BASILICA MONASTERO DI SANTA CECILIA IN TRASTEVERE

The basilica was built on the remains of the house of Saint Cecilia where the martyr was killed around the year 230 and where her body has been preserved until today. Cecilia, a Christian woman, rich and noble, had decided to give herself entirely to God, offering him her virginity. Given in marriage to a man called Valerian, she converted him and his brother to Christianity. For this she was martyred in the underground of the church of Saint Cecilia. Her executioners tried to make her die in the calidarium (boiling vapours), then with the decapitation, hit three times on the neck, she remained alive for three long days where she indicated with a finger of the hand the Holy Trinity, a detail that Maderno reproduced in the marble statue. The origin of this building is quite singular: Pope Paschal I (9th century) had an apparition of the saint who told him the exact location of her remains, which until then had not been found: in the catacombs of S. Callisto. The body was then brought back to her house and it was there that the monastery and the basilica were built. The church was restored between the 16th and 18th centuries and the monumental portico erected (by Ferdinando Fuga). It contains priceless treasures, such as the Ciborium by Arnolfo di Cambio (12th century) and the Last Judgement by Pietro Cavallini. Under the altar, a statue by Stefano Maderno depicts Saint Cecilia in the position in which she was found when her tomb was opened in 1599. The mosaics of the apse represent Christ surrounded by the saints: Peter, Paul, Cecilia (with Paschal I under his square halo, a sign that he was alive at that time), Valerian and Agatha. Also admirable is the fresco on the vault: The Apotheosis of Saint Cecilia by Sebastiano Conca. In the centre of the courtyard is a "cantharus", a large vase from the Roman period. The heart of the monastery is the cloister, surrounded by a garden divided in four like a cross. In each square stands a biblical plant: the fig tree, the pomegranate tree, the olive tree and the palm tree. In the centre, the well from which water gushes. A staircase to the left of the entrance to the basilica leads down into the oldest part of the building, where many centuries of history are stratified. Many monastic communities have succeeded one another at Santa Cecilia over the centuries: among them, the Umiliati order, born in the 12th century, which practiced the art of wool and was suppressed in the 16th century. The monastery was refounded on June 25, 1527 and entrusted to a group of Benedictine nuns. Today, they still practice and pass on the art of weaving, the art of restoration, modelling, wax illumination and garden cultivation. The rose garden, composed of old European roses, offers an interesting historical and botanical journey, hence the idea of creating a painting school dedicated to drawing and watercolouring the different varieties grown there. Some years ago, the monastic family of Santa Cecilia created a school of music, Gregorian chant and liturgy, called "Cantantibus Organis". Today it has been reorganized and offers a complete four-year course in musical liturgy, individual lessons in organ, piano, classical guitar, oboe, violin, guitar, instrument and singing lessons for children, as well as summer weeks of Gregorian chant and liturgy.