Category:Saint Cecilia

Virgin and martyr (married, but lived celibately with her husband). Memorial on November 22. Cecilia was born about the turn of the second century (based on the date of the reign of Pope Urban I; another source places it about the turn of the first century) to a senatorial family. She had vowed to remain a virgin, but her parents decided to marry her to Valerian (Valerianus) of Trastevere, a noble pagan youth. After the wedding, Valerian was converted to Christianity and baptized by Pope Urban I, and Valerian's brother Tiburtius also converted to Christianity soon afterwards. Because the two brothers both gave alms and buried the bodies of the martyrs, the prefect, Turcius Almachius, had them condemned to death. St. Cecilia buried the bodies of her husband and brother-in-law, and was also condemned to be executed. After a failed attempt to suffocate her in her own house, she was ordered to be decapitated, but the soldier struck her neck three times and fled, leaving her neck only partially cut. She died three days later, some time between 222 and 230 (another source says about the year 117.) She was buried in the Catacomb of St. Callistus, and in 1599 she was found to be incorrupt.