medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (22. November) is the feast day of:
Cecilia (??). C. is a poorly documented but much celebrated martyr of the Via Appia, absent from the _Depositio Martyrum_ of 354 but attested liturgically from the later fifth century onward, when her legend seems already to have been in existence in some form. This makes her a virgin betrothed to a pagan husband, Valerian, who preserved her virginity and who, after his conversion to Christianity, actively proselytized along with C. and suffered martyrdom along with her. The story, which includes among its _personae_ pope Urban I and the martyrs Tiburtius and Maximus, is a typical late antique confection uniting various catacomb worthies in a single narrative.
A resting place in a part of the Catacomb of Callistus first used towards the end of the second century was believed in the early Middle Ages to have been C.'s. It was rediscovered by de Rossi in the nineteenth century. Here's a view of it:
http://www.catacombe.roma.it/it/cecilia.html
Paschal I (817-24) translated remains said to be C.'s from what the _Liber Pontificalis_ identifies as a different catacomb on the Via Appia (that of Praetextatus) to Rome's titular church of Cecilia, documented from 499 onward, which latter he also rebuilt. We know it now as Santa Cecilia in Trastevere. Here's an English-language account of this church:
http://roma.katolsk.no/cecilia.htm
and a view, showing its twelfth-century belltower:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:050424-003santaCecilia.JPG
Later rebuilding has preserved important remnants of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere's medieval decor. Some views:
Cosmatesque floor in the crypt:
http://tinyurl.com/y2n5y8
Cosmatesque paschal candlestick:
http://tinyurl.com/y97b93
Fresco of the Last Judgment (by Pietro Cavallini; later thirteenth-century):
Accounts:
http://www.francescomorante.it/pag_2/201cb.htm
http://www.medioevo.roma.it/saggi/cavallini/doc/07.htm
View:
http://www.medioevo.roma.it/saggi/cavallini/doc/07n1.htm
Views (details):
http://www.storiadellarte.com/biografie/cavallini/giudizio2.htm
http://www.storiadellarte.com/biografie/cavallini/giudizio.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Cavallini_Judgment.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/yyqw57
Ciborium (by Arnolfo di Cambio; 1293):
http://www.liguriacards.com/scambio/Im002589.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/t3nyg
These views past the ciborium show the early ninth-century apse mosaic (just not very well):
http://www.romecity.it/Berninieglialtriscultori02.htm
http://tinyurl.com/tkz7u
Here's a better view (still not great):
http://www.umilta.net/cecilia1.jpg
From left to right, the figures are of: Paschal I, C., St. Paul, Christ, St. Peter, St. Valerian, St. Agnes (C.'s fellow virgin from the canon of the Roman mass). Here's a larger view of C.:
http://www.umilta.net/cecilia2.jpg
Two expandable views of the known surviving parts (ninth- and eleventh-century) of a Bible that once belonged to the adjacent abbey of Santa Cecilia (second item on the page):
http://www.nb.no/baser/schoyen/4/4.1/414.html
Finally, expandable views of two fifteenth-century miniatures of C. in manuscripts in the British Library:
http://tinyurl.com/yjh96k
The first of these shows C. in her role as patron of music (a late accretion to her legend).
Best,
John Dillon
PS: Not medieval (obviously) but hard to omit, a text of Dryden's "A Song for St. Cecilia's Day, 1687":
http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/749.html
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