Chapter 24. Confirmation of the Acts of St

Before resuming our history, let us dwell for a moment upon the facts contained in the account of * In Epist. ii, ad Corinth. Iloniil. xxvi, No. 4, 5.

the finding of St. Cecilia's body; facts which serve to verify our Acts. We have taken them principally from Paschal's official document and the contemporary chronicle of Anastasius, both unknown to the compiler of the Acts, since he lived three centuries before, and his recital had been admitted into the Liturgies from the sixth and seventh centuries. They were also circulated throughout the Churches of the West, at least a century before Paschal's pontificate, as we have already seen in the Chronicle of Felix IV., the verses of St. Adhelm, and Bede's Martyrology. We found in Paschal's document, and in the narrative of Anastasius, not only the names of Cecilia and Valerian, but also those of Tiburtius and Maximus, and it was also stated that these four martyrs were first buried upon the Appian Way. Although Paschal's recital is so laconic, he mentions that Cecilia was dressed in a robe of gold and silk. The Acts had already given us this information which is indeed of secondary importance. Yet its confirmation serves to prove the veracity of the compiler. Paschal does not say that he discovered near the body the ampullas filled with blood, which are still found in the martyrs' tombs ; but he mentions pieces of linen which had been saturated in blood, lying at Cecilia's feet. Here is an additional proof of the fidelity of our historian who was the first to mention this fact. The circumstance of the linen cloths is characteristic of the martyrdom of our Saint. They prove the staunching of a wound inflicted by a sword ; they are not to bo confounded with the sponges used to collect the martyr's blood, which was afterwards

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pressed into vases destined to preserve it. The linen cloths in Cecilia's tomb were rolled up with great care and placed at her feet as a trophy. By their mute but eloquent testimony, they recalled the tragic scene of the Caldarium. Later we shall see Cecilia's tomb again reopened, and then new discoveries will give additional proof of the minute accuracy of our Acts.

The circumstances of the discovery of Cecilia's body, in 822, also serve to enlighten the critic upon the value of the virgin's relics, which several churches boasted of possessing, before the pontificate of Paschal. St. Venantius Fortunatus, in the seventh century, speaks of those which St. Vitalis, Bishop of Eavenna, had placed in the Church of St. Andrew.* It is very evident that these relics could not have been those of our holy martyr, since her tomb was not opened until the year 822. Many relics are spoken of, after this period, as being those of St. Cecilia. Ehaban Maur commemorates in a poem, the bones of St. Cecilia, which he declares that he placed in his church at Fulda, with those of Sts. Valerian and Tiburtius ;f in another place, he mentions nine altars, which he says he enriched with her relics4

A statement of the relics preserved in the Basilica of St. Cecilia, at Eome, and which appears to have been compiled about the beginning of the twelfth centu^, mentions four altars of this same church, as containing relics of the glorious patroness; in two

• Venantii Fortunati Carmima. part i. lib. i. carra. ii. f Rhabani Mauri. Opp. tome iv. page 231. t Rhabani Mauri. Tome vi., pages 215-221.

of the altars, the relics were bones.* The treasury of the celebrated Church of St. Martin of Tours, which was pillaged by the Calvinists, in 1562, contained a head of St. Cecilia, enclosed in a reliquary partly of gold, partly silver gilt, and enriched with precious stones.f A second head was kept in the church of St. Nicholas des Champs, in Paris ;:{: a third in the treasury of the Abbey of St. Lucien de Beamais.§ It would be easy to extend this enumeration, with the assistance of different inventories of relics found among the Bollandists and elsewhere ; but we cannot pass over in silence, the arm of St. Cecilia, and the relics of Sts. Tiburtius, Valerian, and Urban, which Paul II. presented in 1346, to John Jofroy, Bishop of Alby, who placed them in his cathedral.|| All these relics, which we by no means intend to stigmatize as pious frauds, could not possibly belong to the Eoman virgin, whose history we are relating. When Cecilia's tomb was opened in 1599, the body was found entire, just as St. Paschal had placed it, under the altar of the trans-Tiberian Basilica. Du Saussay, in his Martyrologium Gallicanum, frankly acknowledges this, and he thinks that the head preserved in the church of St. Nicholas in Paris, must have belonged to Cecilia, Abbess of Eemiremont.^"

It is difficult at first, to explain the mistake made

• Laderchi. tome ii., pages 11-14 f Gervaise, Vie de St. Martin., page 426.

t Du Saussay, Martyrelogiuni Gallicanum, tome ii., page 1231.

§ Baillet, Vies des Saints, 22 Novembre.

|| Gallia Christiana, tome i., page 33.

U Du Saussay. Ibid.

at Rome, and even in St. Cecilia's church, where, from the twelfth century, the)7 supposed that some of the saint's bones were under several of the altars. But it is easily accounted for, if we remember that, besides the virgin married to Valerian, there were at least three other holy martyrs, named Cecilia, two of whom suffered in Rome. The first mentioned in the Martyrology, attributed to St. Jerome, is marked on the 2d of June; the second, on the 16th of September.- The third Saint Cecilia, suffered martyrdom in Africa, during the persecution of Diocletian, .with Sts. Saturninus, Dativus, and Felix, who are mentioned in the Roman Martyrology, on the 11th of February, f

In the interval which elapsed between the first discovery of Cecilia's body, in 822, and the second, which took place eight centuries later, there was no certainty as to the condition in which St. Paschal had left the body in closing the tomb. It was universally the custom to remove some portions of the holy relics before sealing the new sepulchre ; J this may have given rise to the supposition that the sacred bones attributed to Cecilia, belonged to the jnost celebrated martyr of that name. This was

• Florentini. Martyrolog. St. Hieronynii. anj jours iiidiques.

f See also Doni Ruinart. Acta Sincera 31artyrv.ni. page 409.

