St. Cecilia

Summary

Podcast Summary: Augustine Institute’s “Catholic Saints” Episode on St. Cecilia

Introduction

In the November 22, 2024 episode of “Catholic Saints”, hosted by the Augustine Institute, Tim Gray engages in an enlightening conversation with Paul McCusker, a renowned author and creative director at the Augustine Institute. This episode delves deep into the life of St. Cecilia, exploring her enduring legacy as the patroness of music and the arts. Through insightful discussions, engaging storytelling, and the introduction of a specially produced audio drama, Gray and McCusker illuminate the profound impact St. Cecilia has had on generations of believers and artists alike.

St. Cecilia: Patroness of Music

The episode begins with Tim Gray highlighting the significance of St. Cecilia, especially noting that her feast day was recently overshadowed by falling on a Sunday, potentially leading many to overlook this revered saint.

[01:48] Paul McCusker (B): “St. Cecilia, she's a wonderful patroness… she’s the patroness of music.”

McCusker explains that St. Cecilia is traditionally depicted with an organ, symbolizing her patronage. Over time, her role expanded to encompass music and the broader arts, making her a beloved figure among musicians and artists.

[02:05] McCusker: “St. Cecilia, she's Catholic choirs love St. Cecilia. She's just this great patroness.”

The Remarkable Story of St. Cecilia

Gray prompts McCusker to recount St. Cecilia’s life, emphasizing her unwavering faith and the challenges she faced.

[02:56] McCusker: “She was from a fairly upper middle class household near Rome… she consecrated herself completely to Christ…”

St. Cecilia hailed from a prominent Roman family and chose to dedicate her life entirely to her Christian faith, defying her parents' wishes for a conventional Roman marriage. Her steadfastness led to her martyrdom during Roman persecutions. A pivotal moment in her story involves an encounter with her guardian angel, which reinforces her divine protection and commitment to her faith.

Innovative Audio Drama: Bringing St. Cecilia’s Story to Life

The conversation transitions to the Augustine Institute’s creative project: an audio drama that portrays St. Cecilia’s life across different historical periods. McCusker elaborates on the project's unique approach.

[05:43] McCusker: “We were trying to figure out, how do we bring it all together as kind of a total reality of her and her impact.”

By intertwining various historical figures and epochs, the drama showcases St. Cecilia’s lasting influence on the arts, highlighting her role as a muse for artists like Handel and Dryden. This multi-generational narrative underscores her enduring legacy.

Behind the Scenes: Crafting the Audio Drama

Gray praises the exceptional cast assembled for the audio drama, noting the reunion of actors from the classic series “I, Claudius”.

[12:40] McCusker: “Hayley Atwell… really invested herself in it… Derek Jacoby, Brian Blessed, and Sean Phillips…”

Notably, Hayley Atwell stars as St. Cecilia, delivering a powerful performance that captures the saint’s grace and resilience. The collaboration with seasoned actors enriches the storytelling, bringing authenticity and depth to the portrayal of historical and legendary figures.

Inspirational Themes for Modern Audiences

The episode emphasizes St. Cecilia’s relevance today, especially as a role model for young Catholic women.

[15:33] McCusker: “She models the kinds of things that we would love to see in our men and women now…”

St. Cecilia’s unwavering faith and courage in the face of persecution serve as a beacon for contemporary believers navigating a culture that often challenges Christian values. Her story encourages resilience and steadfastness in one’s faith journey.

Musical Excellence: The Role of Music in the Drama

Music plays a crucial role in the audio drama, composed by Jared DePasquale. McCusker commends DePasquale’s ability to blend contemporary and classical influences to reflect St. Cecilia’s patronage of music.

[16:51] McCusker: “He really researches it… to weave all those things together musically, he just does an amazing job.”

The composition, titled “Ode to St. Cecilia”, serves as both a tribute and a modern interpretation of the saint’s inspirational legacy, enhancing the narrative’s emotional and artistic impact.

Promotional Insights and Audience Engagement

Gray and McCusker introduce listeners to additional resources related to the audio drama, including access via the Formed platform and the availability of a CD set with supplementary materials.

