Patron Saint of Music
St. Cecilia, feast day 22 November
St. Cecilia is the patron saint of music and musicians, with her feast on 22 November. A Roman martyr of the early Church, her patronage may rest on a misreading of her own account, and AngelGuard publishes both the story and the honest doubt about it.
Quick facts
Why St. Cecilia?
Cecilia was a Roman noblewoman and martyr of the early Church, and her patronage of music has one of the more interesting origins in the calendar. The account of her life says that as the musicians played at her wedding, she sang in her heart to God alone. That line, in later readings, was taken to mean that she sang or played, and by the medieval period she was firmly established as the patron of music. Some scholars think the patronage rests on a misreading of a phrase about instruments in the original account. Nobody is certain. What is striking is that the mistake, if it was one, produced something true. The detail everyone remembers is that while the world around her was making noise, she was singing to God where no one could hear it. That is a better description of what sacred music is for than most deliberate ones, and it is why the patronage has never felt arbitrary despite its shaky foundation. Her feast on 22 November is marked by musical societies, choirs, and conservatories across the world, many of them entirely secular. She is one of the few saints whose patronage crossed fully out of the Church and kept going.
How to ask their intercession
Musicians traditionally ask her intercession before performing, and choirs often keep her feast. There is nothing complicated required. If you make music at all, whether professionally or badly in a kitchen, the request is the same one: that it be offered rather than merely performed.