Non-Fiction

Published March 13, 2023

Saint Cecilia in the Renaissance: The Emergence of a Musical Icon by John A. Rice. University of Chicago Press, 2022. 384 pages.

Despite her Roman origins, the musicians’ cult of St. Cecilia spread from Northern Europe to Italy only in the late 16th century. Rice devotes the last portion of his book to her popularity in Rome, which culminated in a 12-voice Mass for St. Cecilia by Palestrina and his colleagues.

Rice has identified the key factor that elevated St. Cecilia from a musician to the patron of music: her popularity in the confraternity culture of the Low Countries. Confraternities and guilds of musicians, seeing St. Cecilia portrayed with an organ, chose her as the patron saint of their organizations in the 16th century. Singers in many Flemish cities were awarded gifts of money, wine, and food on her feast day, November 22. The musicians themselves celebrated with a banquet, and two cities in northern France even held musical competitions for the occasion. Rice suggests that St. Cecilia’s popularity had as much if not more to do with the musicians’ desire to celebrate their own craft and receive gifts than with honoring the saint.

https://www.earlymusicamerica.org/web-articles/virgin-martyr-to-musician-cecilia-as-patron-saint/