The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-01-27

OqudlluO corpus DedIum
Protruit cilcio;
Noctis horas ct dici a
Mentis implens cantico."
The Acts of St. Cecilia were compil-
ed about the year 455 and were even
translated into Greek. They were
availed of for the prefaces of the five
Masses in honor of st. Cecilia in the
Leonine Sacramentary, a collection
completed in 400. Earlier still, as we
learn from st. Jerome's Martyrology,
the feast of st. Cecilia (Sept. 16) was
celebrated in the western Church in
the fourth century, but when her body
was brought to the church erected in
her honor in the Transtevere quarter
of Rome the date of her feast was
changed to Nov. %. This was in the
first half of the fifth century, as is
evident from the signatures of the
Roman council of 499, in which the
church in the Via Appia is mentioned
as "titulus Sanctae Caeciliae." 1t is
now generally admitted that the
Church of St. Cecilia in Transtevere
was erected on the site of the virgin
martyrs home by Pope Sixtus III in
436, and her feast is commemorated
in the Gelasian Sacramentary and in
the Martyrology of st. Bede. st. Ce-
ella is also commemorated in the
Canon of the Mass.
1t does not come within the scope
of the present article to discuss the
~ of % orsfxy
but the consensus of modern opinion
favors the year 229. Neither does it
concern us to combat the objection
that the organ as an instrument was
not known in the third century. 1t is
merely necessary to note that Opta-
tian, in 145, describes the organs OF
his day, while Hero, Claudian the poet,
and the Emperor Julian the apostate,
refer explicitly to organs. Other ref
erences may be found in st. Jerome,
st. Augustin, Theoderet, Julianus and
Cassiodorns. And-strongest evidence
of all-there is yet preserved at Car
thage an organ dating from the sec
ond century.
St. Aldhelm, in 6S8, plainly alludes
to st. Cecilia's connection with music,
and this evidence, which 1 was one
of the first investigators to point out,
points to the early cult of st. Cecilia
in Ireland in the sixth century. True
it is that the oldest known representa-
ton of st. Cecilia in the Church of
st. Apollinari Nuevo at Ravenna, circa
$40, does not include musical instru-
ment, but the tradition was at the
time in vogue and must have been
known to the Irish monks of the sixth
century. On all hands it is conceded
that st. Aldhelm was taught by our
Irish st. Maildubh, the founder of
Mailduffsburgh (Malmesbury), in $50,
and in his charming poem, De Laudi
Virgintatis, written in $50, he refers
as follows to st. Cecilia's musical
fame: "Quamvis harmoniis praesul-
tent organa multis, Musica Pierio re-
sonent, eli carmina cantu."
The final seal of st. Cecilia's cult
at patroness of church music was
when on May 8, 822, Pope st. Paschal
I solemnly translated the relics Of the
saint, and inaugurated perpetual
choral celebration in honor of the
saint. The great English poet, Chauc-
er, in his Second Nonne's Tale, al
ludes to st. Cecilia as follows, giving
an almost literal translation of the
Latin Antiphon sung at Lauds and
Vespers on the feast of st. Cecilia:
"And while that organs MAIDEN melody
To God alone thus in hir bert song
she."
Incidentally, this quotation from
Chaucer points to the cult of st. &C.
ella in England in the fourteenth CEN
fury.
Louvain-now alas! mourning her
famous university and art treasures
was the first municipality to place
a musical society under the patronage
of st. Cecilia. This was in the year
1902. It had been agreed on by the