CECILIA, St, the patroness of music, has been honoured as a martyr ever since the fifth century. Her story, as delivered by the Notaries of the Roman Catholic church, and thence transcribed into the Golden Legend and other books of the like kind, says that she was a Roman lady, born of noble parents about the year 295; that, notwithstanding she had been converted to Christianity, her parents married her to a young Pagan nobleman named Valerianus, who, going to bed to her on the wedding night, was given to understand by his spouse, that she was nightly visited by an angel, and that he must forbear to approach her, otherwise the angel would destroy him. Valerianus, somewhat troubled at these words, desired that he might see his rival the angel; but his spouse told him that was impossible, unless he would consent to be baptized and become a Christian. This he consented to, after which, returning to his wife, he found her in her closet at prayer, and by her side, in the shape of a beautiful young man, an angel clothed with brightness. After some conversation with the angel, Valerianus told him that he had a brother named Tiburtius, whom he greatly desired to see a partaker of the grace which he himself had received. The angel answered that his desire was granted, and that they should be both crowned with martyrdom in a short time. Upon this the angel vanished, and was not long in showing that he had kept his word; for Tiburtius was converted, and both he and his brother Valerianus were beheaded. Cecilia was offered her life upon condition that she would sacrifice to the deities of the Romans, but she refused; upon which she was thrown into a caldron of boiling water, and scalded to death. Others say, that she was stifled in a dry bath, or an enclosure from which the air had been excluded, heated by a slow fire underneath; a kind of death which was sometimes inflicted by the Romans upon women of quality who were criminals. Upon the spot where her house stood was a church, said to have been built by Pope Urban I., who administered baptism to her husband and his brother. This church is that of St Cecilia at Tras-
tevere; and within it is a most curious painting of the saint, as also a stately monument, with a cumbent statue having the face downwards. There is a tradition of St Cecilia that she excelled in music, and that the angel who had become enamoured of her was drawn from the celestial regions by the charms of her melody; and this has been deemed sufficient authority for making her the patroness of music and musicians. The legend of St Cecilia has given frequent occasion to painters and sculptors to exercise their genius in representations of her playing on the organ, and sometimes on the harp. Raphael has painted her in the attitude of singing with a regal in her hand, and Domenichino and Mignard in that of singing and playing on the harp.