Cecilia, Martyr at Rome, c.230
22 November -- Commemoration
If celebrated as a Lesser Festival,
Common of Martyrs, page 464
Cecilia was one of the most revered martyrs of the Roman
Church, but the only thing we know for certain is that at
some point in the second or third century, a woman called
Cecilia allowed the Church to meet in her house in
Trastevere in the city of Rome and that subsequently the
church erected on that site bore her name. She was
remembered as a brave woman who risked giving hospitality to
the Christian Church when to do so was to court censure and
possibly death. According to a tradition that can be dated
no earlier than the fifth century, she converted her pagan
husband and his brother to the faith, both of whom were
martyred before her. She is honoured as the patron saint of
musicians.