Chapter 29. Sfondrato acquaints Clement VIII.. with the discovery of Cecilia's body

Sfondrato did not wish to proceed further, or to consummate the Invention of the martyrs, without inviting the Sovereign Pontiff* to identify this sacred pore conjunctum, ut cum ipse Cardinalis tollere illud vellet, ut extra simul cum aliis Sancti Valeriani, et Tiburtii publico in altari colcretur, magno id conatu et labore perfecerit. Ostendebat etiam idem caput percussionum, quas ex plumbatis acceperat Hotas, et fractionis signa, licet formam integram retineret, in quo subilava quoque caesaries quasi viventis, er omne capillanientum repersa sanguine incerrupta ccruebantur. tiosio. Rclatio, p. 311.

deposit. Following the example of John, who, running faster than Peter, and arriving first at the Sepulchre, nevertheless abstained from entering, so Sfondrato, through deference for the Chief of the Apostolic College, after giving suitable orders, started for Frascati where Clement VIII. bad-gone to enjoy the country air. Baronius was with the Pontiff. He will give his own narration of the great event.

11 Clement was confined to his bed with a violent attack of gout, and admitted no one to an audience ; but as soon as he heard the motive of Sfondrato's arrival, he immediately requested to see the Cardinal, and hear from his own lips, the account of this wonderful discovery. The Pontiff listened to the recital with extreme joy, and was deeply grieved that he was unable, on account of his illness, to go immediately and pay his respects to the great martyr.* Now it happened that this disappointment turned to my advantage, for, notwithstanding my unworthiness, the Pontiff commissioned me to identify and venerate the body of St. Cecilia. Without loss of time, Sfondrato immediately set out for Eome ; I accompanied him, and the same evening, we reached the Church of St. Cecilia.

" I saw the $y press coffin which had been enclosed in the marble sarcophagus. It contained Cecilia's body, and was closed with a very thin and somewhat inj ured cover. I gazed with admiration at the simple wooden coffin so perfectly preserved after having been buried in the earth for eight hundred and seventy

• Ex eo tamen doluit et ingemuit, quod eo detineretur ex mala valetudine impedimento, et non valeret ad invisendam et salutandani tantain Martyrein pioperare. Baronius. Annal. ad annum &21.

eight years, where neither light nor air could penetrate, and constantly exposed to decay from the humidity of the marble in which it was enclosed. It was so solid that it could be touched and even handled without being in the least injured. The cover was likewise so perfect that for several days the coffin was continually opened and closed to satisfy the devotion of those who wished to see and venerate the holy Martyr."

" Having fully examined and admired the shrine, we wished to see the sacred body which it inclosed. Then were verified the words of David : L As we have heard, so have we seen, in the city of the Lord of hosts in the city of our God.' "*

We found Cecilia's body in precisely the same condition in which it was when Pope Paschal discovered and buried it. At her feet, the blood-stained linen ; the dress of silk and gold, which the Pontiff described, perfectly recognizable, although somewhat impaired by time.f

" We remarked other light silken textures upon the body, their depression aided us in perfectly distinguishing the beautiful cumbent figure so modestly and gracefully distended. We were struck with admiration to see that the body was not stretched out in the coffin, as the bodies of the dead generally are. The chaste virgin was lying upon her right side as if gently sleeping on a couch, her knees modestly

• Ps. xlvii. 9.

f Etenim ut a Paschali Papa inventum et reoonditum fuisse legimus venerandum Csecilia) corpus, ita iuvenimus, uempe ad pedes ejus qua? fuerant, madida sanguine vela, »it seiica tilaauro obdueta quae vis ebantur, jam vetustate solu® vestis illiua auro textoB oujus idem Paschal is meminit, indices erant. Baronius, A n no 1. ad annum 821.

joined, "her whole appearance inspiring such, respect, that notwithstanding our pious curiosity, no one ventured to touch her.^Every one was deeply moved with veneration, as if her heavenly Spouse, watching over her sleep, had uttered these words: 'I adjure, you that you wake not my beloved till she please.'*

" We saw, we recognized, we venerated.f The next morning we offered the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass upon the altar of the Confession, in memory and in honor of this glorious Virgin Martyr and the other Saints buried near her. We then returned to Frascati, and reported all we had seen to the sovereign Pontiff. Clement listened with satisfaction, and immediately commenced to make arrangements for the translation of this august body to her Confession, a ceremony which he declared he alone would perform to the exclusion of any other prelate, no matter how eminent his dignity. The Feast of St. Cecilia was the day appointed for the translation."^:

We will discontinue the recital of this great an-

• Alia vero supra Martyris corpus serica, levia tamen velamina posita, ipsaque depressa situm ipsum et habitudinem corporis ostendebant. Visebaturque (quod admiratione dignum erat) non ut assolet in sepulehro resupinum positum corpus, sed ut in lecto jacens bones tissima virgo supra dextrum cubare latus, contractis nonnibil ad modestiam genibus, ut dormientis imagineni reddere potius quam defunctce, ipso ita ad insinuandam in omnibus virginalem verecundiam composito situ corporis: adeo ut (quod seque mirandum) nemo quamvis curiosus inspector ausus omnino fuerit virgineum illud detegere corpus reverentia quandam inenarrabilii repercussus, perinde ac si coelestis Sponsus assisteret vigilans custos dormientis sponsae, monens et minans : Ne suscitetis neque evigilare faciatis dilectam donee ipsa velit. Annal. ad annum 821.

f Vidimus, cognovimus et adoravimus. Ibid.