[18:10] McCusker: “Parents should be aware in the booklet… discussion questions so that families can engage in the story…”

These resources aim to foster family engagement and educational discussions, particularly benefiting Catholic schools and families seeking to deepen their understanding of St. Cecilia’s story.

Conclusion: Embracing St. Cecilia’s Legacy

As the episode concludes, Gray underscores the importance of integrating St. Cecilia’s story into modern faith practices, encouraging listeners to utilize the audio drama as a tool for inspiration and spiritual growth.

[19:37] McCusker: “We need to use modern tools for the new evangelization to inspire our young people with great witnesses of those who were faithful to Christ…”

By celebrating St. Cecilia’s life and legacy through innovative media and collaborative storytelling, the Augustine Institute effectively bridges historical faithfulness with contemporary artistic expression, offering a rich and engaging resource for Catholics worldwide.

Accessing the Audio Drama

Listeners are invited to explore “Ode to St. Cecilia” on the Formed platform and consider purchasing the CD set available at Catholic Market, making it an ideal gift, especially during the Christmas season.

[19:37] McCusker: “You can access the Ode to St. Cecilia for free on Formed… you can buy the CD set that we have…”

Final Remarks

The episode wraps up with gratitude towards the Mission Circle partners who support the Augustine Institute’s mission to produce such enriching content, emphasizing the collaborative effort behind bringing St. Cecilia’s inspiring story to life.

[21:00] Tim Gray: “Thank you so much, Paul, for producing this incredible story and this life and reminding us of her witness.”

Listen and Share

For those seeking to deepen their appreciation of Catholic saints and their enduring impact, this episode offers a comprehensive and inspiring exploration of St. Cecilia’s life, her patronage of the arts, and her lasting influence on faith and culture.

Resources:

• Formed Platform: formed.org
• Catholic Market: catholicmarket.com
• Mission Circle: missioncircle.org

Transcript

[A]

This episode is brought to you by our friends at the Jesuit Refugee Service.

[B]

They work in 58 countries accompanying and serving forcibly displaced people, providing life changing emergency assistance, education, mental health support and more to millions each year. Get to know their work, visit jrsusa.org agustin. You're listening to a podcast on Catholic Saints. This podcast is produced by the Augustine Institute, an apostolate helping Catholics understand, live and share their faith. Welcome to form. Now I'm Tim Gray, president of the August Institute and joining me is a special special guest and a colleague of mine here at the Augusta Institute, Paul McCusker, who is a well known author, best selling author and the creative director of a lot of our content production here at the Augusta Institute. And so Paul, this is a joy to talk with you about St. Cecilia. You know, we've done a special audio drama that we're going to talk about on St. Cecilia. So she has a very special place in our heart. But St. Cecilia, her feast day this year kind of got eclipsed. It fell on a Sunday on the 22nd of November. And so a lot of people miss that feast day. So today we want to talk about St. Cecilia so we don't forget her. And of course she's known as saints have a lot of saints are the patrons of certain things. They're kind of the, they're known for St. Anthony's the patron for finding lost objects. You pray for him for that. And St. Cecilia, she's a wonderful patroness. Why don't you explain for everybody what she's the patroness of?

[A]

Well, over the years she became our patroness of, well, the organ is how she's normally depicted as sitting at the organ. But then it expanded over the years as our patron of, well, music. Music and the arts, but mostly music.

[B]

So, you know, so many people love St. Cecilia, especially those who love music. You know, they love the name their children, you know, when they have a daughter, Cecilia, because she's the patroness of, of singing, of music. And I think a lot of Catholic parishes need to pray for her, for their intercession for their choirs so that their choirs can improve. But she is, she is, you know, Catholic choirs love St. Cecilia. She's just this great patroness. And when we wanted to tell the story about this saint because she's a remarkable woman who, you know, unfortunately she's martyred by the Romans during the persecution of the Christians and she was a convert to Catholicism. And you know, she has this remarkable story. Why don't you just tell a little bit about her story for people.

