Among the Great Masters of Music

Doubtless, much fancy has been added, in all the ensuing years, to the facts of Cecilia’s life and death. Let us, however, take the legend as it stands. It says that St. Cecilia was a noble Roman lady who lived under the reign of Emperor Alexander Severus. Her parents, who secretly professed Christianity, brought her up in their faith. From her earliest childhood, she was remarkable for her enthusiastic piety: she carried night and day a copy of the Gospel concealed within the folds of her robe, and she made a secret but solemn vow to preserve her chastity, devoting herself to heavenly things, and shunning the pleasures and vanities of the world.

As she excelled in music, she turned her excellent gift to the glory of God and composed hymns, which she sang with such ravishing sweetness that even the angels descended from heaven to listen to her or to join their voices with hers. She played on all instruments, but none sufficed to breathe forth that flood of harmony with which her whole soul was filled; therefore, she invented the organ, consecrating it to the service of God. When she was about sixteen, her parents married her to Valerian, a young Roman, virtuous, wealthy, and of noble birth. He was, however, still in the darkness of the old religion.

Cecilia obeyed her parents and accepted the husband they had ordained for her. Still, beneath her bridal robes, she put on a coarse garment of penance and renewed her vow of chastity as she walked to the temple, praying to God that she might have strength to keep it. And it so fell out, for, by her earnest eloquence, she not only persuaded her husband, Valerian, to respect her vow but converted him to the true faith. She told him that she had a guardian angel who watched over her night and day and would suffer no earthly lover to approach her. And when Valerian desired to see this angel, she sent him to seek the aged St. Urban, who, being persecuted by the heathen, had sought refuge in catacombs.