St., the patron saint 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 similar books, says that she was a Roman lady, born of noble parents about the year 285; that, notwithstanding she had been converted to Christianity, her parents married her to a young Pagan nobleman named Valerianus, who 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, troubled at these words, desired that he might see his rival the angel; but he was told that was impossible, unless he would consent to be baptized and become a Christian. To this he consented; 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 in an inclosure from which the air had been excluded, heated by a slow fire underneath; a kind of death which was sometimes inflicted by the Romans on women of rank who were criminals. Upon the spot where her house stood is 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 in Trastevere; and within it is a curious painting of the saint, and a stately monument surmounted by a cum- Cecrops bent statue with the face downwards. There is a tradition that St Cecilia excelled in music, and that the angel was drawn from the celestial regions by the charms of her melody; hence she came to be regarded as the patroness of music and musicians. The legend of St Cecilia has furnished the subject of several exquisite works of art. Raphael has painted the saint in the attitude of singing with a regal in her hand; and Domenichino and Mignard in that of singing and playing on the harp.