% Although iu oldeu times relics were uot often divided, still the numerous miracles wrought after the finding of St. Stephen's body, did not prevent the precious bones of this martyr being dispersed throughout Africa, as St. Augustin attests. At tne period in which St. Paschal lived, this practice had become still more common, ?nd if the holy Pontiff left Cecilia's body entire, as was proved later, it must be attributed %o a special osation of Providence.

firmly believed ; the reopening of the tomb could alone solve this great problem and supply the records omitted in Paschal's document. The two heads preserved in the Churches of St. Martin of Tours,*and St. Lucian of Beauvais, may be attributed to either of the two Eoman martyrs of whom we spoke, or to the one who died in Africa.

Again, it would be necessary to know whether there were two entire heads or simply different parts of the same head. Churches frequently glory in possessing the body of a saint, when they have only a valuable portion of his bones ; it is the same for the head, arms, or other principal members, and this mode of expression, which is perfectly familiar to all persons acquainted with this branch of religious archaeology, was already in use in the fourth and fifth centuries.* It, is, therefore possible, that the two relics preserved in the Churches of St. Martin of Tours and Saint Lucian of Beauvais, were but two portions of the same relic, under the name of the Head of St. Cecilia. If we come now to the relics of Fulda, which Ehaban Maur, a contemporary of Paschal, expressly declares to be those of the great Eoman Martyr Cecilia, and of Saints Tiburtius and Valerian, we have the same reasons to allege.

• St. Basil, in his homily upon the forty Martyrs (opp. tome ii. p. 155) remarks that although the relics of these samts were divided among a large number of cities, yet each city was justified in considering that it possessed the entire body. The odor et is still more explicit : "Although the entire bodies of the martyrs arc not in the casket, although these frequently contain but a small portion of their bones, still we commonly call these relics the bodies of the Martyrs." Epist. cxxx. ad Tiniotheuni. Opp. Tom. iv. p. 1218. Halffi. 1771.

• In 1599, the body of St. Cecilia was found entire; hence the error in this case, as in the former one, probably resulted from similarity of name. The bones, of which Ehaban speaks, must have been those of another Cecilia, and must also have been very considerable, since he was able to distribute them among nine altars of his abbey.

We find less difficulty in believing that this Church possessed some of the bones of Valerian and Tiburtius. It is certain that Saint Paschal, in 822, separated the head of Saint Tiburtius from his body, and placed it in the Basilica. The bodies of the two martyrs were not found, in 1599, in the same state of preservation as that of St. Cecilia. It is very probable that St. Paschal had distributed some of their bones and that Ehaban had received a portion.

However, we will not be positive, because when the tomb was last opened, the bodies of the two brothers seemed complete, with the exception of Tiburtius' head, and we are rather inclined to believe that the relics of Fulda belonged to two other martyrs of the same name. A Saint Tiburtius is mentioned in the archives of the Eoman Church, on the 11th of August, — he is still commemorated in the office of that day. A St. Valerian suffered also at Eome, with several other Martyrs, about the year 167 ; and finally the Western Martyrologies have preserved the remembrance of several other Sts. Valerian and Tiburtius, whose relics may have been removed, according to the usual custom, from one place to another, and this may have caused confusion.

We will add a few words respecting the relics of

St. Cecilia which were preserved in the Church of St. Andrew at Kavenna, in the sixth century. At this period, and even long after, not only the linen which had touched a Saint's tomb, but also that used to cover his altar were considered relics ; indeed even the oil of the lamps which burned before his body. The relics of which St. Venantius Fortunatus speaks, must have been of this nature, since for two centuries after this bishop's death, Cecilia still reposed in a sealed tomb of the Callistus Cemetery.

We trust the reader will pardon this little digression. We considered it absolutely necessary in a book, intended to contain every fact relative to our holy martyr. They will perhaps thank us for throwing some light upon the relics honored under her name. The solution was very easy in as much as it related to our history ; but the matter required to be delicately handled, since it concerns the honor of churches. Too frequently, thoughtless or prejudiced men have attributed to fraud, what was the result of an innocent error proceeding from a similarity of names. We frankly acknowledge that it has given us great pleasure to proclaim on this occasion a new privilege extended to Cecilia even in her tomb. Buried by the hands of a martyr Pope, guarded in her sepulchre by the vigilance of the Mother of God, revealed to a supreme Pontiff in a heavenly apparition, her saintly body was found in a perfect state of preservation, surrounded by the eloquent tokens of her martyrdom. Paschal left it as he found it, that future generations might share the happiness he had enjoyed of contemplating the Spouse of Christ, trail quill v reposing in her glorious sleep. New wonders await us; but let us leave Cecilia, for some centuries yet, calmly resting, not beneath the crumbling vaults of the Callistus Cemetery, but amidst the splendor of her own palace.