The Fraternity of Saint Cecilia
The Fraternity of St Cecilia is a learned and social society for musicians.
Good Morning Everyone! Do you know where I could find Aristotle Esguerra’s Christmas proclamation in modern notation? I can only find it in Gregorian form
Tia
22/11/2023
Saint Cecilia, was a Roman martyr venerated in Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and some Lutheran churches, such as the Church of Sweden. She became the patroness of music and musicians, it being written that, as the musicians played at her wedding, Cecilia "sang in her heart to the Lord". Wikipedia
Born: Rome, Italy
Died: November 22, 230 AD, Sicily, Italy
Full name: Saint Cecilia of Rome
Patronage: Hymns, great musicians, poets; Albi, France; Archdiocese of Omaha; Mar del Plata, Argentina, Pipe organs In the fourth century a Greek religious romance on the Loves of Cecilia and Valerian was written in glorification of virginal life with the purpose of taking the place of then-popular sensual romances.
Consequently, until better evidence is produced, we must conclude that St. Cecilia was not known or venerated in Rome until about the time when Pope Gelasius (496) introduced her name into his Sacramentary.
It is said that there was a church dedicated to St. Cecilia in Rome in the fifth century, in which Pope Symmachus held a council in 500.
The story of St. Cecilia is not without beauty or merit. She is said to have been quite close to God and prayed often:
In the city of Rome there was a virgin named Cecilia, who came from an extremely rich family and was given in marriage to a youth named Valerian. She wore sackcloth next to her skin, fasted, and invoked the saints, angels, and virgins, beseeching them to guard her virginity
During her wedding ceremony she was said to have sung in her heart to God and before the consummation of her nuptials, she told her husband she had taken a vow of virginity and had an angel protecting her. Valerian asked to see the angel as proof, and Cecilia told him he would have eyes to see once he traveled to the third milestone on the Via Appia (Appian Way) and was baptized by Pope Urbanus.
Learn to Pray the Rosary
Following his baptism, Valerian returned to his wife and found an angel at her side. The angel then crowned Cecilia with a chaplet of rose and lily and when Valerian's brother, Tibertius, heard of the angel and his brother's baptism, he also was baptized and together the brothers dedicated their lives to burying the saints who were murdered each day by the prefect of the city, Turcius Almachius.
Both brothers were eventually arrested and brought before the prefect where they were executed after they refused to offer a sacrifice to the gods.
As her husband and brother-in-law buried the dead, St. Cecilia spent her time preaching and in her lifetime was able to convert over four hundred people, most of whom were baptized by Pope Urban.
Cecilia was later arrested and condemned to be suffocated in the baths. She was shut in for one night and one day, as fires were heaped up and stoked to a terrifying heat - but Cecilia did not even sweat.
When Almachius heard this, he sent an executioner to cut off her head in the baths.
The executioner struck her three times but was unable to decapitate her so he left her bleeding and she lived for three days. Crowds came to her and collected her blood while she preached to them or prayed. On the third day she died and was buried by Pope Urban and his deacons.
St. Cecilia is regarded as the patroness of music, because she heard heavenly music in her heart when she was married, and is represented in art with an organ or organ-pipes in her hand.
Officials exhumed her body in 1599 and found her to be incorrupt, the first of all incurrupt saints. She was draped in a silk veil and wore a gold embroidered dress. Officials only looked through the veil in an act of holy reverence and made no further examinations. They also reported a "mysterious and delightful flower-like odor which proceeded from the coffin."
St. Cecilia's remains were transferred to Cecilia's titular church in Trastevere and placed under the high altar.
In 1599 Cardinal Paolo Emilio Sfondrati, nephew of Pope Gregory XIV, rebuilt the church of St. Cecilia.
22/11/2023
Happy Feast of Saint Cecilia tomorrow. One of my favourite anthems writing in honor of our Patron Saint of our Fraternity.
🎵 Herbert Howells - A Hymn for St Cecilia (with text) | WI******ER CATHEDRAL On 5th September 2021, the incredible choir Index Cantorum (directed by Mark Williams) sang the services in Wi******er Cathedral and I was very fortunate to ...
Petition for musicians included in this Sunday's Prayer of the Faithful:
For all who are involved in the music ministry in our churches; that they will find a strong patron in the life and courage of St. Cecilia and that her example may continue to inspire them to sing praise worthily to the Lord. We pray to the Lord.
28/10/2023
Good Evening to all of our members.
As promised earlier in the week, here is a photos of our associates hood.
19/10/2023
Good Evening to all of our members. I have great new! I received an alert from our Robemaker E&R that our Associate’s hood is available now.
For all of our previous associate members and new associates, I’d encourage you to purchase one before quickly they are out of stock again I have ordered one so it can be photographed for our website.
| Ede & Ravenscroft Ede & Ravenscroft
Good Evening to all members:
My deepest apologies for the slow responses in applications these last few months. Have been a tiny overwhelmed with work and school. We promise to get all the applications before the chapter very soon and responses sent out as well.
For those wanting a hard copy of those certificates, please reach out to us either at the masters email or our general email and we will do our best to get them processed.
Thank you all again for your continued support of The Fraternity of Saint Cecilia and we hope to be sending out a newsletter soon.
Blessings to all,
Christopher Maynard,
Master
Fraternity of Saint Cecilia
03/06/2023
Looks one of our hoods was spotted in the wild recently at Canterbury. Anyone know who this might be?
26/05/2023
Happy Memorial Day weekend to everyone. We have seen a huge uptick in people wanting to our fb page and group which is awesome. We encourage everyone to apply for membership of the Fraternity at https://fraternityosc.wordpress.com/
Membership is awarded at Associate and Fellowship levels.