[A]

Well, it is remarkable. She was from a fairly upper middle class household near Rome and it was fairly typically pagan and all that, but she had become a Christian. And even up and against her parents, there's still a big question about whether they ever became Christian or not. But of course, they aspire for their daughter, well, to become well to do in Rome and Roman society and everything. And so she. What's interesting is there's some firsts with her. One is that she, as a Christian, consecrated herself to Christ. So I don't think that was a common practice, but she consecrated herself completely to Christ and up against her parents who were thinking, no, there's this Roman senator who wants to marry you and this would be a great thing, a gentleman named Valerian. And so there's Cecilia, who has consecrated herself to Christ. And then you have the parents trying to arrange this marriage with Valerian and she's in a complete conflict because he's pursuing her, he is head over heels for her, and she just keeps trying to push him off, push him off. And finally the family just said, no, you are marrying him. And in the midst of all of this, she basically has this encounter with her guardian angel. She sees her guardian angel who is sworn to protect her as a consecrated woman, which is going to be a problem for Valerian if they get married and they're going to have a wedding night. So that leads to kind of a very bizarre conflict where she's saying, but if you touch me, you'll be killed. And he's trying to figure out what God is going to do that to him and demands to see the guardian angel and winds up actually seeing the angel and is scared and then wants to know more about her faith that would protect her in this way. And so the story just gets all wound up with a combination of what we know and then these wonderful legends around her, all based on obedience to Christ and love of him.

[B]

One of the things, Paul, that we try to do in telling the story of St. Cecilia for this audio drama, and I'm so excited every time I listen to it, I just love it. It's so fresh and vivid, is to look at St. Cecilia. Well, why don't you talk about this? Because I think your idea of telling the story of St. Cecilia, not just going back to the, you know, to the ancient Christians and to early, you know, ancient Rome, but looking at her through different points in history. Why don't you explain why you did that?

[A]

Well, it's fascinating because we have certain saints that impact generations and Generations after that, whether it's St. Francis, St. Patrick, others like that. Well, St. Cecilia very clearly did. And she, because of her attachment to the arts, which in the drama we do play, her love of the arts, her love of music, we get a sense of her as a very well rounded woman who is very intelligent and very artistically minded. Coming up against a pagan view of art through Valerian, and that was number one, is to exploring that by itself. But, Tim, when you and I talked about doing Cecilia in terms of a drama, we thought, well, we don't want to just tell that one story. How do we echo out through history and look at the impact that she has artistically through, I mean, Handel and Dryden, the poet, the British poet Dryden and a number of generations, I mean, for years they were doing arts festivals dedicated to her throughout Europe in the 16th, 17th, 18th centuries. And so we were trying to figure out, well, how do you do that without just simply leapfrogging through history? How do we, how do we bring it all together as kind of a total reality of her and her impact? And so we came up with, I hate to even give it away in terms of how we approach the story differently from a normal approach that you might take with this kind of a story and show how she echoes out through time and impacts and influences a lot of artists, not just musically, but painting, sculpture, a lot of other art forms. And that's what this drama tries to do.

[B]

What I love about the drama, Paul, is that you put together an incredible cast of professional actors and actresses and, you know, just some remarkable performances in this. That's an audio drama that you recorded this in London. And so we were able to take a film crew to capture some of the video of the actors and actresses creating the story. And why don't we show the promo video and it'll give people a sense of the artistic beauty of this piece and it'll give them a little backstage view of the actors and actresses performing this. So let's just take a pause and we're going to roll the video of this promo video that shows you the St. Cecilia audio drama.

[C]

Art obliterates time. Ask any writer where the time goes when he is writing. You asked for inspiration, and it often comes from peering deep into the darkness, knowing only that there is a flicker of light for you to find and nurture into a flame. Each of you have sought inspiration from Cecilia, and you shall have it. Hurry now, the curtain rises.

[A]

So we're doing the story of St. Cecilia, a remarkable story of a young Woman in the second century, in the time of Rome, and there's all this artistic activity. The story looks at Cecilia as the patron saint of music, a muse of sorts. I could tell just her story and that would be enough. But how do I expand this into inspiration throughout the centuries? So I had this idea, and I bring these diverse characters from different times and places. Dryden, Handel, Benjamin Fisk, from the present moderno. Who does the statue. So now they're in a place together outside of time and space, where they're going to witness the life of St. Cecilia.

