This special Mass will be celebrated by Very Rev Dr David Ranson VG at St Cecilia's Church, 23 Byron Street, Wyong on the 23rd of November 2024 at 11am. Please RSVP on 4352 1011 or via email at wyongparish@bbcatholic.org.au About St Cecilia What we know for certain about St. Cecilia is that she lived, was a follower of Christ, and died a martyr. Her name is in the Eucharistic Prayer 1 (Roman Canon) of the Mass, and she is the Patron Saint of music and musicians. Cecilia, who was born into a wealthy and noble Roman family, vowed her virginity to God. Her parents forced her to marry a pagan nobleman named Valerian. On her wedding night, Cecilia told Valerian that an angel of God guards her virginity. Valerian promised to respect this if he was allowed to see the Angel. Cecilia sent him to the future Pope Urban 1 who instructed him in the faith and baptized him. On his return to Cecilia, he saw the angel. Valerian shared his faith with his brother, Tiberius, who was converted and also baptized. The brothers committed themselves to the faith but, finally, were arrested and executed with the sword for refusing to deny their faith and were buried along the Appian Way. Cecilia was arrested, then refused to worship the false gods, and condemned to be suffocated in the vapour bath in her home. Although she was shut in for a night and a day and the fires heaped up Cecilia was not affected. Next, an experienced executioner was sent to behead her. She was struck three times on the neck, as was the law, but her head was not severed. The executioner fled, leaving the Saint alive, fully conscious, with her head half severed. She was lying on her right side, her hands crossed in prayer before her. She turned her face to the floor and remained praying in that position for three days and nights. The position of her fingers, three extended on her right hand and one on the left, were her final silent profession of faith in the Holy Trinity. The early Christians clothed her body in rich robes of silk and gold and placed it in a cypress coffin in the same position in which she had expired. At her feet were placed the linen cloths and veils which were used to collect her blood. She was laid to rest in the Catacomb of St. Callistus. In 1599 Cecilia’s body was exhumed and found miraculously preserved in the original cypress casket. When the casket was opened, her mortal remains were found in the same position as when she had died. The Basilica of St. Cecilia, at Trastevere, is the Church built on the site of St. Cecilia’s family mansion. Her tomb is under the main altar. In the second chapel, called the Caldarium, is the room where St. Cecilia was condemned to death. Here also are found the remains of an ancient Roman bathroom. The marble slab on the altar is the one on which Cecilia is believed to have survived the suffocation and may be the slab which marked the place of her death. Relic Mari Palomares, the parish secretary, at St Luke’s Revesby was given the relic by Sister Cecilia Mahoney, a Josephite Sister in the early 1990’s. Mari reports: “Sr. Cecilia wanted to give the relic to one who would appreciate it. Years later, like Sr. Cecilia I wanted to pass it on where it would be treasured. After much prayer, it came to me that my niece belonged to St Cecilia’s Parish, Wyong. That’s when I approached her and offered her the relic for the church, was so pleased that the parish accepted this offering and I pray that it will be a blessing to the parish. I feel that now the relic is home”