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The One True Church

St. Cecilia

Feast 22 November

Virgin martyr. Patroness of music. Named in the Canon.

St. Cecilia

Sacred art

Statues and images

The portrait kept with St. Cecilia is the image this library has of Cecilia. The honour goes to the person, and through the person to God. It is not a machine, and it is not a substitute for the life written below.

The whole treasury

Roman, early. The church in Trastevere. Maderno’s marble of 1600 is how the West still sees her: the cut in the neck, the face turned to the earth.

Signs that name Cecilia

If it belongs to Cecilia, it is here, with a door back into the story.

The Body of St. Cecilia — Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, Rome
RelicLong veneration

The Body of St. Cecilia

Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, RomeMartyr c. 230; tomb opened 1599

The patroness of music, found in her tomb in 1599 lying as if asleep. Stefano Maderno carved the marble you still see — the cut in the neck, the turned face — swearing it was how the body lay.