Today is the Feast of Saint Cecilia.

A very special saint in My Domestic Church as we are all musicians!

Saint Cecilia: Patron Saint of Church Music: “Along with St. Catherine, St. Cecilia is considered one of the muses of poetic art. This fact helps to explain why she so often appears in art. Another reason St. Cecilia appears widely in art is because artists like to work with the ‘rapt expression’ associated with St. Cecilia’s facial expressions (Jameson 345). St. Cecilia, however, is confined mainly to Western art. The oldest known art work of St. Cecilia is a rude drawing on the wall of a catacomb at San Lorenzo, which dates from 817 AD (Jameson 349). Another well-known piece of art with Cecilia as the subject is the sculpture ‘St. Cecilia Lying Dead.’ It was commissioned by Cardinal Sfondrati to commemorate the attitude in which she was found (Jameson 347). Sir Charles Bell describes the statue:

The body lies on its side, the limbs a little drawn up; the hands are delicate and fine,–they are not locked, but crossed at the wrist: the arms are stretched out. The drapery is beautifully modelled, and modestly covers the limbs. The head is enveloped in linen, but the general form is seen… (Jameson 347).

In the late fifteenth century, St. Cecilia begins to be associated with music. Artists begin to portray her with an organ or singing. Artists also like to paint her with cherubem at this point. Before her association with music, St. Cecilia was portrayed with a palm in one hand and the gospel often in the other. She was also often depicted wearing either the martyr’s crown or a crown of roses (Jameson 351). The most celebrated modern representation of the virgin saint is the painting by Raphael (see right). It was commissioned as the alter piece for her chapel in the church of San Giovanni-in-Monte near Bologne (Jameson 350-51). In the picture

‘she stands in the centre, in a rich robe of golden tint”