Lenten Station At Santa Cecilia In Trastevere. Wednesday Of The Second Week In Lent.

Roman Text is taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal.

Italic Text, Illustrations and Captions, are taken from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,
unless otherwise stated.

Indulgence of 10 years and 10 Quarantines.
Violet Vestments.

Interior of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, Rome.

Photo: 2007-05-19 (original upload date).

Source: Originally from en.wikipedia; description page is/was here.

Author: Original uploader was Dreamword at en.wikipedia

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Station is at the Sanctuary where the body of the illustrious Roman Virgin, Saint Cecilia, rests. It was there she lived and died a Martyr. In the 5th-Century, this Church was mentioned as one of the most celebrated Parochial or Titular Churches of Rome. It is situated in Trastevere. It was customary to read in this Church the Gospel in which Jesus tells a woman it is necessary to drink His chalice, if one is to participate in His glory.

We read, at the Epistle, the Prayer of Mardochai, in favour of the Jewish people, whom the impious Aman had determined to destroy. He implored the Lord to turn their sadness into joy. The Christian people, in the same way, are mourning in their Lenten Penance and are looking forward to the holy Paschal joys. But, to deserve them, as the Gospel tells us, we must first drink the chalice of the One who came to shed His blood to redeem us and who will make us sharers in His resurrection, if we die to our sins.

Let us abstain from the food which sustains our bodies, and from the vices which poison our Souls (Collect).

Basilica di Santa Cecilia in Trastevere.

Photo: January 2006.

Source: Own work.

Author: MarkusMark.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Martyrdom of Saint Cecilia, 
by Stefano Maderno (1575 - 1636), 

Church of Saint Cecilia, Rome.

One of the most famous examples of Baroque sculpture.

Photo: January 2005.

Source: Flickr

Author: Sébastien Bertrand from Paris, France.

Reviewer: Andre Engels.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Ciborium,
Church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere,
Rome, Italy.
Attributed to Arnolfo di Cambio.

Photo: June 2012.

Source: Own work.

Author: Ktulu.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Crypt Chapel of Santa Cecilia.

Photo: December 2006.

Source: Porkister

Author: Claudiu Georgescu.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The first Church on this site was founded probably in the 3rd-Century, by Pope Urban I; it was devoted to the Roman martyr, Cecilia, martyred it is said, under Marcus Aurelius Severus Alexander.

By the Late-5th-Century, at the Synod of 499 A.D. of Pope Symmachus, the Church is indicated with the Titulus Ceciliae. Tradition holds that the Church was built over the house of the Saint. 

The Baptistery associated with this Church, together with the remains of a Roman house of the early Empire, was found during excavations under the Chapel of the Relics. On 22 November, 545 A.D., Pope Vigilius was celebrating the Saint in the Church, when the emissary of Empress Theodora, Antemi Scribone, captured him.

Pope Paschal I rebuilt the Church in 822 A.D., and moved here the relics of Saint Cecilia from the catacombs of Saint Calixtus. More restorations followed in the 18th-Century.

The Crypt of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere.

Photo: 2005-06-01.

Photographer: tieseb

Original Source: Flickr.com

Original Photo: [1]

(Wikimedia Commons)

With the death of Carlo Maria Martini in 2012, there is currently no Cardinal Priest assigned to the Titulus S. Caeciliae. Among the previous Titulars are Pope Stephen III, Adam Easton, Thomas Wolsey and Giuseppe Maria Doria Pamphili.

Among the artefacts remaining from the 13th-Century are a mural painting, depicting the Final Judgment (1289-93) by Pietro Cavallini, in the Choir of the Monks, and the Ciborium (1293) in the Presbytery by Arnolfo di Cambio. The Gothic Ciborium is surrounded by four marble columns, white and black, decorated with statuettes of Angels, Saints, Prophets, and Evangelists. The Apse has remains of 9th-Century mosaics, depicting the Redeemer with Saints Paul, Cecilia, Paschal I, Peter, Valerian, and Agatha.

Italiano: Roma, Santa Cecilia in Trastevere: 

Interno verso l'ingresso e coretti delle monache in luogo dell'organo.

English: Interior of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere. 
Looking towards the Organ Loft.

Photo: December 2006.

User: Lalupa

(Wikimedia Commons)

Among the most remarkable works, is the graphic Altar sculpture of Saint Cecilia (1600) by the Late-Renaissance sculptor, Stefano Maderno. The pavement in front of the statue encloses a marble slab, with Maderno's sworn statement that he has recorded the body as he saw it when the tomb was opened in 1599. 

The statue depicts the three axe strokes described in the 5th-Century account of her martyrdom. It also is meant to underscore the incorruptibility of her body (an attribute of some Saints), which miraculously still had congealed blood after centuries. 

The Crypt is also noteworthy, decorated in the Cosmatesque style, containing the relics of Saint Cecilia and her husband, Saint Valerian.