Moodubelle: Choir Day observed on the occasion of the Feast of St. Cecilia

By Eugene Moodubelle
Bellevision Media network

Moodubelle, 20 November 2011: The choir members of St. Lawrence parish, Moodubelle observed the ‘Choir Day’ on Sunday, 20 November 2011 at 8.30 am in the parish hall on the occasion of the feast of St. Cecilia, the patron saint of musicians and church music which is observed n 22 November.

 

In a brief programme, Fr. Joswey Fernandes, parish priest highlighted the importance of the choir in conducting not only Masses but also other liturgical services in the church. He greatly appreciated the contribution and service rendered by the Church Choir and thanked Fr. Paul Sequeira, the Director of the Church Choir for training the choir members and the organ players. He also appreciated the work done by Mrs. Matilda Quadros, the President of the church choir, her husband-Charles Quadros, who is also a choir member and said that along with their two sons the entire family has been devoted to the choir. He also lauded the contribution of all the forty members of the choir, children, youth and adults for sparing time for practice and being present in large numbers for singing in the church during liturgical services. 

 

 

Fr. Paul Sequeira has trained young boys and girls for playing organ during the choir singing. These include: Christopher D’Souza, Clive Quadros, Ashish Alva, Plancy Almeida and Rachel Fernandes.

 

Mrs. Teresa Alva welcomed the guests and the members of the choir, Joy Fernandes, the Secretary of the choir compeered the programme and proposed the vote of thanks.

 

About St. Cecilia:

It is believed that St. Cecilia was born in the 2nd or 3d century A.D., although the dates of her birth and martyrdom are unknown. A religious romance telling the love story of Saint Cecilia and Valerian appeared in Greece during the 4th century A.D., and there is a biography of St Cecilia dating from the 5th century A.D. She is believed to have been the daughter of a wealthy Roman family, a Christian from birth, who was promised in marriage to a pagan named Valerian.

 

 

Cecilia, however, had vowed her virginity to God, and wore sackcloth, fasted and prayed in hopes of keeping this promise. Saint Cecilia disclosed her wishes to her husband on their wedding night. She told Valerian that an angel watched over her to guard her purity. He wanted to see the angel, so St. Cecilia sent him to Pope Urban(223-230). Accounts of how and when Valerian saw the angel vary, but one states that he was baptized by the Pope, and, upon his return to Saint Cecilia, they were both given heavenly crowns by an angel. Another version recounts that Tibertius, Valerian’s brother, sees the crowns and he too is converted.The two brothers then make it their mission to bury Christian martyrs put to death by the prefect of the city. In turn, they were brought in front of the prefect and sentenced to death by the sword. Cecilia, in the meantime, continued to make many conversions, and prepared to have her home preserved as a church at her death.

 

Finally, she too was arrested and brought before the prefect. He ruled that she should die by suffocation in the baths. Saint Cecilia was locked into the bathhouse and the fires vigorously stoked. She remained there for a day and a night but was still alive when the soldiers opened the doors. She was then ordered beheaded, but the executioner, after striking three times without severing St Cecilia’s head, ran away, leaving her badly wounded.

 

St. Cecilia hung onto life for three days after the mortal blows, preaching all the while. She made many more conversions and people came to soak up her flowing blood with sponges and cloths. There exists in Rome a church in St. Cecilia’s honour that dates from about the fifth century. Her relics were believed to have been found by Pope Paschal I in 821 A.D., in the cemetery of St. Celestas. These remains were exhumed in 1599, when Cardinal Paul Emilius Sfondrati rebuilt the church of St. Cecilia, and said to be incorrupt.

 

St. Cecilia’s following flourished during the Middle Ages in Europe. Songs were sung in her name, poetry was written, paintings with St. Cecilia as the subject were created, and her feast day, on November 22 was happily celebrated. She continued to be a popular topic for the arts well into the 18th century.