SAINT FEAST DAY 22 NOVEMBER: ST CECILIA

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN NOVEMBER 

Saints celebrated on the 22nd of November

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

ST CECILIA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR

Cecilia, a Roman maiden born of a noble family, at an early age vowed her virginity to God. But when she was married against her will to Valerian, she persuaded him to respect her virginity and to go to Pope Urban to receive Baptism so that he would be worthy to see her guardian angel.

SHE WAS ARRESTED

After Valerian had obtained this favour, he converted his brother Tiburtius to Christ, and they both shortly afterwards suffered martyrdom under the Prefect Almachius. Moreover, Cecilia was arrested by the same Almachius and, because she had distributed their property to the poor, ordered her to be put to death in a hot bath.

But when the heat had no effect on her, she was struck three blows with an axe and left half dead, and after three days she obtained her palm of martyrdom. She was buried in the cemetery of Callistus. Her body, and those of Popes Urban and Lucius, and of Valerian and Maximus were brought back to the city of Pope Paschal I and were buried in the church consecrated in the name of St Cecilia. [St Cecilia is the patron saint of music.]

(From: An Approved English Translation of the Breviarium Romanum, Burns & Oates, London, 1964)