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Saint Cecilia was born in Rome of a patrician family and raised a
Christian. Her parents married her to Valerian, who lived at Trastevere. She convinced him
to respect her virginity and Valerian became a Christian. Cecilia also converted his
brother Tiburtius. As the persecution became more rigorous, the two brothers undertook to
inter the faithful to whom the Romans refused to bury. They were eventually arrested and
decapitated. Cecilia buried Valerian and Tiburtius in her villa on the Appian Way and was
arrested for doing so. She was given no alternative but to sacrifice to the gods or to
die. She chose death. When her sentence of death by suffocation was miraculously
prevented, a soldier was assigned to behead her. She lay dying for three days before she
expired. Tradition places her death between the second and third centuries. The Acts of
St. Cecilia contain the following passages: "While the profane music of her wedding
was heard, Cecilia was singing in her heart a hymn of love for Jesus, her true
spouse." This passage resulted in belief in the musical gifts of St. Cecilia and has
made her the patron saint of musicians. We celebrate her feast on November the
twenty-second.
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