Liturgy of the Hours for November 21
About Today for Presentation of Mary
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This is the Liturgy of the Hours for December 31. Your local date is .
![About Today - Saint Cecilia with an Angel by Orazio Gentileschi [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ad/Orazio_Gentileschi_-_Saint_Cecilia_with_an_Angel.JPG/512px-Orazio_Gentileschi_-_Saint_Cecilia_with_an_Angel.JPG)
November 22
Saint Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr
Memorial
St. Cecilia lived 2nd or 3rd century A.D. According to a late 5th-century legend she was married against her will to the future saint Valerian, then a pagan. She told Valerian that an angel of God wished her to remain a virgin. He promised to respect this wish if he were allowed to see the angel. She replied that he would if he were baptized. On his return from baptism he found Cecilia talking to the angel. She then converted his brother Tiburtius, who also saw the angel. Both men were martyred before she was.
St. Cecilia distributed her possessions to the poor, which enraged the prefect Almachius, who ordered her to be burned. When the flames did not harm her, she was beheaded. She was highly venerated in the early Roman Church and is the patron saint of musicians. [1][2][3][4]
Written by Sarah Ciotti
Reviewed by Fr. Hugh Feiss, OSB, STD
[1] F.L. Cross and E.A. Livingstone, The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (London: Oxford University Press, 1974), 257.
[2] Fr. Hugh Feiss, OSB, The Martyrology of the Monastery of the Ascension, 2008.
[3] Catholicpedia: The Original Catholic Encyclopedia (1917) for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. s.v. “St. Cecilia.”
[4] Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “St. Cecilia”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 2 Nov. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Cecilia
Personal Reflections
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seanmoylantd on November 22nd, 2023 at 2:20
St Cecilia
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