Saint Cecilia
Born in the third century, she was married to a man named Valerian, though prayed daily that she might preserve her virginity. She told her husband that she was under the protection of an angel. When he asked to see the angel, she told him that if he believes in God and got baptized, he would see the angel. Valeria. Was baptized by the Pope. Returning back home he saw Cecilia kneeling with an angel by her side with outstretched wings and two crowns of roses and lilies. Soon after Cecilia was condemned for her Christianity and put to death by suffocation in the baths. St. Cecilia’s church in Rome is built on the site of the bath where she died. Later, she was taken to be the patron saint of music. Pope Pashal I, translated her relics with great pomp in 817, and endowed the monks of the monastery next to the church of St. Cecilia, where her bones lay, so that they might sing at her tomb all day and night. Her feast day is November 22. (Dictionary of Saints) Photo of painting by Orazio Gentileschi from the Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan, 2025.