Cecilia Cesarini (1203-1290), also Caecilia, was a Dominican

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is ...

. Cecilia, described as "a high-spirited young Roman", was born into the Cesarini family, a well-established family of the minor nobility. The reason she entered into a religious life is unknown. As part of Dominic's reform of monastic life in the 13th century, when Cecilia was 17 years old, her monastery, Santa Maria in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, was moved to

San Sisto Vecchio The Basilica of San Sisto Vecchio (in Via Appia) is one of the over sixty minor basilicas among the churches of Rome, and a titular church since 600 AD. As such, it is connected to the title of a Cardinal priest, currently Antoine Kambanda. Bas ...

, under the Dominican order. She knew Dominic personally. She used her family's influence to assist his reforms, urged her prioress to support his cause, and according to tradition, was the first to receive the Dominican habit. Two years later, in 1223 or 1224, she and three other nuns, including Diana degli Andalò and

Amata According to Roman mythology, Amata (also called Palanto) was the wife of Latinus, king of the Latins, and the mother of their only child, Lavinia. In the Aeneid of Virgil, she commits suicide during the conflict between Aeneas and Turnus over ...

, were sent to

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...

to found a new monastery, St. Agnes, where she remained until her death.Butler, Alban (1998). Butler's lives of the saints (8 ed.). Tunbridge Wells, Kent: Burns & Oates. p. 34. . OCLC 33824974. She was the monastery's first prioress, and was reported to be "very strict". In her late 90s, almost 50 years after Dominic's death, Cecilia was asked by Theodore of Apoldia to record her memories about the early days of the Dominican movement. She dictated to another nun her memories of Dominic, including his physical description, several of his miracles, and a spiritual depiction about his "deep trust and confidence in God". Her account was the "only first-hand description" of Dominic. Cecilia died in 1290. She was buried at St. Agnes with Andalò and Amata; the three are always associated together. Their relics were transferred several times but always together. They were

beatified Beatification (from Latin ''beatus'', "blessed" and ''facere'', "to make”) is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to Intercession of saints, intercede on behalf of individua ...

in 1891. Her feast day is, depending on the source, June 8 or June 9.

Bibliography

"The Legend of St. Dominic"
by Blessed Cecilia Cesarini. Part III of ''Lives of the Brethren of the Order of Preachers 1206-1259'' (1955). Translated by Placid Conway, O.P. Bede Jarrett, O.P. (ed.) London: Blackfriars Publications.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cesarini, Cecilia 1203 births 1290 deaths Dominican nuns Dominican beatified people Italian beatified people 13th-century Italian Roman Catholic religious sisters and nuns 13th-century venerated Christians