Power of God

St. Cecilia was reportedly given in marriage by her parents to a pagan named Valerian. It was a marriage that St. Cecilia did not want, as she had dedicated her virginity to God.

However, she did not run away from the marriage and consented to it, but informed Valerian of her vow.

In the evening of her wedding day, with the music of the marriage hymn ringing in her ears, CECILIA, a rich, beautiful, and noble Roman maiden, renewed the vow by which she had consecrated her virginity to God. “Pure be my heart and undefiled my flesh; for I have a spouse you know not of—an angel of my Lord.”

The heart of her young husband Valerian was moved by her words; he received Baptism, and within a few days he and his brother Tiburtius, who had been brought by him to a knowledge of the Faith were baptized by Pope Urbanus.

When approached by the executioners, Cecilia stated: “Do you not know,” was her answer to the threats of the prefect, “that I am the bride of my Lord Jesus Christ?”

The death appointed for her was suffocation, and she remained a day and a night in a hot-air bath, heated seven times its hottest. But “the flames had no power over her body, neither was a hair of her head singed.”

The executioner sent to dispatch her struck with trembling hand the three blows which the law allowed, and left her still alive. For two days and nights Cecilia lay with her head, half severed on the pavement of her bath, fully sensible, and joyfully awaiting her crown; on the third the agony was over, and in end the virgin Saint gave back her pure spirit to Christ.

Valerian then dedicated himself to Christ and distributed alms to the poor and buried Christians. His activities drew the attention of the Roman government and was quickly martyred.

Valerian’s body would later be buried next to St. Cecilia.

Their marriage may have been brief, but they remain a powerful example of a couple who was fully dedicated to God.