A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/St. Cecilia
ST. CECILIA,
The patroness of music, is said to have been a Roman lady, born about the year 235. Her story, as related by the Roman Catholics, is, that her parents married her to a young pagan nobleman, Valerianus. Cecilia told him, on her wedding-night, that she was visited nightly by an angel. Valerianus desired to see the angel; but his bride told him that it would be impossible, unless he would become a Christian. This he consented to, and was baptized by Pope Urban the First; after which, returning to his wife, he found her at prayer, and by her side a beautiful young man, clothed with brightness. Valerianus conversed with the angel, who foretold his martyrdom, and that of his brother, Tiburtius. In a few years, Valerianos and Tibartius were beheaded. Cecilia was offered her life, if she would sacrifice to the idols; bat she refused, and was thrown into a caldron of boiling water. St. Cecilia is said to hare excelled so greatly in music, as to have drawn the angel from the celestial regions by her melody.