O God, who gladden us each year with the feast day of your handmaid Saint Cecilia, grant we pray, that what has been devoutly handed concerning her may offer us examples to imitate and proclaim the wonders worked in his servants by Christ your Son.The feast of Saint Cecilia is most known for being the patroness of church musicians. But what ought to bring us closer to reality is that her fame and veneration across the world is because of her joy in facing death because of her intense love for her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
The dates of her existence are difficult to pinpoint but history tells us that her body was discovered in AD 822. Liturgical legend places her death along that with her husband Saint Valerian and her brother-in-law Saint Tiburtius during the reign of Pope Urban I (r. 222-230). Therefore, Emperor Alexander Severus would responsible for her death.
Cecilia, though married, remained a virgin, that is, singularly focussed on Christ's love as opposed to human love. At the time of her marriage her husband was not a Christian, but due to an act of the Spirit, Valerian accepted Christ in baptism.
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