Originally she was buried in the catacombs, so I learned about her there, but her remains were moved to her church later, which I where I visited today.
Okay, a little about Saint Cecilia, since she's my favorite saint I've learned about so far. In the second century, real early Christianity, she was this noblewoman. Our tour guide said that she was really young when she died, like, fourteen. So she's this really young girl, and she gets given in marriage to this other nobleman. She prays to God to not let him take her virginity. Now, all the Catholic websites say this was because she wanted her heart and her body pure forever. Personally, I think it was because she was probably around eleven years old, given in marriage to this guy she didn't know and didn't choose, and he was probably more like thirty-five- she was scared! She's still a baby. So she prays to God that no man can ever touch her.
God does her one better. He sends this angel with two flaming swords to watch over her and make sure that her new husband never takes her virginity. She warns him, on their wedding night, that there's an angel watching over her and it's gonna be really mad if he tries anything. (I think Cecilia had more steel that we normally expect from young girls. She sounds pretty sharp from what I've read.) And her husband, of course, is like "wait what. There's an angel now? Where is it? Show it to me." She tells him to go get baptized, and he does, then he comes back and sees this avenging angel above her, guarding her. The angel gives them both these flower crowns.
So they convert to Christianity, and she preaches and converts a bunch of people, and finally the government gets wind of this and decides to kill her. They lock her in the baths in her own home and crank up the fires really, really far, to the point where there's no air in there at all.
Cecilia doesn't die. Cecilia doesn't even sweat. Cecilia sings holy songs the entire time.
After a day and a night of this, they send in an executioner, and again, Cecilia is probably fourteen. The executioner hits her three times in the neck and still, Cecilia doesn't die. She holds her head on and lives for three more days, all while bleeding all over, praying, giving last blessings, and still singing.
Finally she dies, and gets buried in the catacombs. They dig her up centuries later and find her body still perfectly preserved. It's the first instance of this happening in history, and it's seen as a miracle.
Now she's the patron saint of music and musicians, and she's got this church.
Honestly, I wanted to come to this church even before I got here. There's this one blogger I follow that posts a lot of creepy and eerie stuff, like abandoned places and scary stories, and earlier she posted a picture of the statue inside the church. It's a fairly well-known statue. So I wanted to see it.
The church at first surprised me. I was half-expecting a run-down looking building. (A lot of churches are like this in Italy- they look all sad and not taken care of, then you walk in and there's all this amazing art and gold everywhere.)
And the garden was very pretty. Lots of different kinds of roses. It felt like something a fourteen-year-old girl would want.
The inside of the church was pretty typical. Art, decorated ceilings, the usual. Like all churches here, they had these offering stands where you could make an offering, say a prayer, and light a candle- it acts as a blessing. Normally I don't do that- I leave it to the actual Catholics around here- but I've been a little nervous about flying out to Palermo because the airport isn't the safest. So I lit a candle for Jesus and another for Mary and asked them to keep an eye out for me this weekend.
This is the famous sculpture. It's supposed to be Cecilia after she died. It's so weird to look at it in person- it feels like if you look at it for long enough, you'll notice it breathing. The hands have two fingers extended on one hand and one on the other- it's supposed to stand for the father, the son, and the holy ghost.
So, I see the statue, I wander around the church. I'm about ready to go, when I see this sign. It's in Italian, so it takes me a minute to read, but when I figure it out, it says something like "to go down in the crypts is 2.50". And you know me, if you've been reading this blog, I am all about crypts and catacombs and all that stuff. So I find these stairs, pay the old gentleman at the table 2.50, and go down into the crypts.
First of all, I passed someone coming down, but that was all. I was all alone down there, probably because it's 11 am on a Thursday and not exactly peak crypt viewing time. So it's just me. And it's so quiet. But it doesn't feel creepy, for some reason. And it is big. Other crypts, live I've been in at Assisi, is just one room that you go in, see the remains, say a prayer, and leave. This was way bigger. Lots of winding hallways and rooms, and lots more that was blocked off. I wonder how deep it went.
Honestly, the creepiest part was when, after about ten minutes of poking around, I suddenly came to this underground church area. It was just all ruins, and then suddenly this lavish worship area. It kinda felt like I was about to stumble onto some secret cult or something.
And, at the front, behind the gates, is Saint Cecila's remains.
And then I left, got a falafel from a shop nearby, and came back to school. Not a bad morning.