We look forward to hearing from you all.
Sincerely,
The Chapter of The Fraternity of Saint Cecilia
The Fraternity of Saint Cecilia The Fraternity of St Cecilia is a social and learned society for musicians. It is not an examining body. Its members are found across the globe and come from many walks of life with a shared intere…
18/05/2023
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10106298686359281&id=44007815&mibextid=Nif5oz
18/05/2023
I wanted to take a moment to post about this great school. I am
Their USA representative and I myself took the FTCSM exams in organ, choral conducting and chorister. They are affiliated with both
The Fraternity of Saint Cecilia
and the University of Gloucestershire. Please take a minute or two to check out the school and if interested reach out to me or the school principal directly.
11/04/2023
Good Morning/Afternoon to all our members. I hope all of our members survived your religious services this past week.
I am writing to let our members know that it looks as if E&R has restarted availability of our Fellowship hoods however the associate hoods have yet to be made available.
So for those who are wanting to purchase one, I would encourage you to log onto their website today.
Sincerely Yours,
Christopher Maynard, Master
The Fraternity of Saint Cecilia
| Ede & Ravenscroft Ede & Ravenscroft
Good Morning Members and a Happy Advent Season to all....I just received word it looks as if E&R have reopened non-graduation orders. I was able to log in and place an order for the Fellowship hood however our associates hood is still out of stock. I will reach out to E&R this week to see if there might be an update with regards to that matter.
From all of the Chapter, We all wish you a Safe & Happy Holiday Season.
Sincerely,
The Chapter of the Fraternity of Saint Cecilia
05/12/2022
Saw this on a friends wall and thought it appropriate for our group
22/11/2022
Happy Feast of St Cecilia
This was an article written by a dear colleague of mine Richard J. Clark the Director of Music at Holy Cross Cathedral in our neighboring Archdiocese of Boston. Truly a brilliant and talented man!
https://www.ccwatershed.org/2022/11/22/join-your-parish-choir-why-we-sing-faith-community/?fbclid=IwAR1qZK862sKeTH-IPTW7wyvwSalZzi5jcRGVjzMcfpfddZ03xZqMb1X1jx8
Join Your Parish Choir! • Why We Sing as a Faith Community As many parishes struggle, your presence, your voice, your witness to the love of Christ is that much more important!
Here is a snippet of the instrument that was installed a year and half ago at my new parish. St Hedwig Parish
The music recorded was the Gloria from Peter Latona’s Mass in Honor of the Immaculate Conception written in 2011. Here at St Hedwig, use his setting every week. The Featured voice palate is the English Cathedral.
21/09/2022
As I’m starting to
Unpack my personal choral library, I happen to stumble on a set of Canticles written by our Chaplin of The Fraternity of Saint Cecilia, The Reverend Dr. Peter Thompson!
A rather easier Canticle setting.
I highly recommend pruchasing this setting.
https://youtu.be/qbeeTM674bs
https://youtu.be/ciXPpIKB6AY
02/08/2022
Firefighters called to rescue maintenance man trapped in church organ An organ technician became trapped behind the pipes of a 20th-century Canadian instrument last week.
Good Afternoon/Evening to all of the Fraternity Members:
I wanted to bring everyone update regarding the recent questions with ordering our Fraternity hoods.
After looking into the matter, at this time there has been a temporary suspension in new orders with E&R due to the backlog of Graduations from the last 2 years being postponed and now ceremonies are being held.
Please be patient with E&R and as soon as I have a further update, One of the chapter members will update the membership body as a whole.
Also, membership has been super strong and we are approaching 350 members worldwide. Some of our newest associates and fellows are from
the Philippines.
And lastly, we are still looking for article submissions for our newsletter. Please reach out to our social media/editor Christian Leaños [email protected]
or one of the chapter members as well with your submissions.
The chapter is grateful to your continued steadfast support of the Fraternity.
Pax Christi,
Chris Maynard
Master
10/07/2022
Saint Cecilia Window in the choir loft of my parish where I serve as the D of M. circa. 1895
21/06/2022
Very sad day to hear this.
https://globalnews.ca/news/8935826/mcgill-university-conservatory-closure/
McGill Conservatory of Music to shut down after more than 100 years | Globalnews.ca McGill cited various reasons for the closure, including rising costs, a lack of space and a sharp drop in students during the COVID-19 pandemic.
30/05/2022
You see organs in many early paintings, but there aren't too many sculptures that include pipes. This statue is in Pisa, Italy, at the cathedral, near the Tower.
19/05/2022
Simon Preston, Westminster Abbey organist who gave thrilling accounts of Messiaen and played at Royal weddings – obituary He was an engaging personality, but his time at the Abbey became increasingly tense and he departed for a freelance career
09/05/2022
Good Evening to All Fraternity Members! I know it has been some time since you have heard anything from us but the chapter can assure you we are very much alive and functioning.
Just today, 6 new members have been admitted to the ranks pushing out membership to 318. WOW! It has been your support of the Fraternity and spreading our message near and far.
For those who have recently liked our FB Page and Group but have not checked out our website or applied for membership, please take a moment to do so by going to https://fraternityosc.wordpress.com and click on the membership tab and file an application. One of us from the chapter will also check through our records here on our FB page and try to reach out to you as well. Christian Leaños our Social Media Specialist and Magazine Editor is still looking for articles to be published in our Magazine. Please refer to past requests by him on this page for more details.
We the Chapter are forever grateful of your support.
Sincerely,
Chris Maynard, Master
The Fraternity of Saint Cecilia The Fraternity of St Cecilia is a social and learned society for musicians. It is not an examining body. Its members are found across the globe and come from many walks of life with a shared intere…