[C]

I am Cecilia, the one for whom you search. Cecilia is the patroness of music, also known as the Muse of Muses. Well, I think what's really interesting about Cecilia becoming the patient saint of. Of music and musicians and artists in general, is that she was given the gift of singing, and she was true to the gift. Why are you always at odds with Roman thinking? Why is Roman thinking always at odds with me? A young girl who has a talent for singing and is inspired in the way that she sings to practice her faith and the whole. The rest of the world and as she knows it, the. The society around her and her family do not encourage that. Cecilia, what have you done? Why do you taunt our gods? Nothing good will come from this. For the sake of your life, our lives, you must do your duty. She walks towards the fate of that and her destiny with a real grace and dignity. Full acceptance of knowing that to carry out her faith does mean death. I am a Christian. Is it worth your life? It is more than my life. We will make a show of allowing her to go home. As if I am being compassionate. Execute her there. Behead her. Prefect. Yes, in the bath, where you failed before.

[A]

Cecilia's story does not end even with her death. It clearly goes on in the way she inspired all these artists. We should aspire to be inspired towards beauty, truth, goodness, virtues, and rendering those in art that proclaims the glory of God.

[C]

Can inspiration be killed? Can it be entombed in a sepulchre.

[A]

While he lives and breathes his creativity into us? Then inspiration cannot be killed.

[C]

Bury me among my brothers and sisters in Christ. Perhaps Valerian and I will sing from our tombs, our voices breaking through the stone in perfect praise of God.

[B]

Well, Paul, I hope the audience enjoyed that because it's such a powerful. Just even that little taste shows you the splendor and the beauty and the artistry that surrounds St. Cecilia and the incredible acting. I mean, you know, there's so many you want to talk about some of the actors and actresses, I mean.

[A]

Well, I mean, we were astonished to get the actors that we had. I mean, first and foremost, as you saw, I mean, Hayley Atwell, best known probably for her work with the Marvel movies as Captain America's girlfriend, Agent Carter, she played Cecilia. And she came in and she really invested herself in it. I mean, she didn't just come in and kind of let me deliver the line. She had really been thinking about the character and poured herself into it. And then with her, we had. Well, we had a variety. It was amazing because for the older members of our audience, who will remember I Claudius, which was made in the 70s and shown on PBS, we had Derek Jacoby, Brian Blessed, and Sean Phillips. These three actors, all three of them were in I Claudius. What I didn't realize when I brought them in is while they were friends over the years since then, they had never actually worked together since then, not directly in the way that we were doing. So it was wonderful having the three of them reunited. Brian Blessed playing Handel. Derek Jacoby was playing Benjamin Dryden. And then we had Sean Phillips playing this mysterious character who sort of guides us through Cecilia's life. And then, of course, we had Willem Lee. And I told the story, but Willem plays Valerian. And I was so enthralled by his performance that while I was watching him play Valerian, I had in mind that at some point we were going to do the Story of Robin Hood. And the whole time I kept thinking, he's my Robin Hood. One way or the other, I'm going to get him for Robin Hood. And then, of course, he does play Robin Hood for us in that audio drama. So we had a cast, 30 plus actors, all of them top notch, high caliber, pouring themselves into this, well, this role, the roles that they had for this story. And it was wonderful to participate in that with them because as director more often, I'm just staying out of their way so they can do what it is that they came to do as actors, and they were wonderful.

[B]

I think that Cecilia and I love the interview that we have in the promo, too, about, you know, Haley Atwell saying that she's moved by the character of Cecilia, that her strength and her, you know, amidst of all the pressures of her family, her culture, her world coming down, and she's for Christ and she's going to be bold about that. And she knows what that sacrifice will mean if she's faithful to Christ. She knows that she'll die, but she's not afraid of that. And, you know, Right now, it's such a beautiful witness, this young woman who doesn't bend to fear or to cultural pressure. And so do you think St. Cecilia is a role model for young women today? I mean, is she a character that can be inspiring for our Catholic youth?

[A]

Well, I would hope so, because she models virtue. She models the kinds of things that we would love to see in our men and women now. And not only just modeling it in, say, a superficial way, but in a way that she was willing to die for her faith. I mean, very often we don't ask ourselves, what are we willing to die for? Well, the early Christians were up against that constantly. This wasn't sort of, oh, they'll just leave us alone if we're nice, or whatever the case may be. They were under constant pressure on all sides, and she was. And ultimately, she and others near her were ultimately martyred for that faith, and yet they clung to it all the way through to the end. There wasn't these moments of recanting or anything other than, well, this is how it's going to turn out. But they would not turn their backs on their faith in order to accommodate the culture or the government or all the pressures that they were under.

