FEAST OF ST. CECILIA.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 716, 15 January 1910, Page 9

FEAST OF ST. CECILIA.

Celebratedin'the- catacombs; ■ •_Thb,-I!east''.of- ; '-gt. : ''Cecniav : Patron ' of Music;■ martyred: under..Marcus ■ Aurolius m 177 in the.bathroom Vof her mansion; .was celebrated'with moro'than ordinary, solemnity (writes the Homo correspondent Of: the "Catholic Times"), for it marked' the' fiftieth': anniversary of the. reopening of the cult paid'by the primitive Christians to graves of..martyrs.'in the Catacombs.' Iu tho.beautiful ciuircli built on tho -site of the virgin niartyrVmansion in Trastovcre,'; which sho bequeathed with her.dying breath to servo the purposes of a Christian church, High Mass and Ves-' pers ',-«to sung by Cardinal Kainpolla; and. down in the.Catacomb of St. CaUisi tiis, where St. Cecilia was > laid to rest: in' her,coffin of cypress, wood ,by - ..Urban, Bishop (not Pope Urban as is often incbrr rectly stated), who lay therein: conceal-ment-from ■ his '■ enemies, the Cardinal Vicar of Pius ."X offered' up tho,- Holy Sacrifice in the early morning. "•■■ High Mass .was sungat 10.30 a.ni. by Mgr. fib Vaal, "Magister Cbllegii. Cultorum Mar-' tyrum," in the chapel of the virgin niartyr.on the'spot where Pqno : Paschal discovered her iheorrept body in 821 after; a search through"the vast.Jabyriiitlivtha'ti' lasted, for several: years, r and. was:",at: tended by' a . vast: congregation ■of .Catholics; and; persons; of various, denominations;'for hero, at, least all seem: able,to meet: in' fiiondship./.'Pcrhaps it'.would' not bo any exaggeration to say. that rarely has,-sacred music: been:heard to such nuy vantage as it.was.when torum, under tho direction of Mgr. Muller, sang the Mass, "0 Q.iiamGloribsUm." Eesounding from- tho ■ Chape! of St. Cecilia, where there, was not more than standing room for tho: sacred ministers,' the choir and, it;dozen individuals or sb, fortunate enough to find themselves there, tho harmony floated, out to the adjacent Chapel of the Popes and along tho winding: passages in which ,tourisis : of; many nations stood in semi-darkness and rested patiently against Hie clay • sides of tho subterranean cemetery, meditating on- the graves >of thousands ,of. -,tho:;;primitivo.. Christians that'•.• have been /rescued ,: from* oblivion by the .care of tho Holy See. /