St. Cecilia - patron saint of Music. Feast day November 22nd

St. Cecilia lived during the 3rd century AD in Rome, Italy. She is one of the most famous Roman martyrs of the early church and historically most discussed.

When she was forced to marry her husband Valerian, a pagan nobleman, she sat apart singing to God - for that she was later declared the saint of musicians. She retained her virginity by telling her husband that an angel of the Lord was watching over her. The husband asked to see the angel. She told him to be baptised by Pope Urban I. After the baptism he saw an angel standing beside her.

She suffered martyrdom along with her husband and his brother Tiburtius, at the hands of prefect Turcius Almachius in the reign of emperor Marcus Aurelius between 176-180 AD. The legend about her death is that she was struck on the neck by a sword three times and lived for three days. She asked the pope to turn her home into a church. She was later beheaded.

Her body when moved in 1599 from the Catacomb of Callixtus to the church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere was found to be still incurrupt, seemingly to be a sleep.

Over the years a lot of music has been dedicated to her name by many famous composers - see list enclosed.

*A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day * by John Dryden included

My source for information was Wikipedia - a very well thought out source.
Point of information Cecilia can also be spelt Cecity