How Can I Keep From Singing ? Saint Cecilia. Patroness Of Musicians.

"Saint Cecilia," 1599, Church of Santa Cecilia, Trastevere, Rome, Italy.

Sculptor: Stefano Maderno (1576 – 1636).

In the sculpture, Saint Cecilia extends three fingers with her right hand and one with her left, testifying to the Trinity. The sculptor attested that this was how the Saint's body looked 

when her tomb was opened in 1599.

Photographed at the Church of Santa Cecilia, Trastevere, Rome, Italy, 

by Richard Stracke. Please credit the photographer and the Church.

Date: 26 September 2011 (original upload date).

Source: Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by 

User:ТимофейЛееСуда using CommonsHelper.

Author: Dickstracke at en.wikipedia.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The following Text is taken from the Blog, TRANSALPINE REDEMPTORISTS

One of my happiest mornings was spent in 2008 in Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, built upon the remains of the house of Saint Cecilia. Time spent in the Crypt of this Roman Church is truly an extraordinary experience, as it is left almost as the Saint would have known it, the large grain pits near which she was imprisoned, the Shrine even to Minerva, set there by her pagan relatives. 

Most wonderful was to be favoured with the key to the gated, almost Ciborium-like, golden Chapel under the High Altar, where one can see the sarcophagi of the Saint, with that of her chaste husband, Saint Valerian, through a stone lattice. 

I had read the wonderful account of the finding, in the 1500s, of her incorrupt relics, still stretched downwards as she had fallen, the blood still fresh in the wounds on her neck, and this more than a thousand years after her death.

As nobody dared to touch them in this wonderful state, to this day we have no idea of what her face looked like and that is why the famous statues of her, carved by one who had seen the Miracle, never show her face directly, she is always stretched downwards. There, close to her Shrine, all of this came alive in my mind.

The famous phrase, associated with the Holy Martyr, is "singing to God in her heart", it is what Holy Tradition tells us she did in the direst moment of her life, and it is considered, in some way, why she is the Patroness of Musicians. 

I know this is a little different, and I know the words to this song, which first appeared in 1868 of unknown origin, have been somewhat de-Christianised in this more modern version.

But, nonetheless, they fit Saint Cecilia very well and raise one’s heart and mind to remember a Holy and Innocent One, who will surely protect us in our direst needs, if we call upon her intercession, singing in our own hearts.

Br Nicodemus Mary, F.SS.R.


"My life goes on in endless song, above earth's lamentations, I hear the real, though far-off hymn, that hails a new creation. Through all the tumult and the strife, I hear its music ringing, it sounds an echo in my soul... how can I keep from singing?

"While though the tempest loudly roars, I hear the Truth, It liveth. And though the darkness 'round me close, songs in the night it giveth. No storm can shake my inmost calm, while to that Rock I'm clinging. Since Love is Lord of Heaven and earth... how can I keep from singing?

"When tyrants tremble in their fear and hear their death knell ringing; when friends rejoice both far and near... how can I keep from singing? In prison cell and dungeon vile our thoughts to them are winging; when friends by shame are undefiled... how can I keep from singing?"

How Can I Keep From Singing ?

Sung by Enya.

Available on YouTube at

http://youtu.be/MM8mOKfxmWw