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PRAYER (contemporary language) This commemoration appears in Lesser Feasts & Fasts 2018 and is combined there with Agnes. See Agnes for the current collects Return to Lectionary Home Page Webmaster: Charles Wohlers Last updated: 28 Sept. 2022
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CECILIA OF ROMEMARTYR AT ROME, c. 280 |
St. Cecilia, by Guido Reni |
The research of Giovanni Battista de Rossi, however, appears to confirm the statement of Venantius Fortunatus, Bishop of Poitiers (d. 600), that she perished in Sicily under Emperor Marcus Aurelius between 176 and 180.
The martyrdom of Cecilia is said to have followed that of her husband and his brother by the prefect Turcius Almachius. The officers of the prefect then sought to have Cecilia killed as well. At that time, the officials attempted to kill her by boiling her alive. However, the attempt failed, and she was to be beheaded. The executioner attempted to decapitate her three times unsuccessfully, at which time he fled. Cecilia survived another three days before succumbing. In the last three days of her life, she opened her eyes, gazed at her family and friends who crowded around her cell, closed them, and never opened them again. The people by her cell knew immediately that she was to become a saint in heaven.
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