“St Cecilia Patron Saint of Music”, Brian Whelan, now in the Music Room, St Paul’s on the Green, Norwalk, Connecticut, US.
St Cecilia hasn’t usually been shown at a session in a bar, but this is how contemporary artist Brian Whelan envisages the patron saint of music. Accompanied by seven male musicians, her green eyes stare at the viewer as she sings. There is a bodhrán on the lower left decorated with shamrocks and one of the men to the right wears what looks like an Irish football top. On the table there are glasses of Irish stout. Clearly, the artist is drawing on his own London- Irish, Catholic roots. Although, the scene has a very Irish feel, it might just be an Irish pub in Rome’s Trastevere. St Cecilia is one of the virgin martyrs of Rome. She is numbered in the Roman Canon. Her legend says that she had taken a vow of virginity but was forced into a marriage with a pagan named Valerian. after the wedding she told him that she was protected by an angel who would punish him if he tried to have sex with her. She promised that he would see the angel if he was baptised by the Pope. He was and he saw the angel crowing her with the roses and lilies, which she wears in this painting. Along with her husband she was soon put to death for her faith. She received three blows from a sword to her neck but survived three days – long enough to ask the Pope to convert her home into a church. You can find it in Trastevere. The connection with music comes from the detail mentioned in her legend that at the wedding reception she sat alone and sang to God in her heart. Perhaps, here she stares upward, not at us, but at God. We celebrate her feast day on Saturday. St Cecilia pray for us!
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The Catholic Chaplaincy is also a parish of the Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh (the Parish of St Albert the Great) and all Catholic students and staff are automatically members of this parish.
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