Basilica of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere

The Basilica of Santa Cecilia is located in the Trastevere district, in the historic center of Rome.

Legend has it that the church was built on the family home of Cecilia, « [...] illustrious virgin, born of noble Roman stock», who was tortured around 220. The Golden Legend narrates that Pope Urban I, who had converted her husband, Valerian, and had witnessed her martyrdom, « [...] buried Cecilia's body among those of the bishops and consecrated her house, transforming it into a church , as he had asked him ».

The Titulus Caeciliae is actually attested as early as the 5th century. At the beginning of the 9th century, Pope Paschal I, a great recoverer of relics and builder of churches (Santa Maria in Domnica, Santa Prassede), had a dream of Cecilia who revealed her burial to him; he then had the church erected in the form of a basilica on the site of the previous one and moved her body there.

During the renovation works carried out in 1599 by Cardinal Paolo Emilio Sfondrati, (nephew of Pope Gregory XIV, and whose funeral monument is the one seen in the portico, on the right) the marble sepulcher was opened and in the further cypress chest that it enclosed, the almost intact body of the saint was found, dressed in white and with the sign of the wounds on her neck.

The event was considered so miraculous that even Pope Clement VIII went to see it.

The sculptor Stefano Maderno was commissioned to reproduce the figure as it was found. The exceptional work in Parian marble, currently displayed under the high altar, bears witness to the event over the centuries.

Map: Basilica of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere