Use this Art Guide video in Step 3: Contemplation of Columban 
A resource to help you pray using the images and Art Guide of the 2023 Columban Art Calendar.
St Cecilia, c.1620–1625 (oil on canvas) Pietro da Cortona (1596–1669). National Gallery of London. Restored Traditions
As early as the fifth century, St Cecilia was revered as a noble Roman woman martyred for her love of Christ and the early-Christian church. The martyrology traces her life from the day of her unwanted wedding to a pagan man, relating that “… while the musical instruments sounded, she sang in her heart to the Lord alone …”. By at least the fourteenth century, St Cecilia was most often associated with musical instruments, especially a portable pipe organ. She was later venerated as the patron saint of musicians.
Pietro da Cortona was a prolific painter of many churches and palaces in Rome during the seventeenth-century Baroque era. In this painting, Pietro depicts St Cecilia holding a green palm — a symbol of her martyrdom — while in her left hand, she displays an opened sheet of music. Her pensive gaze is, however, directed away from the music sheet and thus earthly music, suggesting instead that she ‘sings in her heart to the Lord alone’. A cupid-like angel rests upon a golden harp and gazes towards her seated figure, in reference to the legend that when Cecilia converted her pagan husband to Christianity, the angel crowned her with roses. A garland of red and white roses thus adorns the head of Cecilia. We can also glimpse a landscape in the upper left of the picture, including the roof of a classical temple, a reminder of St Cecilia’s life in third-century Rome. Her feast day is celebrated on November 22.
