St. Cecilia
Feast day: November 22
Born into a patrician family, Cecilia was married against her will to a pagan noble named Valerian. She convinced her husband to respect her virginity and persuaded him to convert to Christianity. His brother, Tiburtius, also became a Christian. Both brothers were arrested for burying bodies of martyrs, and they were beheaded. Refusing to renounce her faith, Cecilia was arrested and condemned to death. She was to be smothered to death, but when this was miraculously prevented, she was sentenced to beheading. The execution was bungled, and she lived three days before dying from her wounds. St. Cecilia is commemorated by name in the Canon of the Mass.
Collect
O God, who gladden us each year
with the feast day of your handmaid Saint Cecilia,
grant, we pray,
that what has been devoutly handed down concerning her
may offer us examples to imitate
and proclaim the wonders worked in his servants
by Christ your Son.
Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