[B]

To tell the story of the patroness of music, we knew we had to have good music. And why don't you talk about what Jared DePasquale did? He wrote the music for this drama, and it's pretty phenomenal, isn't it?

[A]

Well, it is. I mean, Jared's amazing. He's done all of our audio dramas, and he gets each one just right, and he really researches it. He doesn't just sort of make it all up. He digs in to research what was going on, what's gonna work in terms of the sound and the music for this. And with this, I think he loved it, especially because there was a special place for music in this. To show Cecilia's influence throughout the ages. We had to reflect different ages, and that meant we were trying to get him and to not only do a modern take on this, which he does beautifully, but integrate the other works of Handel and others who did their own pieces connected to St. Cecilia and inspired by her. And so to weave all those things together musically, he just does an amazing job. I mean, you could stop and just listen to the music, and not only are you getting a full sense of the story and the drama, but you get the impact. So this ode, it's purposely called Ode to St. Cecilia because in a way, it's our Ode to St. Cecilia. From our time right now, much as many others have written their odes to St. Cecilia. So he was wonderful in how he caught that.

[B]

I think so. And I think that I love how you said that. It is our ode to St. Cecilia. I mean, we're inspired by her story, her witness and her patronage of the arts. And, you know, at the Augusta Institute, that's what we love. We want to make the arts come to life for the service of the truth and the good and adorn them with the beautiful. Right. And so she's a patroness for us for that and a moving one. And I just want to let all of our viewers know that you can access the Eau de St. Cecilia for free on Formed. It's on the Formed platform, so just put it in the search engine. And there's the. And you can buy the CD set that we have, which has some beautiful things about the actors and actresses and description in there. There's a beautiful booklet. And so you can get that at Catholic Market. And so it's a wonderful gift as we get closer to Christmas for any young women that, you know. St. Cecilia actually happens to be the most popular confirmation name for Catholic women and for girls for confirmation. So you couldn't do better than to give one of those recently confirmed or.

[A]

Parents should be aware in the booklet, by the way. And for further study, we have discussion questions so that families can engage in the story, ask questions and explore the themes, which helps bring it. Even brings it alive for families in a personal way.

[B]

And that is fantastic resource for families. And I know a lot of families love using that. I know even a lot of Catholic schools love using it. That's a great way. If you have that. Send it with your child to the Catholic school and let the teacher know, or gifted to your Catholic school. This is a great resource for our youth. We need to use modern tools for the new evangelization to inspire our young people with great witnesses of those who were faithful to Christ in the midst of a culture that wasn't. And that's the kind of culture we have today. More and more, our culture is hostile. Not just neutral or ambivalent. They're hostile to our Christian values. So we've got to arm our kids with these kinds of stories because it really strengthens their own identity. And so St. Cecilia is one of the great stories for our youth. So I hope all of you, during this week we celebrate the feast of St. Cecilia, that you'll go back to that story with your family, listen to it in the evening, and share it with your family and friends and you'll find St. Cecilia becoming more and more a friend. When you go through that story, you'll pray to her with a lot more ardor and confidence and devotion because she's just a tremendous story and she's in heaven waiting to pray for you. So I hope everybody takes advantage of the Ode to St. Cecilia. Thank you so much, Paul, for producing this incredible story and this life and reminding us of her witness. So thank you.

[A]

Thank you Tim.

[B]

Thanks everybody for joining us. And thank you to everybody who's on our Mission circle. You allow us to produce these kinds of audio dramas and these kinds of shows unformed. We're grateful to you. And the more the mission circle grows, the more we're going to be able to produce more of these audio dramas. And so we're grateful for all your support. For those of you who join us in our monthly giving society, the Mission Circle, take care and God Bless. You can watch these interviews in video.

[A]

Format by visiting formed.org formed is an.

[B]

Online Catholic streaming service created by the Augustan Institute and Ignatius Press with award winning studies and parish programs, inspiring audio content, movies, ebooks and family friendly kids programming to support the mission of the Augustin institute. Please visit missioncircle.org.