X Baronius. Annal ad annum 821.

nalist, and beg our readers to consider with us one of the most touching characteristics of the Catholic Church, so divinely manifested in the scenes we have already related, and those which are yet untold. A statesman of our day has remarked, that " Catholicity is the greatest school for respect upon earth ;" we will add that religion, as it is taught and practised in the Catholic Church, is the inexhaustible source of the most elevated and noble emotions which man can experience. From it flow the many acts of devotedness, the many generous sacrifices, and the noble enthusiasm characteristic of the Catholic Church. Would you know whence she derives her marvellous power ? Doubtless from the doctrine and example of our Saviour, who, since His ascension to heaven, has been pleased to reproduce in his Saints the admirable virtues He himself practised. Hence that love, that continual remembrance in the Church, of the heroes she has produced. Hence the ever old and always new development of charity which is unceasingly going on within her. The Saints live with God in a blessed eternity ; and the Church in this valley of tears continually feels their protection. Therefore she unceasingly loves them, rejoices in honoring them, and in proposing them to our imitation. If we cling to our departed friends with that love which the Scripture says is stronger than death,* how great must be the confidence of the Church in the intercession of the Saints, who are now far more tenderly interested in each one of her children, and far more powerful to aid them than when they were

• Cant. viii. 6.

themselves sojourning in this vale of tears. Behold Clement VIII. the austere old man, who during two entire years had refused to the triumphant Henry of Navarre the absolution which through the medium of his ambassadors, he implored upon his knees. Behold this Pontiff, who inherited all the energy of his predecessors, and unshrinkingly bore the weight of the tiara at the very time when so many provinces of Europe were separating from the Church ; behold his great soul filled with joy on hearing that the remains of a Christian lady of the third century had been discovered! As soon as his strength permitted, he repaired in person to venerate the precious relic. He watered it with tears of joy and emotion ; he esteemed among the greatest events of his pontificate the translation of Cecilia's coffin to a splendid casket, to purchase which he almost exhausted the papal treasury.

Such a spectacle is incomprehensible to those not initiated in Catholicity, but can any thing more strikingly show the veneration of the Church toward those who have carried the practice of virtue even to heroism ? After the lapse of six centuries, Paschal rivals St. Urban, in his respectful tenderness towards the virgin, and eight centuries later, the daughter of the Cecilii finds the same pious affection in the heart of Clement. Add to this, that the sepulture given to the virgin by Paschal was much more solemn than that she received from Urban's hands ; and that the enthusiasm manifested at the last translation of her body, far exceeded that shown in the ninth century, w^hen her Basilica was restored by Paschal.

Now, however, the Eeformation was triumphing ; memorials which had been cherished for centuries, were trampled under foot ; the bones of the saints were thrown into the highways, because they recalled too vividly the example of those sublime virtues which were so uncongenial to a century emancipated from the superstitions of popery. Nevertheless, Eome, the capital of the Christian world, cursed by so many nations, and called the Prostitute of Babylon, was agitated with as deep a joy on hearing that the body of a young Eoman matron, martyred under Alexander Severus, had been discovered, as if she had been told that a treasure, sufficient to enrich each of her inhabitants, had been suddenly revealed. And why was this? Because this young Eoman virgin, who had been buried for so many centuries, was the model of a purity worthy of Angels, of an inviolable devotedness to the God to whom she had consecrated herself, of an ardent zeal for the salvation of souls, of tender charity for the poor, of invincible firmness in confessing the faith which elevates human nature, of courage in twice braving death, and, finally, of that inexpressible charm resulting from the sublime virtue of Christian virginity.

Such were in the third, the ninth, and the sixteenth centuries, and such will be to the end of time, Cecilia's claims to the love of Christians. Past generations loved her, because, by her example, she traced out for them the path which leads to a better world; and now, at the close of an heretical century, she suddenly reappears, as if to re-enkindle the spark of heavenly fire, almost extinct upon earth

How could Catholicity resist such an appeal? Is it astonishing that the Father of the Faithful, the Supreme Head of that Church, so sadly decimated by heresy, should welcome with joy, and salute with gladness one of its most noble and privileged daughters ? Is it astonishing that the pious and learned Baronius should have laid aside his immortal pen, to hasten to Cecilia's tomb, whence the glorious martyr was silently proclaiming to the worid that the Church of Clement VIII. is the Church of Urban, because it is the Church of Jesus Christ ? Is it surprising that the wealthy and generous Sfondrato henceforth devoted his zeal and his riches to adorning Cecilia's temple, when we consider that the object of this holy profusion was to encourage Catholics to practise those virtues which form the eternal crown of the virgin martyr ? This pomp, these gifts, and honors, the transports of the entire city, from the venerable old man who wore the tiara, down to the most humble of his subjects, could not indeed restore to the Church, the half of Germany, which had fallen a victim to heresy, nor England, Sweden, Denmark, and the Swiss Cantons now alienated from the Church, which had been their common Mother for centuries. But they attested that even in this fearful crisis, holiness, purity of life, and the heroism of devotedness, were as much respected in Eome, as they had ever been. The time will come when the misguided nations that have seceded from the Faith, fatigued with doubts and incredulity, will turn towards the only country where the Ideal of virtue can never be lost, since it is placed upon the altar.