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>On Fri, 22 Nov 1996 15:03:22 +0000 (GMT) George Ferzoco wrote: > >> Today, 22 November, is the feast of ... > >[snip, snip] >> >> * 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) > Mark Harris is probably right to suggest that the likely cause of death in such instances would be heatstroke rather than suffocation. But in Cecilia's case, the legend insists, the first of several miracles intervened at this point. Although she was kept in the bath, with a great fire under it, for more than 24 hours, she proved so impervious to the heat that, as Chaucer puts it, "It made hir not a drope for to swete." In frustration, the persecutor ordered her beheaded--and even the executioner's axe couldn't finish her off--at least, not immediately. She lived three more days, with her head half-severed, still teaching her followers and encouraging them in the faith. (And what we're supposed to make of that, beyond the fact that legendary martyrs are amazingly hard to kill, I don't know.) %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%