Festival of Saint Cecilia
Festival of Saint Cecilia In 1942 Benjamin Britten, whose birthday was on St Cecilia’s Day, revived the practise of composing an Ode in honour of St Cecilia. Sir Henry Wood wished to recreate the Festival but died before its revival in 1946. Since then, Help Musicians UK has organised the Festival to give thanks for and celebrate music and musicians. Today, a highlight of the Festival is the bringing together of the choirs of Westminster Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s Cathedral, to sing the premiere of an anthem specially commissioned by Help Musicians UK with the help of the RVW Trust. Previous composers include Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gerald Finzi, John Tavener, John Rutter, Roxanna Panufnik, Jonathan Dove and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies.
Saint Cecilia According to legend, Saint Cecilia was a Roman woman of noble birth who was martyred for her Christian faith circa 230. She devoted herself to Christianity with obsessive fervour at a time when the faith was outlawed, Pope Urban himself having been forced into hiding in the catacombs. Having resolved to live a chaste existence a crisis occurred when, without her consent, Cecilia’s father betrothed her to Valerian, a non-Christian, who awaited the arrival of their wedding day with eager anticipation of the consummation of his love for her.
History of Saint Cecilia The wedding day arrived and whilst musical instruments were playing, Cecilia is said to have “sung in her heart to God alone saying: Make my heart and my body pure that I be not confounded.” On their wedding night Cecilia told her new husband of her devotion to chastity, adding that an angel watched over her constantly to protect her purity. Valerian was ‘somewhat troubled’. Cecilia’s evangelical zeal converted her husband and he, in turn, his brother. Together they preached the gospel until they were captured and executed for their faith. Cecilia, having been arrested after her husband’s death, refused to renounce her religion and was condemned to death by being baked in a bath for three days. When this had no effect, she was given three blows to the neck but remained alive for three days, during which time she gave all her possessions to the poor.
Entombed in the catacombs by Pope Urban, her burial place was lost for 600 years until Cecilia appeared in a vision to Pope Paschal in 824 and told him where her remains could be found. Reputed to cure blindness and deafness, her tomb was a place of pilgrimage over the ensuing centuries. In 1683 the Musical Society was formed to counteract the Puritan view that music, whether sacred or secular, was dangerous fare – an opinion that had survived the Commonwealth. In order to keep St Cecilia’s Day, on 22nd November each year, the Society attended a service in London, usually at St Bride’s, to enjoy a sermon preached in defence of cathedral music and an Anthem newly written for the Festival. Eventually the congregation moved to a City company’s hall where, before banqueting, they were entertained by a performance of an Ode. The composer at the first Festival was Purcell.
Festival of Saint Cecilia in pictures