Chapter 14. Martyrdom of St

Desirous that Cecilia should be executed without publicity or tumult, Almachius commanded that she should be taken home, and confined in the bath-room of her palace, called by theEomans, the Caldarium*

• The Roman baths were divided into several halls. The

This was to be kept intensely heated, until the suffocating atmosphere had deprived her of life.

This cowardly expedient, however, failed. Cecilia joyfully entered the place of her martyrdom, and remained there the rest of the day, and the ensuing night, without the fiery atmosphere she breathed, producing even the slightest moisture upon her skin. A celestial dew, like that which refreshed the three children in the Babylonian furnace, delightfully tempered first was the frigidarium, where cold baths were taken ; the second, tepidarium, where the water was tepid ; and the third, called caldarium, or ealidariwn, or sometimes sudatorium, was reserved for vapor baths. Reservoirs of boiling water sent whirlwinds of vapor through this hall ; and a furnace, called laconicum, the flames of which were circulated by means of pipes laid under the floor, and imbedded in the thick walls, increased the temperature to a burning heat. The vaulted ceiling was generally built of stucco, and was of hemispherical form. It was closed by a brass shield, which was worked by means of a chain, and served as a valve when the intensity of the heat became suffocating. A description of the caldarium may be found in Vitruvius, lib. x. cap x.

The punishment to which Almachius condemned St. Cecilia, is not without a parallel in history. This method of inflicting death, without shedding blood, was employed by Constantine, in the execution of the Empress Fausta. Zosimus relates that by the Emperor's orders, the princess was enclosed in a bath, heated to suffocation, and that she was taken out dead. We find another example in Rome of a martyrdom inflicted under circumstances analagous to those that attended the death of St* Cecilia. It is that of the brothers Sts. John and Paul, unde Julian the Apostate. This prince, not wishing to publish edicts against the Christians, adopted a less dangerous and more efficacious system of persecution. The two Christians, after professing their faith before the Roman Prefect, Terentianus, were reconducted to their own palace, where they were secretlybeheaded by the executioners who afterwards buried them.

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the air of the heated apartment, so that the remark made in later years of the intrepid Archdeacon Lawrence, could well have been applied to the virgin, viz. : that the fire of divine love which consumed him interiorly, destroyed the strength of the material fire which surrounded him exteriorly.* Vainly did the ministers of Almachius increase the fire by heaping wood upon the furnace; vainly did the heated apertures send forth volumes of boiling vapor into the apartment. The power of God protected His servant, who calmly waited until it should please her Divine Spouse to admit her, by some other kind of death, into His eternal kingdom.f

Almachius, on hearing of this prodigy, was much disconcerted. He had hoped to avoid shedding the blood of a Boman lady ; but he had gone too far to recede, and there was no alternative but to send a lictor to behead the saintly virgin. The officer presented himself before her, armed with a sword. Cecilia hailed him with joy as the bearer of her nuptial crown. She offered her neck to the executioner with an eagerness that might be expected from one who had already triumphed over all that could terrify or seduce human nature. The lictor vigorously brandished his sword, but his arm was so

• Superari charitas Christi flamma non potuit, et segnior fuit ignis qui foris ussit quam qui intus accendit. Sermo in Natali S. Laurentii.

f Cumque fuisset in calore balnei inclusa, et subter incendia nimia lignorum pabula ministrarent die integra et nocte tota, quasi in frigido loco illibata perstitit sanitate, ita ut nee una pars membrorum ejus saltern sudoris signo lassaretur. Acta S. C(zcill<je, unsteady, that although he struck her three times, he could not succeed in severing the head from the body. Terrified, he withdrew from the room, leaving the virgin stretched upon the ground, bathed in her blood. The law forbade the executioner, who, after three attempts, had not dispatched his victim, to venture upon a fourth trial.*

The doors of the bath-room had remained open after the lictor's departure ; and the crowd of Christians who were awaiting the consummation of the sacrifice, respectfully entered the room. A sublime and lamentable spectacle met their eyes. Cecilia, in the agonies of death, still smiled upon the poor whom she loved, and the neophytes, who had been converted by her. With eagerness, they gathered up with linen cloths, the blood which was flowing from her virginal wounds ; f all endeavored by every means to testify their veneration and love. From one moment to the next, they expected to see her sever the last link which held her captive, and yield up her beautiful soul to God. The crown is suspended above Cecilia's head ; she has only to stretch forth her hand to grasp it, and yet she lingers. The faithful were ignorant of the delay which she had asked and obtained from heaven.

