The second sarcophagus found by Cardinal Sfondrati in the crypt of the Church of S. Cecilia beneath the high altar, was also opened by him. It was found to contain the bodies of three men, who had clearly suffered violent deaths—two of them had been decapitated, and the third had evidently been beaten to death by a horrible means of torture sometimes used—the "plumbatæ"—leathern or metal thongs loaded with lead; one of these, which evidently had been used in the death-scene of a martyr, was found in a crypt of this cemetery. These three were no doubt the remains of SS. Valerianus (the patrician husband of S. Cecilia), Tiburtius his brother, and the Roman officer Maximus, whose remains, brought no doubt by Pope Paschal I from the Prætextatus Cemetery where we know they had been interred, were deposited by him in the crypt of the Church of S. Cecilia close to the body of the famous martyr with whom they were so closely and gloriously connected.
The story of the discovery and certain identification of the original sepulchral chamber of S. Cecilia is vividly told by De Rossi with great detail. It was one of his important "finds." With the tradition before him—with the clear references in the pilgrim traditions—the great archæologist was sure that somewhere in the immediate vicinity of the sepulchral chamber of the Popes or Bishops of Rome of the
- [Footnote: but pure tradition can be alleged here, but the tradition is a very ancient
one. Wordsworth writes of her as
"rapt Cecilia, seraph-haunted queen of harmony."
Compare too references in Dryden, "Alexander's Feast," and Pope, "Ode on S. Cecilia." Raffaelle paints her as wrapped in ecstasy and surrounded by instruments of music.
The tradition is that when Valerian, her husband, returned from baptism, he found her singing hymns of thanksgiving for his conversion. Angels, it is said, descended from heaven to listen to her sweet voice.
No allusion, however, to her musical power is made in the Antiphone sung at her Festival. A verse of the appointed anthem runs thus:
"While the instruments of music were playing, Cecilia sang unto the Lord and said, 'Let my heart be undefiled, that I may never be confounded.'"
In one of the chapels of the great Church of the Oratory in London there is a beautiful replica of the dead Cecilia of Maderno.
There is another replica of Maderno's figure now placed in the niche of the recently-discovered crypt of S. Cecilia, where the sarcophagus which contains the body of the saint originally was placed.]
