Saint Cecilia
Part II: Acts of the Martyrdom of St. Cecilia
About the middle of the fifth century originated Acts of the martyrdom of St. Cecilia which have been transmitted in numerous manuscripts; these acts were also translated into Greek.
They were utilized in the prefaces of the above-mentioned masses of the Sacramentarium Leonianum.
They inform us that Cecilia, a virgin of a senatorial family and a Christian from her infancy, was given in marriage by her parents to a noble pagan youth Valerianus.
When, after the celebration of the marriage, the couple had retired to the wedding-chamber, Cecilia told Valerianus that she was betrothed to an angel who jealously guarded her body;
therefore Valerianus must take care not to violate her virginity.
Valerianus wished to see the angel, whereupon Cecilia sent him to the third milestone on the Via Appia where he should meet Bishop (Pope) Urbanus.
Valerianus obeyed, was baptized by the pope, and returned a Christian to Cecilia.
An angel then appeared to the two and crowned them with roses and lilies.
When Tiburtius, the brother of Valerianus, came to them, he too was won over to Christianity.
As zealous children of the Faith both brothers distributed rich alms and buried the bodies of the confessors who had died for Christ.
The prefect, Turcius Almachius, condemned them to death; an officer of the prefect, Maximus, appointed to execute this sentence, was himself converted and suffered martyrdom with the two brothers.
Their remains were buried in one tomb by Cecilia.
And now Cecilia herself was sought by the officers of the prefect.
Before she was taken prisoner, she arranged that her house should be preserved as a place of worship for the Roman Church.
After a glorious profession of faith, she was condemned to be suffocated in the bath of her own house.
But as she remained unhurt in the overheated room, the prefect had her decapitated in that place.
The executioner let his sword fall three times without separating the head from the trunk, and fled, leaving the virgin bathed in her own blood.
She lived three days, made dispositions in favour of the poor, and provided that after her death her house should be dedicated as a church.
Urbanus buried her among the bishops and the confessors, i.e. in the Catacomb of Callistus.
In this shape the whole story has no historical value; it is a pious romance, like so many others compiled in the fifth and sixth century.
The existence of the aforesaid martyrs, however, is a historical fact.
The relation between St. Cecilia and Valerianus, Tiburtius, and Maximus, mentioned in the Acts, has perhaps some historical foundation.
These three saints were buried in the Catacomb of Praetextatus on the Via Appia, where their tombs are mentioned in the ancient pilgrim Itineraria.
In the Martyrologium Hieronymianum their feast is set down under 14 April with the note:
"Romae via Appia in cimiterio Prætextati"; and the octave under 21 April, with the comment: "Rome in cimiterio Calesti via Appia".
In the opinion of Duchesne the octave was celebrated in the Catacomb of Callistus, because St. Cecilia was buried there.
If, therefore, this second notice in the martyrology is older than the aforesaid Acts, and the latter did not give rise to this second feast,
it follows that before the Acts were written this group of saints in Rome was brought into relation with St. Cecilia.
The time when Cecilia suffered martyrdom is not known.
From the mention of Urbanus nothing can be concluded as to the time of composition of the Acts;
the author, without any authority, simply introduced the confessor of this name (buried in the Catacomb of Praetextatus) on account of the nearness of his tomb to those of the other martyrs and identified him with the pope of the same name.
The author of the Liber Pontificalis used the Acts for his notice of Urbanus.
The Acts offer no other indication of the time of the martyrdom.
Venantius Fortunatus (Miscellanea, 1, 20; 8,6) and Ado (Martyrology, 22 November) place the death of the saint in the reign of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus (about 177), and De Rossi tried to prove this view as historically the surest one.
In other Western sources of the early Middle Ages and in the Greek Synaxaria this martyrdom is placed in the persecution of Diocletian.
P.A. Kirsch tried to locate it in the time of Alexander Severus (229-230); Aubé, in the persecution of Decius (249-250); Kellner, in that of Julian the Apostate (362).
None of these opinions is sufficiently established, as neither the Acts nor the other sources offer the requisite chronological evidence.
The only sure time-indication is the position of the tomb in the Catacomb of Callistus, in the immediate proximity of the very ancient crypt of the popes, in which Urbanus probably, and surely Pontianus and Anterus were buried.
The earliest part of this catacomb dates at all events from the end of the second century; from that time, therefore, to the middle of the third century is the period left open for the martyrdom of St. Cecilia.
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