• Hoc cum audisset Almachius, misit qui earn in ipso balneo decollaret ; quam cum spiculator tertio ictu percussisset, caput ejus amputare non potuit : sic autem semineccm earn cruentus carnifex dereliquit ; nam apud veteres lex erat eis imposita, ut si in tribus percussionibus non decollaretur, amplius percutere non audebat. Acta S. Cadi ice.

t Cujus sanguineni omnes bibulis lintoamiiiibus populi, qui per earn crediderant, extergebant. Ibid.

During three entire days, they surrounded her bloody couch, wavering between hope and fear, and filled with respect for the will of God, so mysteriously manifested in His servant. Cecilia unceasingly exhorted them to remain firm in the faith. From time to time, she made the poor approach her ; she lavished upon them the most touching marks of her affection, and desired that the remainder of her fortune should be divided among them.* The officers whose duty it was to confiscate her property, had not presented themselves. They knew that the executioner had missed his victim ; and, moreover, this palace, stained with blood, must have been as terrible to the Pagans as it was august in the eyes of the faithful, who venerated it as the glorious arena where Cecilia had won her crown.

For one moment, the crowd subsided. The dying virgin was about to receive the visit of Saint Urban, who, as we have said, had been concealed in the palace for several days. Until the present moment, prudence had prevented the venerable old man from approaching the martyr, who was awaiting his visit, before taking her flight to heaven. She wished to receive the blessing of the Father of the faithful, and to consign to his hands the only inheritance which she left. The Pontiff entered the bath-room, and was deeply moved at beholding his beloved daughter extended like a lamb offered in sacrifice, upon the altar, inundated with her blood.

• Per triduum autem quod supervixit, non cessavit, quos ntitrierat et quos docuerat in fide Domini confortare, quibus et divisit univeroa qua? habuit. Acta S. Cctcilice.

Cecilia gazed at him with ineffable sweetness and joy. "Father," she said, "I asked this delay of three days, from our Lord, that I might place in the hands of your Beatitude,* my last treasure, the poor whom I feed and who will miss me. I also bequeath to you this house in which I have lived, that you may consecrate it as a church, and that it may become the temple of the Lord forever.f

After these words, the virgin thought only of preparing her soul to meet its Spouse. She thanked Christ, that He had deigned to associate her to the glory of the athletes, and had crowned her with a wreath composed of the roses of martyrdom, twined with the lilies of virginity. The heavens were already opened to her eyes, and a moment of faintness announced that her last hour was approaching. She was lying upon her right side, in an attitude of virginal modesty. At the last moment, her arms fell by her side, and, turning her face against the ground so that none could witness the last secret communings of her departing soul with the divine object of all her love, she tranquilly expired.^

• Respecting the antiquity of this title given to the Roman Pontiff, many examples may be found in letters addressed to the Pope from the East and the West throughout the fourth century. Such uniformity at this time, proves that the custom dated still farther back. Among other letters, may be seen those from the Orientals to Saint Julius, those of Saint Athanasius and the Bishops of Egypt to the same Pontiff, those of Saint Jerome and of Aurelius of Carthage to Saint Damasus, etc.

f Sancto Urbano Papa? dixit : A dime triduanas mihi propose! inducias, ut et istos tuse Beatitudini traderem qmoa nutrivi, et banc domum meam in aeternuni Eoclesia nomini consocraros. Acta S. Ccecilice.

t These details respecting Cecilia's dying position are not

So great a martyr could be buried by none but the most august hands. Saint Urban, assisted by the deacons, presided at her funeral ceremonies. They laid her in a cypress coffin, in the same attitude in which she had expired, clothed in the rich robe of silk and gold, which she had worn at the time of her martyrdom ; and placed at her feet the linen cloths and veils with which the faithful had collected her precious blood.

The following night, her holy body was carried to the Appian Way, to the cemetery of Saint Callistus, near the third mile-stone. Valerian, Tiburtius and Maximus, were buried at a short distance from the spot, but the entrance to their tombs was upon the left of the Appian Way.

To honor the apostalate which Cecilia had exercised, Saint Urban desired that she should be buried in the enclosure prepared by Saint Callistus for the Pontiffs,* and in which he had interred his predecessor, Saint Zephyrinus. This well merited, but unusual distinction, joined to the desire of burying the virgin at the spot where the cemetery of Saint Callistus turned towards that of Pretextatus, in order to place her near her husband, accounts for the fact of all traces of her sepulchre having been lost, until it was discovered by means of a revelation. Thus the goodness of God restored to the Eoman Church the treasure which she believed had been stolen from her sacred Crypts by the hands of strangers.

mentioned in the Acts : they are gathered from a more striking source, as we shall mention later.

• Tunc sanctus Urbanus Papa corpus ejus auferens cum Diaconibus, nocte sepelivit earn inter collegas suos Episcopos, et Martyres, ubi sanctiConfessores sunt collocati. Acta S. Cceciljce