Why
kill a woman?
Ordinarily,
only men were required to perform the rite of burning incense in honor
of the emperor. Women had no public role in Roman society; everything
they did was considered a private act. Women would be held publicly
accountable for their behavior only if they stepped out of the private
world of home and family and acted in the public sphere. So what did
Cecilia do to be considered a threat to Roman order?
She
must have continued to practice her Christian faith publicly. The
Christian community must have continued meeting in her home. She must
have continued providing for the poor of Trastevere, earning their
love and respect, threatening the hold of the Roman State, source
of bread and circuses, on their loyalty. Whatever her public activity,
she became such a threat that the Roman prefect sent a detachment
of soldiers across the Tiber River and through the narrow, winding
streets of Trastevere to arrest her in her house. When she refused
to sacrifice to the gods she was sentenced to be suffocated in her
own bathroom.
The
way Cecilia was martyred, in her own house, seems to indicate that
people held her in high regard. Otherwise, why kill her in secret?
Wealthy Roman homes often had three private baths in their homes:
a calidarium, a tepidarium and a frigidarium. Cecilia was locked in
the calidarium or steam room for three days, but she survived. She
was then beheaded right in her own home. The private execution was
to prevent public demonstrations in her favor. (illustration above:
Cecilia receives her martyr's crown, from an illuminated manuscript)
a
strong woman who found herself
The
first Christian martyrs •
Cecilia, an early saint •
Lawrence, the deacon
Sebastian, the soldier saint • act
with Compassion • front
page
