Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich was blessed with countless visions of the lives of Jesus, Mary, and the saints. Here, she recounts her visions of St. Cecilia, following her virtue, chastity, and relationships with her guardian angel and her betrothed.
I saw the Saint sitting in a very plain four-cornered room, on her knees a flat triangular box, about an inch high, over which were stretched strings which she touched with both hands. Her face was upturned and over her hovered bright, shining spirits like angels or blessed children. Cecilia seemed conscious of their presence. I often beheld her in this posture.
There was also a youth standing by her, of singularly pure and delicate appearance; he was taller than she, and full of deference for her. He seemed to obey her orders. I think it was Valerian, for I afterward saw him bound with another to a stake, struck with rods, and then beheaded. But this did not happen in the great circular martyr-place; it was in a more remote, a more solitary spot.
Cecilia’s paternal home stood on one side of Rome and like Agnes’ house, it had courts, colonnades, and fountains. I rarely saw her parents. Cecilia was very beautiful, gentle though active, with rosy cheeks and a countenance almost as lovely as Mary’s. I saw her playing in the court with other children and almost always by her side an angel under the form of a lovely boy. He conversed with her and she saw him, although he was invisible to others to whom he forbade her to speak of him. I often saw him withdraw when the other children gathered around her. Cecilia was then about seven years old.
I saw her again sitting alone in her chamber, and the angel standing by her teaching her how to play on a musical instrument. He laid her fingers on the right strings and held a sheet of music before her. At times she rested on her knees something like a box over which strings were stretched, while the angel floated before her with a paper to which she occasionally raised her eyes; or again she supported against her neck an instrument like a violin, the chords of which she touched with her right hand, while at the same time she sang into the mouthpiece which was covered with skin. It produced a very sweet sound.
I often saw a little boy (Valerian) by her, along with his elder brother and a man in a long white mantle who lived not far off and who seemed to be their preceptor. Valerian played with her; it seemed as if they were being reared together, as if destined for each other. Cecilia had a Christian servant through whom she became acquainted with Pope Urban.
I often saw Cecilia and her playmates filling their dresses with fruit and all kinds of provisions. Then hooking them up at the sides like pockets and wrapping their mantles around them, they slipped stealthily with their loads to a gate of the city. The angel was always at Cecilia’s side.
It was a charming sight! I saw the children hurrying along the highroad to a building made up of heavy towers, walls, and fortifications. Poor people dwelt in the walls. In the underground caves and vaults were Christians; whether imprisoned or only concealed there, I do not know, but the poor creatures nearest the entrance seemed to be always on their guard against discovery.
Here it was that the children secretly distributed their alms. Cecilia used to fasten her robe around her feet with a cord and then roll down a steep bank. She passed into the vaults, and thence through a round opening into a cave where a man led her to St. Urban, who instructed her from rolls of parchment.
Some of these rolls she brought to him concealed in her garments. She took others back home with her. I have an indistinct remembrance of her being baptized there.
Once I saw the youth Valerian and his preceptor with the little girls as they were at play. Valerian tried to throw his arms around Cecilia, but she pushed him off. He complained of it to his preceptor, who reported the affair to her parents. I do not know what they said to Cecilia, but she was punished by being confined to her own room. There I saw the angel always with her teaching her to sing and play.
Valerian was often allowed to visit and remain with her; at such times, she invariably began to play and sing. Whenever he wanted to press her in a loving embrace, the angel instantly flung around her a glittering, white garment of light. This had the effect of gaining Valerian over to Cecilia’s way of thinking. After that he often remained in her room alone, while she went to St. Urban; her parents, meanwhile, imagining them together.
Lastly, I had a vision of their betrothal. I saw the parents of both and a numerous company of people young and old in a hall magnificently adorned with statues; in the center stood a table laden with dainties. Cecilia and Valerian wore festive suits of many colors and crowns and garlands of flowers. They were led to each other by their parents who presented them, one after the other, with a glass of thick red wine, or something of the kind.
Some words were pronounced, some passages read from manuscripts, something was written, and then all partook of the refreshments standing.
I saw the angel ever at his post between Cecilia and her bridegroom. Then they went in festal procession to the back of the house where, in an open court, stood a round building supported by columns; high up in the center were two figures embracing each other.
In the procession little girls, two by two, carried a long chain of flowers suspended on white drapery. As the betrothed stood before the statues in the temple, I saw the figure of a boy which seemed to be inflated with air, flying down, moved by some kind of machinery, first to Valerian’s lips, then to Cecilia’s, to receive from each a kiss; but when it flew to Cecilia, the angel laid his hand over her lips. Then Cecilia and Valerian were entwined in the flower chain by the little girls so that the two ends should meet around and enclose both; but the angel still stood between them, thus preventing Valerian’s reaching Cecilia, or the chain’s being closed.
Cecilia said some words to Valerian like these: Did he see nothing? She had another friend and he, Valerian, should not touch her! Then Valerian grew very grave and asked if she loved any other of the youths present.
To this Cecilia only answered that, if he touched her, her friend would strike him with leprosy.
Valerian replied that, if she loved another, he would kill them both.
All this passed between them in a low tone, one would have thought it only modesty on Cecilia’s part. She told Valerian that she would explain herself later.
Then I saw them alone together in an apartment. Cecilia told him that she had an angel by her. Valerian insisted on seeing him too. She replied that he could not do so until he was baptized, and she sent him to St. Urban. At this time Valerian and Cecilia were married and in their own home.
ooo
This article is taken from a chapter in The Life and Revelations of Anne Catherine Emmerich Vol 2 by Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich which is available from TAN Books.
