Her legend relates that, about the year 230, which would be in the time of the Emperor Alexander Severus, Cecilia, a Roman lady, born of a noble and rich family, who in her early youth had been converted to Christianity, and had made a vow of perpetual virginity, was constrained by her parents to marry a certain Valerian, a pagan, whom she succeeded in converting to Christianity without infringing the vow she had made. She also converted her brother-in-law Tiburtius, and a friend called Maximus, all of whom were martyred in consequence of their faith. This is stated to have happened at Rome when one Almacus was prefect; but no such name is known to history. It is unfortunate also for Cecilia’s claim to a footing on the solid soil of history, that the earliest writer who makes mention of her, Fortunatus, bishop of Poitiers, represents her to have died in Sicily between the years 176 and 180. It is absurdly stated in the Biographie Universelle that Cecilia’s name is found in the most ancient martyrologies; whereas, as may be seen from Baronius, the earliest of these documents was compiled by Pope Clement I. who died in the year 100. The French writer maintains that her body must have been transported from Sicily to Rome subsequently to the 4th century, because the saint’s name is not found in the Roman calendar compiled in the time of Pope Liberius (ob. 363), from which fact no such conclusion can be drawn. The Roman tradition is that the church dedicated to St Cecilia was built on the site of the house inhabited by her, at her request, by Urban I. about the year 230. We do not reach any ground of certainty, till we come to the councils celebrated by Pope Symmachus in the year 499 (of which, however, some doubt the authenticity), in whose records this church is mentioned, two priests qualifying themselves in their subscription as priests of the church of St Cecilia.

This church was in a ruinous condition in the 9th century; and Pope Paschal I. (ob. 824) built it anew with much splendour. In the course of the work he was, we are told, visited by the saint in a vision, who informed him where her body was to be found in the cemetery of Callistus. Following her indications he found not only her body but those of her husband Valerian, her brother-in-law Tiburtius, their friend Maximus, the Popes Urban I. and Lucius I., and 900 other martyrs! All these Paschal transported with much solemnity and ceremonial to the new church of St Cecilia, which he dedicated to God, to the Virgin, to Saints Peter and Paul, and to Saints Cecilia and Agatha. Cardinal Sfondrati, nephew of Gregory XIV. (ob. 1591), who had his title as cardinal from this church, almost entirely rebuilt it; in the course of which operation the bodies of the saints were found, and were on the 22d of November, the day dedicated to St Cecilia, in the year 1599, deposited in a silver reliquary, and placed by Clement VIII., assisted by twenty-two cardinals, in a small crypt under the high altar. The silver urn was stolen by the French, as their custom was, at the period of their first occupation. One of the best known and most admired modern statues in Rome is that executed by Stefano Maderno in the 17th century, which represents the saint recumbent in her grave-clothes, and in the attitude in which she is described to have been found when her tomb was opened. The church was subsequently “redecorated,”—that is to say destroyed as regards architectural beauty,—in 1725 by Cardinal Doria, who built heavy piers around the columns of the nave, and enclosed with gratings an upper gallery, which must have been beautiful, in order to make accommodation for the nuns of the adjoining Benedictine monastery to hear, unseen, the services. Still, especially in the tribune at the east end of the church, some interesting relics of the old 9th century church may yet be seen there. The curious mosaics representing St Cecilia, and the other saints to whom Pope Paschal dedicated the church, belong to that period.

The church of St Cecilia is situated at the further end of that part of the city called Trastevere, near the quay of the Ripa Grande, a region which tradition declares to have been the earlier “Foro degli Ebrei,” or quarters assigned to the J ews,—a “ghetto,” as the part of the city so destined was subsequently called. Here it is said that St Peter, as a Hebrew, was lodged on his first arrival in Rome, and hence began to preach the gospel.

This church has from its first foundation given his “title” to a cardinal priest. For many generations it was the custom for the popes, accompanied by all their cardinals, to celebrate a “Capella papale” here on certain days in the year. And down to the present time, on the 22d of November in each year, the best church music still to be met with in Rome (which is not, however, saying much) may be heard in the church of St Cecilia.