Today, 22 November, is the feast of ...
* Philemon and Apphia, martyrs (first century)
- apostle Paul addresses one of his epistles to Philemon;
in it is mentioned 'our dearest sister' Apphia; according
to legends, they were captured by a pagan governor,
scourged, then buried in a pit up to the waist, when they
were stoned to death
* Cecilia, virgin and martyr (?)
- of patrician birth, she converted her betrothed husband
and his brother to Christianity; martyred by being
suffocated with the steam of a hot bath in her own mansion
(later converted into a church); perhaps martyred during
reign of Septimus Severus (193-222); named in the canon of
the Mass; at a translation of her remains in 1599, her body
was seen to be complete and incorrupt (although in an
earlier translation, her head had been enshrined
separately); patron of music and musicians
Three years ago Julia Bolton Holloway added the following to the
various details related to the martyrdom of Cecilia:
There were three sword wounds to her neck and she went on preaching.
Chaucer mentions this, `Thre strokes in the nekke he smoot hir tho,/ The
tormentour, but fo no maner chaunce/ He myghte noght smyte al hir nekke
atwo;/ And for there was that tyme an ordinaunce/ That no man sholde
doon man swich penaunce/ The ferthe strook to smyten, softe or soore,
This tormentour ne dorste do namoore' (shades of `Sir Gawain and the
Green Knight'!), after which she preached for three days, her blood
being mopped up by sheets, with Urban I's blessing, before dying, and
Julian in the Long Text similarly wanted three wounds, in the Short Text
citing St Cecilia's (the Amherst Manuscript engrossing the words for
emphasis). Wyclif cited Cecilia preaching in her own house which became
her church. Adam Easton, Norwich Benedictine and Julian's contemporary,
learned in Hebrew, which he taught at Oxford, and owning the complete
works of Pseudo-Dionysius, then preached to the laity in Norwich,
bringing his books with him, was Wyclif's opponent, became Cardinal, his
titular basilica being Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, where he is buried
in a fine marble tomb near St Cecilia's, his having on it his arms
surmounted by the Cardinal's hat with tassels and those of England. He
knew both Birgitta of Sweden and Catherine of Siena. He earlier defended
Pope Urban VI. When he defended Birgitta's `Revelationes', and her
canonization, he cited Philip's four daughters who were prophets, St
Cecilia, etc., as examples of saintly but preaching women. The detail
about Cecilia preaching is not in the Golden Legend. Though it is there
`sword' and `swordsman', is it not (I only checked a translation)?
Julian has it, `I harde Aman telle of halye kyrke of the Storye of.
Saynte Ce=/cylle [engrossed, rubricated, underlined]. In the whilke
schewynge. I vndyrstode that sche hadde thre woundys with ASwerde. In
the nekke withe the whilke sche py=/ned to the dede. By the styrrynge of
this. I conseyved amyghty/desyre Prayande oure lorde god that he wolde
grawnte me thre woundys in my lyfe tyme . . . . ' (Amherst, fol. 97
verso, lines 16-21). Nor is Pope Urban the right one for her dates. But
apparantly the ruins of the bathroom (hypocaust) can still be seen at
Santa Cecilia in Trastevere. It's interesting, the reader response by
Christina of Markyate, Chaucer's Second Nun and Julian to the Legend of
St Cecilia.
Thanks Julia!
Also an the same subject Michele Bacci asked the following question:
>Just one question; which are the relations of Cecilia with music and
>musicians, or which is the cause for his becoming their patron saint?
And Sherry Reames replied:
The traditional, easy answer to this question is that there's a line in
her legend and feastday liturgy that mentions music ["cantantibus
organis, illa in corde suo soli Domino decantabat . . ."]. Although the
meaning seems in fact to be that she ignored the literal instruments
that were playing [at her unwilling marriage] in favor of her inner song
to God, the standard interpretation until recently was that the
reference to "organis" was taken out of context and eventually gave rise
to the iconographic image of Cecilia as an organist.
A more recent and much more interesting answer, which connects Cecilia's
inner song and the angels in her legend [among other things] with the
Biblical motif of singing to the Lord a new song, is offered by Thomas
Connolly, in *Mourning into Joy: Music, Raphael, and Saint Cecilia*
(Yale Univ. Press, 1994).
Thanks Michele and Sherry!
*************
Carolyn Muessig
Department of Theology and Religious Studies
University of Bristol
3 Woodland Road
Bristol BS8 1TB
UK
fax: +44.117.929.7850
phone: +44.117.928.8168
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