ST. CECILIA :: Catholic News Agency (CNA

St. Cecilia's family was one of the principle families of Rome. According to the cultural custom of the time, Cecilia's family betrothed her to a young man named Valerius. On their wedding night, Cecilia told Valerius that he had sworn to remain a virgin before God and that an angel guarded her body, protecting her virginity from violation. She told Valerius that he would be able to see this angel if he went to a certain milestone along the road. Valerius went, and there encountered Pope Urbanus, who instructed the young man and baptized him.

During that era, it was forbidden to bury the bodies of the Christians. Valerius and his brother dedicated themselves to burying the bodies of all the Christians they found. For this, they were arrested and brought before a judge who ordered them to worship the Roman god Jupiter. They refused and were martyred.

The police then came for Cecilia and advised her to renounce her faith. She told them that she would prefer to die than to denounce the true faith. They brought her to a hot oven with the intention of suffocating her with the hot and toxic gasses it emitted. Instead of choking, Cecilia began to sing, which is perhaps why she is considered the patron of musicians. Infuriated, her persecutors attempted to behead her, but after three strokes of the sword, Cecilia was still alive and her head was not severed. . The soldiers left her covered in blood in her own home, where she remained for three days before she died.

via catholicnewsagency.com

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