye — a Bollandist, writing about the corpus his own order had spent three centuries editing — set out how the composing works. The first move is…

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